by Jesse Liebman | AHL On The Beat
Hershey Bears ahead Ethen Frank was already off to a decent begin in his first skilled season when he was chosen to signify his staff on the American Hockey League’s All-Star Traditional in February of 2023.
The day Frank celebrated his twenty fifth birthday, he electrified the Place Bell crowd – and 1000’s extra throughout North America on tv and social media – within the CCM Quickest Skater occasion with a blistering lap of 12.915 seconds, turning into the primary participant to ever break the 13-second threshold within the quickest skater competitors in both the AHL or NHL, and incomes the moniker of the “Quickest Man in Hockey.”
The accolades quickly adopted. Frank completed the yr with 30 objectives (good for a tie for seventh amongst all skaters, and tops amongst rookies), signed an NHL contract with the Washington Capitals, earned a spot on the AHL’s All-Rookie Workforce, and helped the Bears seize the Calder Cup, helping on Mike Vecchione’s Recreation 7 time beyond regulation clincher over the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
The next yr, Frank went on to defend his quickest skater title – he led the sector on the 2024 occasion in San Jose with a lap clocked at 13.032 – and performed a serious position as Hershey repeated as champions over Coachella Valley.
As Frank informed Drew Remenda in an on-ice interview after his victory within the 2024 quickest skater competitors, “velocity kills.”
Whereas it’s evident Frank clearly possesses NHL-caliber velocity, he has additionally persistently demonstrated he possesses a objective scorer’s contact over the previous two and a half seasons within the AHL.
To wit: he recorded his first profession objective – a power-play one-timer from the left circle with the person benefit – on April 15, 2022 at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton; since that date, Bear Nation and the remainder of the AHL has witnessed Frank fill the online a complete of 79 occasions within the common season, a mark that’s exceeded in that span solely by the 81 objectives scored by Ontario’s Samuel Fagemo. Frank tied for fourth within the league in 2023-24 with 13 power-play objectives, and because the Bears hit the vacation break this previous weekend, Frank is tied with Calgary’s Rory Kerins for first within the AHL with 19 tallies. He seems virtually a positive wager to be chosen to as soon as once more signify the Bears for a 3rd straight season on the AHL All-Star Traditional, which shall be hosted in February at Acrisure Area.
“There’s no query [his 2023 performance] positively put him on the map, simply speaking with the league officers and administration with the league. They need to see gamers excel like that within the abilities competitors,” Bears head coach Todd Nelson stated. “He’s positively within the dialog to get to go for the third yr in a row; he’s main the league in objectives and I’m positive that he’s going to advantage some consideration for that.”
“It might be very particular to have the ability to signify Hershey and take part in one thing like that once more with some teammates, coaches and employees once more.” Frank stated. “I do know that it’s in [Coachella Valley], so I would hear a number of boos right here and there, but it surely’s all in good enjoyable.”
However Frank has his sights set on utilizing his velocity and goal-scoring capability – in addition to a dedication to elevating his 200-foot sport – to carry him nearer to one thing that has eluded him thus far: receiving that first NHL call-up. For as a lot as he has already completed, there have additionally been rising pains alongside the way in which.
Frank notably stumbled close to the top of his rookie season and struggled to seek out the online because the staff went by way of the Calder Cup Playoffs, even getting scratched for parts of the Jap Convention Finals and championship spherical in opposition to the Firebirds. After lifting the Calder Cup in 2023, Frank spent the whole thing of the 2023-24 season with Hershey, and critically missed eight video games for the Bears with a lower-body damage from mid-February to early March, at a time when he would have been a probable recall possibility for the Capitals as they made a late-season push to earn a berth within the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
However Frank additionally exorcised his playoff demons later that spring, tying for the league playoff lead with 10 objectives – at one level notably placing collectively a six-game objective streak – and notching 4 game-winners for Hershey because the staff as soon as once more defeated Coachella Valley to repeat as Calder Cup champions.
The expectations had been maybe as excessive as they’ve ever been this fall, however Frank was not capable of make sufficient of an influence in three preseason contests with Washington to crack the Capitals’ lineup.
