Sebastien Vaillant was honored with the Ken McKenzie Award at the 2023 AHL Board of Governors' Annual Meeting.
Every July, the American Hockey League's Board of Governors gathers in Hilton Head, South Carolina to conduct their annual summer meetings. Part of that agenda includes an Awards Gala, where the AHL presents a number of awards recognizing "excellence and service."
This year, Sebastien Vaillant was named the winner of the league's Ken McKenzie Award. This honor is bestowed upon an AHL team executive who "accomplished the most during the season in promoting his or her AHL team." Vaillant has been part of the Laval Rocket marketing team since the franchise's inception in 2017. He began as a Marketing and Events Manager, and was promoted twice during his tenure, serving as the Rocket's Director of Marketing and Events for the past three seasons.
During that time, Vaillant was involved in the team's branding, advertising, sponsorship integrations, digital content, and community relations. He also played a large role in the planning and implementation of the 2023 AHL All-Star Classic held at Place Bell.
For the 2022-23 season, Vaillant also served as the Director of Marketing and Commercialization for the Montreal Canadiens, and will move solely to this role in the upcoming season.
The last time someone from the Montreal Canadiens' AHL affiliate won the Ken McKenzie Award was at the end of the 2004-05 season when it was presented to Brian Lewis of the Hamilton Bulldogs.
First presented in 1978, the Ken McKenzie Award is named after the founder and long-time publisher of The Hockey News magazine. McKenzie was also honored with the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award in 1997 for excellence in hockey journalism as selected by the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA). Born in Winnipeg, he was inducted into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame (Media) and the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame (Builder) in 1999.