2025 AIHL Season Award Winners

Here are the 2025 AIHL season award winners. It was a long exciting AIHL season in 2025. We witnessed lots of fresh faces, joyous moments and deep blues. These are the players that have been recognised to set the bar the highest throughout the regular season and Finals.

Mick McCormack Cup (MVP)

Yu Hikosaka is the first Japanese player to take out the MVP award for the AIHL in league history. His Mick McCormack Cup winning season was full of highlights as he competed with Canadian Tanner Hopps to top the AIHL leading scoring charts.

Weather it was the competition all season long or Yu settling into life in Perth and the Thunder team better, but Hikosaka propelled to new heights in the AIHL in 2025. Mr Bigtime lived up to is nickname with a 68-point season (second in the league), including 36 goals (top of the league), at a scoring rate of 2.43 points per game.

Finals MVP

Mac Caruana continues to set the AIHL alight with blistering performances, game winning goals and fine leadership. 2025 was the third season straight the Australian international and Ice captain put up career high points. He’s gone from 47 points in 2023, 56 in 2024 to 60 in 2025.

The Finals weekend in Melbourne was no different. 6 points in 2 games including 2 goals and 3 points in the grand final. His influence in games and on the scoreboard is undeniable, a truly deserved Finals MVP winner.

Coach of the Year

Benjamin Breault has taken out the coaching award for 2025. The Perth Thunder player/coach/legend has now won this award for the second time in three seasons. He is in fact the first AIHL coach to win the award multiple times. It is even more impressive given he is doing this while also continuing to play on the ice and contributing 25-43 points a season.

He led the Western Australians to within a whisker of a top two finish and automatic qualification to the semi-finals of the Finals weekend. In the end Breault and the Thunder had to settle for third place, despite being the only AIHL team deducted three competition points in 2025.

Defenceman of the Year

Bray Crowder claimed the defenceman of the year award in 2025 from a crowd of great domestic and import defencemen. Crowder featured in a strong Canberra Brave team who finished second in the league and were finalists in the play-offs. The Canadian-Australian, who was on loan from the Sydney Ice Dogs in his second AIHL season, contributed 20 points from 21 games over the regular season.

Goaltender of the Year

Aleksi Toivonen named goaltender of the year for 2025. The Perth Thunder goaltender was a brick wall out West with a .895 save percentage and 3.44 goal against average. Aleksi was the first Australian tender to claim the award since Michael James in 2022. Toivonen is also the third Aussie to claim the award since 2012, Anthony Kimlin being the other Australian tender.

Rookie of the Year

Artem Astafiev and Luka Loria jointly named rookies of the year for 2025. Artem and Luka join Greg Bay and Charlie Huber as the only other recipients to share this award back in 2012.

The 17-year-old forward, Astafiev, played in most games during the season for the Melbourne Mustangs, contributing 3 points in 21 games. The 17-year-old defenceman, Loria, became an important part of the Adelaide Adrenaline blueline roster over the course of the season, playing 17 games.

Skaters Network Australian Player of the Year

Wehebe Darge named local player of the year by Skaters Network in 2025. Darge has claimed this award three times now, previously winning it in 2015 and 2018. Wehebe contributed 38 points, including 18 goals, for the Newcastle Northstars during the regular season. He continued his good form in Finals with 3 points and 1 goal in 2 games.