AHL PROSPECT WATCH: Jarry pushing Penguins towards playoffs
Monday is when AHL teams catch up after another hectic weekend on the ice and on highways across Canada and the United States.
With two and sometimes three games – plus travel – crunched into a weekend, those teams have earned that rest and step away from the rink. But Monday here is a day to catch up on and assess some of the weekend’s best performances and news from top prospects across the 31-team AHL.
PLAYOFF MODE IN WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry might just carry his team into the Calder Cup Playoffs.
“He’s our backbone,” Wilkes-Barre/Scranton head coach Clark Donatelli said of Jarry.
Jarry is the key piece of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s bid to extend a franchise playoff streak to a 17th season. At 32-25-7-3, the Penguins are five points out of a playoff spot going into another crucial game on Wednesday when the Providence Bruins visit Mohegan Sun Arena. They have not sat out the Calder Cup Playoffs since 2002, but this season they have had difficult launching a sustained attack to take over one of the currently available playoff spots.
“He has been playing some of his best hockey down the stretch,” Donatelli said. “He has taken a leap this year of playing back-to-backs, playing more games, playing more minutes, more like he was playing in [the WHL]. I think he has really made a big jump this year.”
Jarry has embraced that schedule.
“I think [Donatelli] and management have done a good job of handling my workload and what I’ve been seeing,” Jarry said. “I think it has helped me play at a high [level] every night.”
Jarry has been asked to take an especially heavy schedule down the stretch with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton scrambling to pick up points. Back-up goaltender John Muse enabled Jarry to get his first game off in five weeks for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s weekend-closing critical 3-2 defeat of the visiting Springfield Thunderbirds, but that win ended Jarry’s run of 13 consecutive starts. It also made for a reasonably productive weekend for the Penguins, who had split a home-and-home series with the rival Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
If Jarry’s club is to reach the postseason, it will come via a succession of key games before the regular season ends on April 14th. That 3-in-3 season-ending weekend concludes at home against the Binghamton Devils for the AHL Penguins, who play five of their final nine games at home.
His .917 save percentage ranks in a sixth-place tie among AHL goaltenders. In all, he is 21-13-8 in 42 games with 2.63 GAA. Those 42 games and his 2,534 minutes each put him fourth overall.
Where exactly Jarry might fit into the parent Pittsburgh Penguins’ future goaltending plans remains murky. He turns 24 on April 29th, and Pittsburgh selected him in the second round of the 2013 NHL Draft. He turned pro with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for the 2015-16 season and had a big breakthrough last season. Injuries in Pittsburgh pushed Jarry into 26 games at the NHL level, where he went 14-6-2 | 2.77 | .908.
This season has not yielded the same opportunity for Jarry. The tandem of Matt Murray and Casey DeSmith, who themselves are two products of the organization’s long- productive AHL assembly line of talent, has mostly remained intact throughout the season. Jarry got a three-week recall to Pittsburgh in November into December when Murray missed nine games, but he has spent most of his season in Northeastern Pennsylvania. In two games with Pittsburgh, he went 0-1-1 | 3.50 | .887. His last NHL start came on November 28th in a 6-3 road loss to the Colorado Avalanche.
But in the AHL there has been plenty of work for Jarry.
“He’s confident,” Donatelli said. “He sees the puck. His practice habits are really good. In practice he works tremendously hard on and off the ice, and it correlates into the game. His practice habits have been unbelievable.”
Jarry made sure to bring that mentality with him back from Pittsburgh.
“Coming down and making sure I’m working and continuing to do the things that I was doing up there has really helped me this year,” Jarry said.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton ranks 23rd in the AHL in shots-against per game (31.5). Jarry had slightly lighter evenings in the Lehigh Valley home-and-home series after a hectic stretch. He took a 3-2 loss at home this past Friday, stopping 29 of 32 shots from the equally desperate Phantoms. A night later at Lehigh Valley, his 30 saves led the Penguins to a 5-4 overtime win even though they were outshot, 24-13, in the final two periods of regulation.
Earlier last week, he stole a point for the Penguins with 38 saves in a 1-0 overtime road loss to the Hershey Bears. That outing was the fifth consecutive one in which Jarry had faced 37 or more shots, and he picked off wins in three of those five starts.
If Jarry can carry Wilkes-Barre/Scranton into the postseason, he does have playoff history. During his WHL career, he led the Edmonton Oil Kings to the Memorial Cup in 2014, going 3-1-1 | 2.80 | .910. He has played six AHL playoff games as well.
Of course, it could also be said that Wilkes-Barre/Scranton has been facing playoff-style pressure for weeks now.
“He’s awesome,” Donatelli said. “He gives you a chance to win every night.”
TEXAS ADDS FIRST-ROUNDER
A first-round pick is on his way to the Texas Stars.
Boston University goaltender Jake Oettinger signed a three-year entry-level deal with the parent Dallas Stars and will head to the AHL to start his pro career at age 20. Dallas took him 26th overall in the 2017 NHL Draft.
