Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author
One thing feels totally different in regards to the Charlotte Checkers.
Perhaps it was an aggressive offseason which noticed the group usher in some top-line veteran assist. Could possibly be the 6-1-0-1 begin that head coach Geordie Kinnear’s membership has put collectively. Maybe it was going into Hershey final weekend and snatching three of 4 factors from the defending Calder Cup champion Bears. Or presumably it’s an general organizational swagger that develops when your NHL mum or dad crew wins its first Stanley Cup.
With any or the entire above causes, it’s clear that the Checkers are one of many high groups within the AHL over the primary month of the 2024-25 season. A number of Charlotte gamers had an up-close view of the Florida Panthers’ Stanley Cup run final spring, skating with the crew as black aces. Improvement in Charlotte has develop into a confirmed observe to a roster spot in Florida for the reason that two sides struck a brand new affiliation deal in 2020. First-round picks Mackie Samoskevich and Spencer Knight gained jobs with the Panthers after spending final season with Charlotte. Patrick Giles performed his first 9 NHL video games after making the Panthers out of coaching camp. Star defenseman Gustav Forsling is a Charlotte graduate as nicely.
Becoming a member of the Checkers have been established assist in the type of defenseman Jaycob Megna and forwards Kyle Criscuolo and John Leonard, offering excessive hopes earlier than the season had even began. Chris Driedger, who backstopped Coachella Valley to the Finals in 2024, is again with the group the place he acquired his profession on observe. Trevor Carrick, who gained a Calder Cup in 2019 with the Checkers, has returned to the Queen Metropolis and has factors in every of his final seven video games. Aidan McDonough got here to the Checkers following one season with the Abbotsford Canucks and has seven objectives already, together with a hat trick on opening night time at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
“I’ve been impressed with these guys coming in,” Kinnear mentioned. “We’ve a sure method we need to play, they usually’ve purchased into it. I believe they’re good individuals and good opponents.”
There are intriguing names new to the AHL as nicely. Ahead Oliver Okuliar signed with Florida after a 24-goal season with Czech crew Hradec Kralove final season. One other Czech addition is 6-foot-6, 229-pound defenseman Mikulas Hovorka, who earned a two-year contract with the Panthers and already has two years of high-level European coaching. Rookie defenseman Marek Alscher is a second-round NHL draft choose who has seemed like he belongs already. Up entrance is rookie Sandis Vilmanis, a fifth-round choose who amassed 38 objectives final season within the Ontario Hockey League.
Already blessed with velocity, this can be a Checkers crew that places a robust emphasis on taking part in with tempo. It’s the kind of assured, assertive sport that displays how the Panthers need their kids to be taught to play. The ability and end are apparent – the Checkers’ 4.63 objectives scored per sport lead the AHL – however they’ll additionally management the puck and are permitting simply 25.0 photographs on purpose per sport, second-fewest within the league. Within the again finish of their latest go to to Hershey, they held the Bears to 16 photographs, together with simply three throughout the third interval and time beyond regulation.
Charlotte’s particular groups additionally proceed to be a serious challenge for opponents; the Checkers went a mixed 3-for-6 on the facility play of their two video games at Hershey and lead the AHL at 40.5 p.c (15-for-37), whereas their penalty kill is clicking at 87.8 p.c and has practically as many shorthanded objectives for (4) as power-play objectives in opposition to (5).
Furthermore, the Checkers have been capable of win even with out a few of their banged-up veterans. Captain Zac Dalpe has not performed since opening night time, and Driedger missed the weekend in Hershey, with Ken Appleby and Cooper Black taking begins. One other good take a look at is about for this weekend when the Toronto Marlies, off to their very own 6-1-0-1 begin, go to Bojangles Coliseum for video games Saturday and Sunday. From there the Checkers take off on their first prolonged street journey of the season, with 5 video games in 9 nights visiting Hartford, Springfield and Bridgeport.
Florida has labored a very long time to construct a sustained profitable tradition, which has resulted in back-to-back convention championships and final season’s Stanley Cup title. It has meshed properly with the well-built operation that the Checkers have carried out since getting into the AHL in 2010. The ambiance is one which Kinnear in comparison with what he skilled as a prospect with the New Jersey Devils within the 1990’s.
“I developed as a result of I acquired to observe Scott Stevens, Ken Daneyko, all these guys,” recounted Kinnear, a 1992 draft choose by New Jersey who spent seven seasons (1993-99, 2000-01) as a defenseman with the Albany River Rats. “You go to Florida now, and also you’ve acquired (Aleksander) Barkov, you’ve acquired Forsling, (Aaron) Ekblad, all these guys. It helps the event as a result of these guys are elite athletes who play exhausting, who apply exhausting each single day. It turns into the setting that develops.
“As a younger man, you don’t have any excuse to not observe that.”
On the American Hockey League beat for 20 years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally presently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a daily contributor on SiriusXM NHL Community Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.
