With at least four more than any other player, Zach Boychuk has won the Willie Marshall Award as the top goal scorer in the AHL.
Boychuk finished the 2013-14 campaign with a club-record 36 goals in 69 games, topping his previous career high set last season by 13. The trophy is the third league honor that Boychuk has earned in the last three weeks, starting with his Player of the Month award for March and continuing with his selection to the AHL’s Second All-Star Team last week. He is the first Checkers player to earn any of those distinctions in the club’s four seasons.
Texas teammates Colton Sceviour and Travis Morin, who each made the league’s First All-Star Team, tied for second in the league with 32 goals each.
Fueling Boychuk’s goal-scoring record were three hat tricks, all of which came since Jan. 24, making him responsible for four of the six hat tricks in Checkers history. He also led the league with 18 power-play goals, six more than the previous team record set by Jacob Mikflikier in 2010-11.
Having just concluded his fifth professional season, Boychuk, 24, has 102 total goals as a Checker, putting him one off the all-time mark held by Chris Terry. Terry held the previous team record for single-season goals with 34 scored in the 2010-11 campaign.
Boychuk finished the season ranked second in the AHL with 74 points, also a new club record that topped his 65 scored in 2010-11. Carolina’s first-round pick in 2008 scored four points (1g, 3a) in 11 games with the Hurricanes this season.