This season with the Terriers, he went 16-16-4 | 2.45 | .926 in 36 games and added four shutouts. That save percentage placed him in a 10th-place tie in the NCAA. In three seasons with Boston University, he was 58-39-11 | 2.34 | .923 with 13 shutouts in 108 games. The 13 shutouts tie him for first all-time in Terriers history, and his save percentage stations him second all-time there.
Along with his play for the Terriers, he also has extensive experience with the United States. He won a gold medal at the IIHF World Junior Championship in 2017 and followed it up with a bronze medal a year later and also twice competed at the under-18 level.
Trying to push through a glut of teams battling for fourth place in the Central Division, Texas has number-one Landon Bow along with Philippe Desrosiers in net. Texas has added several new faces in the past week — defenseman Joseph Cecconi (Michigan), plus forwards Ty Dellandrea (Flint), Rhett Gardner (North Dakota), Diego Cuglietta (Lake Superior State), and Josh Melnick (Miami-Ohio).
ELSEWHERE
Toronto Marlies forward Jeremy Bracco has taken over the AHL scoring lead with Daniel Carr of the Chicago Wolves still out of action. Carr picked up a goal and two more assists in three games this past week to go to 19-53-72 through 67 games. The 22-year-old Bracco was selected by the Toronto Maple Leafs as a second-round pick in the 2015 NHL Draft.
Wolves goaltender Oskar Dansk secured the CCM/AHL Player of the Week award. With Max Lagacé on recall to the Vegas Golden Knights, Dansk took all three starts for the Wolves and went 2-0-1 | 0.65 | .976. That included shutting out the San Antonio Rampage, 5-0. Dansk, 25, is 22-9-4 | 2.52 | .908 in 35 games for the Western Conference-leading Wolves.
Charlotte Checkers rookie forward Martin Necas continued his red-hot production, punching in four goals in four games last week. The 12th pick in the NHL Draft last summer, Necas is up to 14-28-42 in 55 games for the AHL-leading Checkers. Charlotte swept the Hartford Wolf Pack in back-to-back weekend games. Before a run of five tallies in his past six games, Necas went 21 games without a goal.
Syracuse rookie forward Alex Barré-Boulet has grabbed control of the AHL lead with 32 goals. He struck three times in four games last week for the Crunch and has set a new franchise record for goals in a season by a rookie. The Crunch also joined the Charlotte Checkers as the first two teams to clinch a playoff spot.
Cleveland Monsters forward Alexandre Texier’s strong weekend work has helped push his team into fourth place in the North Division. The 19-year-old went 3-2-5 in three consecutive wins for the Monsters. A 2017 second-round selection by the Columbus Blue Jackets, he came to Cleveland earlier this month after going 14-27-41 in 55 Liiga games for KalPa.
A strong Sunday afternoon for the Rochester Americans’ Danny O’Regan–Rasmus Asplund– Victor Olofsson line salvaged something from the team’s weekend. After back-to-back losses to open the weekend, the Amerks went down 4-1 on the road to the Toronto Marlies, a possible first-round playoff opponent. But they pushed back with three third-period goals before O’Regan finished the win in overtime. Olofsson pitched in four assists, Asplund posted a pair of goals, and O’Regan went 1-2-3.
Manitoba Moose defenseman Tucker Poolman’s two goals led his team to a key sweep of the Colorado Eagles on the road this weekend. Poolman, 25, has not been able to break into the parent Winnipeg Jets’ defensive rotation after playing 24 NHL regular-season games last season along with two more postseason appearances. But he has had a strong second pro season with Manitoba, going 5-20-25 in 41 games. The Moose have gone on an 8-2-1-0 surge in the past month that has carried them into fourth place in the Central Division. They are locked in a battle with the Milwaukee Admirals, Rockford IceHogs, and Texas for that fourth-place playoff spot.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton rookie forward Sam Lafferty’s hat trick this past Saturday night helped the Penguins take their 5-4 overtime win. A 2014 fourth-round pick by Pittsburgh, he is up to 11-25-36 in 61 AHL games.
Tucson Roadrunners second-year forward Lane Pederson supplied a hat trick to take a 3-2 overtime win against the San Jose Barracuda at home this past Saturday. Tucson won again a night later to finish off a two-game sweep and has moved to within four points of the Barracuda in the Pacific Division.
Rockford gained blue-line help when the parent Chicago Blackhawks signed 20-year-old Chad Krys out of Boston University. Chicago selected Krys in the second round of the 2016 NHL Draft, and he played three seasons for the Terriers. This year had a career-best eight goals to finish 8-12-20. Krys signed a three-year entry-level contract with Chicago that will start next season, but he will report to the IceHogs on a PTO deal.
Two other NCAA defenseman are on their way to AHL clubs. Miami-Ohio’s Grant Hutton signed a one-year entry-level deal that begins next season with the New York Islanders. The 23-year-old will go to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers after captaining the RedHawks and posting 7-14-21 in 37 games. Lehigh Valley added Rob Michel, 24, from Maine. Also a captain this season, he was 3-6-9 in 36 games for the Black Bears.