Manitoba Moose forward Jimmy Oligny has been named the American Hockey League's Man of the Year. The league announced on Thursday that the Moose captain is its Yanick Dupré Memorial Award winner following the 2022-23 AHL season.
Oligny - a 30-year-old fifth-year Moose defenceman - was caught off guard by the announcement, one that general manager Craig Heisinger made to the entire team at the morning meeting.
"I was actually shocked because I thought it was just going to be a video meeting," Oligny laughed in conversation with The Hockey News.
"I knew something was up when I saw Zinger in there, so I thought, 'oh boy, this is something serious'. I am just so happy and honoured, not only for me, but so proud of everybody involved. We won this award as a team, as well as a community."
The Yanick Dupré Memorial Award is presented each season by the AHL Board of Governors to one player who has made outstanding contributions to his local community and charitable organizations. It is also done to honour the memory of former Hershey Bears player Yanick Dupré, who lost his battle with leukemia at the age of 24 back in 1997.
Each of the AHL's 32 clubs presents a finalist, to which the league president selects the player most representative of Dupre's spirit of community involvement.
"Sometimes the message gets through easier when it comes from us," Oligny said of his work with local youth. "I think it’s an important thing to give back to them, it makes a huge difference, especially for the kids. From their perspective, when I was a kid, if a Habs player would have told me anything, I would have believed it. We have a great opportunity to get out there, and I think it really makes a big difference."
Oligny's nomination was his second in as many seasons and the fourth of his career (three times with Manitoba). But until this point, he had never taken the cake.
As a matter of fact, no Moose player had earned the prestigious award since Jimmy Roy, who was named the 2002-03 recipient.
"It’s been a while, hey?" Oligny joked. "I don’t know if he’d want me to say that, but it is definitely overdue. I haven’t seen Jimmy yet, but when I do, I’ll tell him the same joke: It’s been way too long since another Moose got it."
Oligny's work within the local community extended even deeper than its normal reach during the 2022-23 season. He created the Kinship and Foster Family Network of Manitoba, to which kinship and foster parents are provided training, guidance and assistance in helping give quality care to their children.
He brought in foster families to Moose home games, while decking the visitors out in team garb. Those individuals also were given the opportunity to meet the team captain post-game.
Oligny also worked with autistic students at St. Amant, served breakfast at Siloam Mission and read to elementary students at Balmoral Hall School.
He fundraised for Camp Quality Manitoba and visited with Moose fans at the Assiniboine Park Zoo, while also learning the stories of the honoured guests dropping the puck at the team's annual Pride Night game.
"These people in Manitoba, just the kind of passion for hockey they have, it just makes our volunteering that much easier," he said. "You don’t feel like you’re showing up there and no one knows what you do. Every place I’ve been, people are just so nice to us. They are just so appreciative of the work we’re trying to do. It makes our job a lot easier and a lot more fun as well."
One of Oligny's most significant financial contributions stemmed from his role as a Moose ambassador with the True North Youth Foundation at the annual Jets Gala, which raised roughly $300K to support underserved youth within the province.
"That's a lot of money, it’s crazy," he said. "But at the same time, this is really awesome to see. There is never enough, but this is a huge amount and it will do a lot of good things in the community. As a team we are also really proud to be a part of it here."
Oligny is also active within the mental health community, as he helped raise awareness of the ongoing struggles seen in today's youth as a bilingual guest speaker during the Moose Project 11 School Day Game. The St. Michel, QUE. product also spoke about the importance of mental health to the students of École Héritage Immersion in St. Pierre-Jolys this year.
Although having volunteered in smaller capacities during his time in Junior with Prince Edward Island and Rimouski, Oligny took his community involvement to a new level when he made his way into professional hockey, and most notably with Manitoba.
He didn't have many opportunities as a kid to help his community, but rather has modelled his actions after those of his favourite NHL players.
"I’m from a pretty remote town, it’s not a really big city," Oligny added. "I was always a fan of seeing NHL guys doing some sort of community work and helping out. You saw all these videos when you grew up, seeing NHL guys out helping in the community. So I just wanted to keep that going here with the Moose."
The other thing that Oligny will want to keep going is his team's postseason success. Coming off back-to-back overtime winners, the Moose own a 2-1 series lead over his former Milwaukee Admirals. With the final two games of the best-of-five series coming on the road, Manitoba will look to pick up a victory in Game 4 on Friday. Puck drop is set for 7:00 PM. That game can be viewed live on AHL TV.