Former Rangers defenseman wins prestigious AHL award after leaving New York
Danny Wild-Imagn Images Sustained NHL success eluded Zac Jones during his five-year tenure with the New York Rangers from 2020 to 2025. But that could change after the former Blueshirts defenseman — now a member of the Buffalo Sabres organization — turned heads with a stellar 2025-26 campaign in the American Hockey League. Jones was named the Eddie Shore Award winner as the top defenseman in the AHL, the League announced Tuesday.
He paced all AHL defensemen with 62 points (10 goals, 52 assists) in 60 games with the Rochester Americans, and led all skaters in assists. . @AmerksHockey 's Zac Jones has been named the winner of this year's Eddie Shore Award as @TheAHL 's top defenseman for the 2025-26 season.
pic. twitter. com/LYAQn1XyRI — Amerks PR (@AmerksPR) April 21, 2026 Jones earned First Team AHL All-Star honors and became just the second defenseman in the league’s 90-year history to lead the AHL in assists, joining Craig Levie, who did so in 1980-81 with 62.
Selected by New York in the third round (No. 68 overall) of the 2019 NHL Draft, Jones played sparingly with the Rangers, recording 28 points (four goals, 24 assists) and a minus-10 rating across 115 NHL games. He appeared in a career-high 46 games in 2024-25, notching 11 points (one goal, 10 assists) and averaging 17:24 TOI Despite a solid offensive skill set and puck-moving capabilities, the 5-foot-11, 190-pound defenseman largely struggled to earn the trust of three different coaches — David Quinn, Gerard Gallant, and Peter Laviolette — during his time in New York.
New York didn’t tender a qualifying offer to Jones last offseason, and he became an unrestricted free agent. Jones signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Sabres on July 1, and is a restricted free agent with arbitration rights this coming offseason. Jones was called up by Buffalo multiple times as a depth defenseman, though he never appeared in an NHL game with the Sabres in 2025-26.
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