Let’s take a look at the AHL for this week’s latest news and notes.
MANITOBA
The wins continue to pile up for the Winnipeg Jets, who are off to a 15-1-0 start after handling the New York Rangers on Tuesday night, 6-3.
However, the first month of the season has been very difficult for their AHL affiliate, the 3-7-0-0 Manitoba Moose. After dropping back-to-back 5-2 decisions this past weekend at Texas, the Moose have lost four in a row and are in the bottom of the Central Division. Their schedule is not easy for them, either. They visit the 9-2-0-0 Milwaukee Admirals this morning before moving on to stops in Rockford and Chicago this weekend.
2024 Manitoba Moose vs Milwaukee Admirals
They allowed 3.30 goals per game, which ranks them 21st in the AHL. So the Jets went out and bolstered their organization’s depth chart in net on Tuesday, bringing back goaltender Kaapo Käkhönen off waivers from the Colorado Avalanche. Because Colorado claimed the 28-year-old Käkhönen off waivers from Winnipeg on Oct. 11, the Jets were able to quickly give up Moose without needing a layoff this time. This season the Moose have split the scoring duties between 21-year-old Thomas Milic and rookie Domenic DiVincentiis, 20.
Käkhönen signed with the Jets at the start of the season and was expected to compete with Eric Comrie for the team’s backup job. Comrie won that job, and Käkhönen eventually found himself in Colorado. He made one appearance for the Avs and two more with the Colorado Eagles. Last season he played in 37 games between the San Jose Sharks and the New Jersey Devils (7-24-3 | 3.64 | .898).
While Käkhönen has worked up and down the NHL level with the Avs, Devils, Sharks, and Minnesota Wild, he has been a standout player in the AHL. He played two seasons with the Iowa Wild and won the Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award as the AHL’s top goaltender in 2019-20. That season with Iowa, he had a league-best seven shutouts and was 25-6-3 | 2.07 | .927 in 34 games.
ABBOTSFORD
Artūrs Šilovs, one of the main stories of last spring’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, made a short stint with the Abbotsford Canucks this past weekend.
With just nine NHL games behind him, Šilovs stepped into net for the Vancouver Canucks following injuries to Thatcher Demko and Casey DeSmith. He ended up playing in 10 games (5-5 | 2.91 | .898) and had a 42-save night in Game 3 of Vancouver’s second-round series against the Edmonton Oilers.
Demko is still out, and DeSmith is still with the Dallas Stars, so Šilovs had a chance to man the net for Vancouver. However, he struggled quickly and 0-2-1 | .477 | .808. After a third-period relief effort last Saturday against the Oilers, his first action since October 30, the team gave him to Abbotsford.
Šilovs started the next night against visiting Bakersfield, and his 23 saves helped set up a 4-2 home win. Vancouver remembered him this past Monday, and supported Kevin Lankinen on Tuesday night in a 3-1 win against the Calgary Flames.
CALAGARA
Home life suited the Calgary Wranglers just fine.
They went 6-2-0-0 in an eight-game home stretch and had a league-best 11 wins (11-3-0-0). Now it’s life on the road for the Wranglers, who have been stationed in Calgary for almost three weeks.
The seven-game skid begins Friday night in San Jose with a two-game opener against the Barracuda. The tour will have additional stops in San Diego, Tucson, and Manitoba. They don’t return to the Scotiabank Saddledome until Dec. 6 against Tucson. Between now and December 18, they have 10 of their next 14 contests on the road.
PROVIDENCE
The Providence Bruins unveiled a new third jersey on Tuesday, and it pays homage to the Boston Bruins’ parent “Pooh Bear” logo from the 1990s.
