SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … The American Hockey League honored Ryan Holt, vice president of marketing and communications for the Bakersfield Condors, and Mason Wilks, director of ticket sales and service for the San Jose Barracuda, with league awards at the 2026 AHL Team Business Meetings presented by Victory Live in Grand Rapids, Mich., today.
Holt has been named the winner of the league’s Ken McKenzie Award for the 2025-26 season, and Wilks has been selected as the recipient of the Frank Torres Memorial Award.
Recognizing the important role played by team management in building a successful franchise, the Ken McKenzie Award is presented annually to an AHL team executive who most successfully promotes his or her own club.
Since joining the Condors organization in 2011, Holt has been instrumental in the growth of the franchise and its value to the Bakersfield community. Serving as the team’s marketing and communications lead, he has helped guide the organization to record levels of attendance revenue through advertising, community involvement and promotion of the team and players. Holt is the primary media contact for the organization, maximizing local and national media exposure of players, promotions and events while also serving as the team’s play-by-play broadcaster. This season, he drove multiple successful initiatives including Condors Fighting Cancer Night and Cares for Kids at the Holidays.
The AHL’s Ken McKenzie Award, first presented in 1978, honors Ken McKenzie, the founder and long-time publisher of The Hockey News and a 1997 media honoree by the Hockey Hall of Fame as the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award winner. McKenzie was also the NHL’s first publicity director and creator of its first media guide.
The Frank Torres Memorial Award is presented to an individual in recognition of outstanding leadership in business development or sales while exemplifying creativity, support and integrity.
Elevated to the position of director of ticket sales and service last summer, Wilks guided the Barracuda’s sales team to outstanding results in 2025-26, including significant growth in season ticket and group ticket sales. The team also continued to set new single-game benchmarks across multiple categories, including gate revenue, group tickets and premium seating. Wilks successfully navigated a season that saw significant turnover within the sales department, maintaining high standards of performance and demonstrating forward-thinking leadership. Wilks joined the Barracuda in 2023 after serving in ticket sales roles with the Coachella Valley Firebirds and San Antonio Rampage; Frank Torres recruited Wilks to all three teams.
This award was established in 2024 following the sudden passing of Frank Torres, the vice president of business operations for the San Jose Barracuda.
In operation since 1936 and celebrating its 90th-anniversary season this year, the AHL serves as the top development league for all 32 National Hockey League teams. Nearly 90 percent of today’s NHL players are American Hockey League graduates, and more than 100 honored members of the Hockey Hall of Fame spent time in the AHL in their careers.
