Career Years

“Career year”, it’s not an easy subject to define.

Is it winning a title (the ultimate achievement)?

How about posting advanced stats that demonstrate best-ever impact on the team (sounds good)?

There are a few ways to look at “career years”, but the most common over time seems to be simply point production.

Obviously that’s a limited measure of success, and with TOI not easy to get your hands on in the American Hockey League it’s an even more general measure, but it is what it is.

With that in mind, here’s a look at “career years” for current Manitoba Moose players with the regular season down to seven games remaining.

ALREADY THERE

This category is for players who have already bettered their previous best AHL point production Sorry rookies, not a blog to acknowledge your good deeds so I won’t mention things like Eric Comrie playing in the second most games of his career; WHL or AHL (or did I just mention that? Oh, well).

Scott Kosmachuk; sophomore sharp-shooter has 17 goals in 62 games with the Moose, that’s three more than in his freshman season and in eight fewer games. Scott also has 30 points, two better than last year in St John’s.

Andrew MacWilliam; steady d-man as already set career highs in assists and points with 11 of each.

Austen Brassard; two assists against the Wild a night ago snapped a nine-game drought for the big winger but he’s already having his top campaign with more goals (13), assists (19), and points (32) than ever. In fact, he’s improved each year in each of those categories (goals; 3, 6, 13…assists; 2, 12, 19…points 5, 18, 32).

Ryan Olsen; second-year centre hit new highs in goals (6), assists (7), and points (13) before suffering a finger injury.

Darren Kramer; bruising winger has six goals this season, one better than last year and did so in game 52. Last year finished on five after 70 starts.

UP NEXT

Brenden Kichton; slick defenceman leads the team in points and matched his career-high in goals with his 10^th last night in Des Moines.

Patrice Cormier; faceoff ace and consistent veteran presence has matched his best playmaking year with 17 helpers and is just two points shy of his best season points-wise. Patrice has also set a personal best in games played with number 62 last night in Des Moines.

Ben Walker; has tied personal best in goals (1) and is one shy on assists (2) and points (3) in just nine games while up from Tulsa (ECHL) (last year’s numbers came in 36 outings).

WORTH NOTING

JC Lipon; rambunctious winger put up a career-best 13 goals in only 45 games and at .667 points/game was well ahead of previous production before re-call to Jets.

Connor Hellebuyck; second-year pro currently sits ahead of rookie marks in both goals-against and save percentage and is just two back of his shutout total (in only 26 games, last year he played 58). By the way with 26 appearances with the Jets he’s now gotten into 52 games this season and 110 in his brief career.

So there you have it, warts and all, a version of “career year” for this year’s Manitoba Moose with seven games to play.

By-the-way, the next of those games is tomorrow April 1^st (no fooling!) in Des Moines, Iowa. Join me on moosehockey.com ; the pre-game show starts at 6:45pm.