Calgary Flames‘ 2nd year center Hunter Shinkaruk(49) was traded close to the deadline to his hometown team for a new start despite doing pretty well with draft team Vancouver Canucks‘ affiliate Utica Comets.
Originally a 1st round pick in 2013 (#24 overall), he upped his totals from his rookie year by a huge margin in significantly less AHL games.
In 59 appearances he already has a crazy good 29 goals and 23 assists.
His scoring pace is very much in line with his 4 years of juniors skating for Medicine Hat Tigers of the WHL, where he was more than a point-per-game performer.
After 14 games in the minors with Stockton Heat, the not huge but feisty 5’10” 181 lbs. forward gets a first chance with his new team to show what he can do in the big league.
The 21-year old answers playing a huge 22 shifts for 14:45 total ice time including 1:45 on the power play and gets rewarded with his first NHL point, an assist on the man advantage.
This is a young player that has a bright future, especially how hard he competes and how well he sees the ice.
Fourth year center Alden Hirschfeld(32) had the scare of his life succumbing to a seizure during a Grand Rapids Griffins‘ AHL game on January 8 of this year.
He was sitting on the bench but still, very scary stuff and we’re so glad he’s ok.
A couple of months later, just recently he just had what basically amounted to brain surgery to correct the problem and in his words hopes to be back on the ice, as doctors said it would be six months of recovery.
Pretty crazy right there.
We would love to see this happen but regardless, he’s got a whole great life ahead of him.
The 6′ 203 lbs. power forward has pretty much played the last three seasons in the Griffins‘ system, if not with them on reassignment to ECHL affiliate Toledo Walleye.
He even had a career high 14 goals in only 27 games with 14 assists for 26 points. He was easily on par for record scoring numbers had he been bumped down again.
CTW wishes him only good things moving forward for his family and pro career.
Undrafted 2nd year center Derek Arnold(14) plays his rookie season overseas with Lillehammer of Norway’s GET-ligaen with great results on the score sheet.
He scored 21 goals and 24 assists through 45 games with a +16 rating.
This was after 4 years at U-Mass/Lowell, where he won the 2013 NCAA/ECAC Championship.
The small 5’8″ 165 lbs. forward also played two years with Waterloo Blackhawks of the USHL and put together a point-per-game campaign in 2009/2010 getting 20 goals and 39 assists in 59 games.
As a Massachusetts native he would come back for 2015/2016 signing a one-year deal with close to home Manchester Monarchs of the ECHL.
He’s had a successful return with a healthy 16 goals and 14 assists in 42 games with a +4 plus/minus and 3 loans to AHL clubs.
In his first two recalls with Portland Pirates (4 appearances) and Ontario Reign (5 games) he would not be able to connect for points.
It would be his third and most recent visit to the higher league created the best opportunity, and in his debut with Charlotte Checkers got a goal and an assist in a 6-2 drubbing.
The 26-year old may not be blessed with the most size but plays an effective tight checking style and knows how to open up space for scoring chances.
We’ll see where pro hockey takes him next.
Los Angeles Kings‘ 2nd year center Nic Dowd(67) has been continuing to work hard on his game in his sophomore season on reassignment to new affiliate Ontario Reign.
In 57 AHL games he’s already eclipsed his totals as a rookie with 13 goals, 34 assists (team 1st) for 47 points with a +12 rating and 139 shots on net in 20 less appearances.
He finished his first season with a 2015 Calder Cup Championship and anther 6 goals and 7 assists in 19 postseason match ups.
The soon-to-be 26-year old forward has received his first NHL recall and appeared in 3 games thus far recording no points but is a +2 plus/minus despite a pair of losses.
He’s also been pretty active in other departments on the score sheet playing power play time and short-handed situations with 3 shots, 3 hits, 2 takeaways and 2 giveaways and at least 50% on the face off dot.
Set to become a restricted free agent at the end of the current campaign, the deep draft selection should be retained with a qualifying offer to continue his upward progress.
Bridgeport Sound Tigers‘ undrafted 2nd year center Connor Jones(83) is gushing blood from we believe his nose but didn’t see what occurred to cause the tidal wave of red to pour out of his face during a recent Friday night match up against Connecticut rivals Hartford Wolf Pack at the XL Center.
The small 5’9″ 176 lbs. former Quinnipiac University scorer is having a very similar season to last year’s rookie campaign with Oklahoma City Barons, where he had 4 goals and 6 assists in 41 AHL games.
He was originally signed by Missouri Mavericks, but loaned to the Sound Tigers for training camp and never came back.
He’d ultimately signed an spc couple months in.
