GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Grand Rapids Griffins are proud to announce that captain Josiah Didier has been named the team’s winner of the IOA/American Specialty AHL Man of the Year award for his outstanding contributions to the Grand Rapids community during the 2024-25 season. Didier is the fourth back-to-back recipient in Griffins history and the first captain to win the honor in consecutive seasons. This also marks the third straight season that Didier has won his respective team’s nomination (2023-24 GR, 2022-23 Providence). 

In his second season with Grand Rapids, Didier continues to lead his teammates by example off the ice as an integral part of the West Michigan community, highlighted by serving as the host for the Griffins’ MVP Experiences with Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital. Once each month, a patient and his/her family are treated to a red-carpet evening that includes tickets, VIP parking, concessions, a pre-game visit to the Griffins’ bench to watch warmups, the opportunity to either ride the Zamboni or read the starting lineup to the players in the locker room, and a post-game return visit to the room to chat with Didier, receive an autographed stick, and meet other players.

Didier has made several other notable impacts within the community, including visiting 11-year-old defenseman Mason Madden at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital in March alongside head coach Dan Watson and teammate Brogan Rafferty. Mason is re-learning walking and other skills after having undergone five spinal and brain surgeries.

Didier’s other charitable activities included he and his wife Katie adopting a deserving local family for Christmas through Catholic Charities of West Michigan, purchasing a sleigh-full of gifts for two children. The couple also participated in the Griffins’ Random Acts of Kindness, visiting a local Meijer to buy Christmas gifts for families. He also represented the Griffins in the opening parade for the 2024 ArtPrize festival and participated in numerous team functions, including Tip-A-Griffin, the Great Skate Winterfest, the Winter Golf Classic, and the Griffins and Grand Rapids Sled Wings Sled Hockey Game, with the majority of proceeds from those events benefiting the Griffins Youth Foundation. 

Didier is now one of 32 finalists for the AHL’s 2024-25 Yanick Dupré Memorial Award, honoring the overall IOA/American Specialty AHL Man of the Year. The league award is named after the former Hershey Bears forward and AHL All-Star who died in 1997 following a 16-month battle with leukemia. The winner of the Yanick Dupré Memorial Award will be announced by the AHL later this month.