The 2018-19 campaign is a different one for the Jets AHL affiliate Manitoba Moose as they begin the regular season tonight in Iowa against the Wild without the benefit of having played any pre-season games. The past few seasons they’ve headed down to Grand Forks to face these same Wild but this season that plan was punted. The good news is the Jets kept many of their prospects and some veterans in camp longer than usual so they had the change to get into some NHL exhibition games.
Had the 2017-18 season ended in December I suspect the parade down Portage and Main would have been for these Manitoba Moose who were the top team in the AHL. However the recall of Jack Roslovic, who was one of if not the top player in the AHL as well as goalies Michael Hutchinson/Eric Comrie hurt the team big time. The good news was the emergence of Mason Appleton (AHL outstanding rookie, AHL All-Rookie team, Played in All-Star game) and Sami Niku (Eddie Shore Award for outstanding defenceman in the AHL and AHL All-Rookie team) as well as a number of other players who excelled last season. Making it to the second round of the Calder Cup playoffs was good experience for a number of players.
As we see with AHL teams there are plenty of new faces this season. From last season’s opening night roster there are five forwards returning, three defencemen and Eric Comrie. Now some players came in and played for the Moose after their junior seasons ended so they got a small taste of pro life.
Based on the players listed below this could again be a good Manitoba team that could make some noise in the AHL once again this season.
Forwards (15): Felix Girard, Nic Kerdiles, Dennis Everberg, C.J. Suess, Emile Poirier, Kristian Reichel, Michael Spacek, Cam Maclise, Jansen Harkins, Mason Appleton, JC Lipon, Seth Griffith, Skyler McKenzie, Tye McGinn and Kale Kessy.
Defencemen (9): Tucker Poolman, Cam Schilling, Logan Stanley, Sami Niku, Jacob Cederholm, Nelson Nogier, Peter Stoykewych, Luke Green and Charles-David Beaudoin.
Goalies (3): Eric Comrie, Ken Appleby and Mikhail Berdin.
As always stay tuned for the latest Winnipeg Jets and Manitoba Moose news by keeping it locked to illegalcurve.com and on social media including Twitter | Facebook | Instagram. And you can follow me on twitter as well (@icdave).