Though 42 games he has 4 goals and 4 assists so far skating an energy line role and no one will ever accuse him of taking time off when he’s out of the ice.
The 24-year old has a twin brother Kellen Jones, who has been up with Utica Comets since the beginning of the month.
Bridgeport Sound Tigers‘ undrafted 2nd year center Connor Jones(83) is gushing blood from we believe his nose but didn’t see what occurred to cause the tidal wave of red to pour out of his face during a recent Friday night match up against Connecticut rivals Hartford Wolf Pack at the XL Center.
The small 5’9″ 176 lbs. former Quinnipiac University scorer is having a very similar season to last year’s rookie campaign with Oklahoma City Barons, where he had 4 goals and 6 assists in 41 AHL games.
He was originally signed by Missouri Mavericks, but loaned to the Sound Tigers for training camp and never came back.
He’d ultimately signed an spc couple months in.
Though 42 games he has 4 goals and 4 assists so far skating an energy line role and no one will ever accuse him of taking time off when he’s out of the ice.
The 24-year old has a twin brother Kellen Jones, who has been up with Utica Comets since the beginning of the month.
Montreal Candiens‘ 2nd year undrafted defenseman Joel Hanley(71) was signed to a one-year two-way deal on the opening day of free agency.
As a rookie he played under an AHL contract with Portland Pirates, the team he skated 15 games with on an ato after four years at UMass-Amherst.
The versatile 6′ 193 lbs. blue liner had 5 assists in his pro debut.
To start 2014/2015 he was dispatched further down the ladder to Atlanta Gladiators of the ECHL to start his first campaign.
After 3 games in less than a month he was up for good.
Through 63 games he had a pair of goals and 15 assists with a +7 rating and added another assist in 5 Calder Cup Playoff match-ups with a +1.
So not really outstanding numbers but they saw something they liked and felt like they could develop and seemingly out of nowhere the 24-year old gets his first big league deal after only one season of mucking it.
He’s appeared in 61 games with affiliate St. John’s IceCaps and has a new career high 5 goals.
With the injury bug biting the parent club hard, his steadiness (and “experience” on a very young defensive squad) has given him a chance with his first NHL recall.
After going scoreless in his debut, he has posted consecutive multi-point games with a pair of 2 assists performances.
Given his play it may be tough to send him back down for the remainder of the schedule but regardless, it looks like he’s starting to solidify his spot in the show and will earn a contract extension to stay put.
7th year veteran left wing Luca Caputi(17) retires after two seasons overseas playing in Sweden’s tier 2 league Allsvenskan first with VIK Vasteras HK then IK Oskarshamn.
After wrapping up the 2014/2015 campaign, the 6’2″ 210 lbs. power forward decided to retire.
3 months later the 27-year old joined Guelph Storm of the OHL, where he played his junior hockey for Mississauga/Niagara IceDogs.
Toronto Maple Leafs‘ 3rd round pick in the 2014 draft (#68 overall) Romanian-born rookie defenseman Rinat Valiev(29) has been fitting into the lineup nicely on a team that’s trying out a lot of its youth movement now that they are mathematically eliminated from the playoff picture.
Regardless, it’s giving a lot of young guys some valuable playing experience and sometimes it just works out.
Having played two seasons in the Kootenay Ice he always put up lots of assists on the score sheet with a crazy 46 in 52 WHL games last season.
Previous to junior hockey in Canada, he played a year in the USHL with Indiana Ice after coming up with Ak Bars Kazan as a youth.
Even in his rookie season in the minors the large 6’2″ 214 lbs. is good with passing the puck up the ice for scoring chances as has 18 helpers through 54 AHL games with a +32 rating.
The 20-year old is signed through 2017/2018, so has plenty of time to develop.
Columbus Blue Jackets‘ 3rd round pick in the 2012 draft (#62 overall) Finnish-born rookie goaltender Joonas Korpisalo(70) has been pressed into action with the big club on many occasions through numerous recalls from affiliate Lake Erie Monsters.
He actually owns the team’s only winning record at a 14-9-4 mark with a 2.61 GAA and .918 SV% through 1564:42 minutes played.
The fairly large 6’3″ 182 lbs. net minder has also appeared in his fair share of minor league games, guarding the cage for 15 AHL contests with a 6-7-2 record, 2.36 GAA and .917 SV%.
He actually started his North American pro hockey career with three games for then farm club Springfield Falcons in 2014/2015 after 38 match-ups with Ilves of Liiga in Finland.
The 21-year old has another season left on his 3-year entry level deal and as a prospect should continue to compete for NHL playing time, or will get dealt as they do have some depth at the position.