The motivation to lastly break by way of is maybe what has sparked Frank’s play to begin this season. Amongst his 19 objectives, he notched a hat trick on opening evening in opposition to Cleveland, put collectively a five-game objective streak in late November, and has collected 4 game-winners. However he’s fast to acknowledge those that have helped get him so far.
“I’ve bought to provide credit score to the opposite individuals on the ice, even so far as the teaching and help employees, displaying video and mentioning concepts on the bench on learn how to beat groups,” Frank stated. “Whether or not it’s energy play or 5-on-5, there’s lots of people that help us as gamers and what we do and attempt to make our jobs as straightforward as attainable, and it appears to be understanding fairly nicely for everybody.”
Bears assistant coach Nick Bootland oversees the staff’s energy play unit – a gaggle on which Frank has paced Hershey in every of the final two campaigns and presently sits first amongst its forwards this season with 4. He’s favored what he’s seen as Frank has continued on his upward trajectory.
“For those who look again on the development and also you take a look at yr one within the playoffs, we truly sat him out of video games as a result of the compete wasn’t there. And he wasn’t prepared to pay the value fairly as a lot as we needed him to. As soon as we did that, it sparked him. And he’s by no means forgotten that second,” Bootland stated.
“He went again to that second at first of final yr within the playoffs the place he was like, ‘I’m not going to let that occur once more.’ He was excellent throughout that run, and has simply carried over proper into this season. In some unspecified time in the future you may see a chance for him to be within the Nationwide Hockey League. I feel there’ll be an opportunity sooner or later. He’s a kind of guys that has the power to make issues occur. And I feel wherever he goes, he’s going to attain.”
Nelson has seen Frank’s effort, and is aware of the challenges he faces as a participant opposing groups repeatedly game-plan for.
“I feel his confidence is at an all-time excessive proper now. Everyone knows he can skate nicely and he has an awesome shot, however proper now he’s hitting his mark, his shot’s gotten extra correct. He performs on the ability play and groups are beginning to sit on him and try to remove his possibilities. However he nonetheless finds a solution to get free and he will get the puck on internet.
“I feel he has the thirst to be within the dialog, to get known as up. I feel once you take a look at his coaching camp with Washington, it most likely didn’t go in addition to he needed it to. I feel that he’s on a little bit of a redemption tour down right here, to have Washington preserve him within the dialog if there must be a call-up.”
Vecchione, who was with Frank that evening in Laval on the All-Star Traditional almost two years in the past, has been witness to a lot of Frank’s success as a daily linemate, typically enjoying the left wing to Frank’s proper, and the duo take into account one another shut associates on and off the ice. Vecchione continues to marvel at his linemate’s goal-scoring prowess and preparation.
“Even after two years of being a dominant objective scorer, he’s nonetheless discovering other ways to attain and never letting different groups get in his method,” Vecchione stated. “It’s a credit score to him and the pre-scouting he does, and all of the little issues he does to place himself in the perfect positions to be a great teammate and a tremendous objective scorer.”
Can Frank lastly earn an NHL call-up? Will Frank get an opportunity to defend his Quickest Skater crown for a 3rd straight yr? Can the Bears seize the uncommon Calder Cup three-peat (a feat completed solely as soon as earlier than within the early Nineteen Sixties by the Springfield Indians)? The solutions to all of those questions stay to be seen, however with regard to the previous, Frank stays level-headed.
“I’d hope that I’m shut,” he stated. “I prefer to believe in myself, however after all I don’t know what [Washington’s] checklist appears to be like like for call-ups, so I simply attempt to do what I can to provide myself the perfect alternative. You possibly can’t take into consideration that an excessive amount of otherwise you received’t carry out very nicely, so I’m simply attempting to remain within the second and management what I can management now. I feel most likely to assist get a call-up could be enjoying higher defensively and with out the puck, and having extra urgency slightly extra all around the ice and never simply any particular space, however clearly the NHL is quick and it’s full of fine gamers and so it’s onerous to crack it; there’s a purpose that it’s onerous to remain in it too.”