⏪ Throwback to Retro ⏪ Get your first look at some new jerseys, set to debut #AHLBruins Retro Weekend (Nov 30/Dec 1) ⤵️
🟡 It echoes the style of late 90s/early 00s jerseys
🟡 Color reversed: Gold 🔄 Black
🟡 Reverse Logos: Front Crest 🔄 Shoulder Patch pic.twitter.com/j8QRaXOGQJ– Providence Bruins (@AHLBruins) November 12, 2024
Providence won its only Calder Cup in 1999 with jerseys similar to this new look. Led by head coach Peter Laviolette, the P-Bruins’ worst-to-first campaign featured a 70-point improvement from 1997-98 and an increase of 37. Randy Robitaille, named the league’s most valuable player, had a 102-point regular season before the P-Bruins swept Rochester in a five-game sweep to capture the Calder Cup. It was the city’s first Calder Cup title since 1956 when the Providence Reds won their fourth and final championship.
The Boston-Providence partnership dates back to 1992-93 and is the AHL’s longest uninterrupted association. Providence will have another road trip at home on Nov. 30 against Utica.
ROCKFORD
NHL veteran Andreas Athanasiou finds himself back in the AHL for the first time since the 2015-16 season.
At the time, Athanasiou was 21 years old in the Detroit Red Wings organization and was combining his time with the Grand Rapids Griffins. The forward played 492 NHL games with Detroit, Edmonton, the Los Angeles Kings, and the Chicago Blackhawks. The Hawks signed him to free agency in July 2022, and after a 20-goal season, he received a two-year extension in June 2023. But he played in just 28 games last season with Chicago (2-7-9) and was scoreless in five games this season. season.
He had not dressed for Chicago since Oct. 22. After clearing waivers on Tuesday, the Hawks assigned him to the Rockford IceHogs.
SYRACUSE
Friday night will be home when Alex Barré-Boulet and the Laval Rocket visit Syracuse for the first time this season.
Barré-Boulet spent six seasons with the Crunch, setting franchise records in goals (113), assists (189), and points (302). After playing 36 games last season for the Tampa Bay Lightning, he signed with the Montreal Canadiens on the first day of free agency. The 27-year-old forward made Montreal’s roster in training camp but was traded to the Rockets after just two games.
In seven games for the Rockets, he is second on the team in scoring with 3-8-11.
UTICA
With just one game this weekend, the Utica Comets need to make this mid-November stretch count.
After a 4-0 home loss to Cleveland to start their week, the Comets are winless in their first 12 games (0-9-1-2). They saw a bid for their first win slip away last Saturday night at Lehigh Valley, where their lone goal came with 3:29 to go in regulation in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Phantoms.
It’s been a bad month of hockey for the Comets, who already have a minus-30 goal differential (51-21). Head coach Kevin Dineen was let go last Wednesday and Ryan Parent took over on an interim basis for the rest of the season. Veterans Justin Dowling and Nick DeSimone are still being recalled in New Jersey, although the Devils sent 20-year-old Simon Nemec to Utica for playing time, and the Comets have struggled to get offensive production from their top veterans. Utica’s next game is this Saturday when Syracuse visits in the teams’ first meeting since the Crunch won 5-0 on opening night. The Comets won’t play again after that until Nov. 22, giving them plenty of time to practice.
The 1987-88 Baltimore Skipjacks (0-19-2) hold the AHL record for longest winning streak since the start of the season at 21 games. That team had recently lost its affiliation with Pittsburgh. Forced to go undefeated, Baltimore finished 13-58-9.
WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins goaltender Filip Larsson is making his second turn in the AHL roster.
Then at the age of 20, Larsson went to the AHL in 2019-2020 following a tryout as a freshman at the University of Denver. Signed by Detroit, he ended up playing just seven games with Grand Rapids and another 10 for their ECHL affiliate, the Toledo Walleye. So Larsson returned to Sweden, spending three seasons in the HockeyAllsvenskan and a short stop in Denmark. He eventually worked his way up to the SHL, where we finished 19-9-0 | 1.93 | .920 last season for Leksand.
That performance earned him a new two-year contract from the Pittsburgh Penguins. Starting this season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, the 26-year-old has two shutouts in his first four games. After shutting out Rochester last Saturday night at home, he has now stopped 94 of his past 95 shots (.989).
Tristan Jarry, who appeared in five AHL games while on loan, is now back with Pittsburgh.
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