Each Thursday, EP Rinkside brings thoughts, observations, and issues to keep an eye on throughout the 31-team AHL.
This week brings a look at the Connor Ingram situation, one of the many turning points in the Hershey Bears’ season, and more hard times in San Antonio.
YES, IT IS STRANGE
Let’s cut to the chase – the Tampa Bay Lightning-Connor Ingram situation has grown increasingly strange (caught in the middle of it all are the Syracuse Crunch, as legitimate a Calder Cup contender as any AHL team, and the ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears).
To recap Ingram’s past three months: in an excellent 40-save road effort against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on December 21st, he sustained a lower-body injury that kept him out of the Syracuse line-up for the next five weeks. Fortunately for the Crunch, they had a reliable option in Eddie Pasquale, and other than a brief dip in January, they kept on plowing forward.
Ingram then returned on January 26th and played seven of Syracuse’s next 10 games. He put up a .918 save percentage in those games and even tossed in a pair of shutouts. He also was part of the Syracuse contingent at the AHL All-Star Classic at the end of January. However, after a February 18th road game against the Toronto Marlies, he made only one appearance thereafter, a relief effort for Pasquale on February 26th. The following weekend he was a healthy scratch through an entire 3-in-3 set. Martin Ouellette took his place in the Syracuse line-up after being recalled from Orlando, Tampa Bay’s ECHL affiliate, on February 28th. The day after that 3-in-3 weekend, March 4th, Ouellette was returned to Orlando.
Some eyebrows had already been raised. After all, much of this came amid the NHL Trade Deadline on February 25th and the AHL roster deadline on that same March 4th. Still, everything comes under even closer scrutiny around those deadlines.
But from there is where the saga went into overdrive, particularly in a month in which the Crunch had already embarked on a stretch of 16 games in 30 days.
On March 6th, the Lightning demoted Ingram to Orlando and recalled Ouellette. Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois told Syracuse Post-Standard beat writer Lindsay Kramer that the decision to send Ingram to Orlando was an “internal matter.”
Quite worth noting amid all of this is that Ingram had been an AHL All-Star five weeks earlier in addition to ranking first in the AHL in save percentage (.922), second in goals-against average (2.26), and first in shutouts (six) on the day that he was sent to Orlando.
So, yes, it is quite reasonable to find the situation unusual.
From there Orlando started Ingram for each game of a 3-in-3 weekend. Ingram played seven games with Orlando, going 3-2-0 | 3.63 | .893. So with Tampa Bay having Ingram stationed in Orlando, and the Pasquale-Ouellette tandem handling business in Syracuse, the situation appeared to have calmed. But last week brought yet another plot twist when Ouellette suffered a season-ending leg injury in a road start against the Charlotte Checkers. Two days later, Tampa Bay sent Ingram back to the Crunch to take Ouellette’s place.
However, that arrangement lasted all of one day. Tampa Bay then sent Ingram back to Orlando. Atte Tolvanen signed an AHL contract with the Crunch after his NCAA career at Northern Michigan ended, giving Pasquale his latest new goaltending partner in Syracuse.
Now what comes next for Ingram remains to be seen. He turns 22 this Sunday, and he has shown considerable potential through nearly two pro seasons. That said, plenty of AHL players have NHL potential. Actually being able to convert that promise into a full-time NHL job is another story, and plenty of top prospects have fizzled in the AHL after spectacular CHL and NCAA careers. The list of former World Junior Championship alumni on AHL rosters and in Europe is a lengthy one.
In addition, Tampa Bay management has shown a willingness to move on from young prospects. They moved out the 2013 third overall pick, Jonathan Drouin, in a trade that brought Mikhail Sergachev to the Lightning in June 2017. A year earlier they had traded 2014 first-round pick Anthony DeAngelo after his one season on the Syracuse blue line. That brought back a second-round pick that they converted into Libor Hajek before flipping him to the New York Rangers as part of the trade that garnered them Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller last season.
So, while a situation like this with a 2016 third-round pick who has shown real potential like Ingram is hardly ideal, the Lightning could certainly survive if the relationship is not salvageable.
Of course the reason the Lightning would have the luxury of moving on from a legitimate prospect like Ingram is because they built that luxury for themselves. As with anything in life – be it a job, relationship, purchase, etc. – it always helps to not be in a position of desperation. That means not being forced into a decision by desperate circumstances.
And Tampa Bay is far from desperate.
They have star number-one netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy, who is only 24 years old. He is under contract through the end of next season; even then, he will only be a restricted free-agent. They bought low on back-up Louis Domingue, helped him to put his career back together in Syracuse last season, and now have a quality back-up through at least next season. Pasquale is certainly a reasonable short-term recall option if he re-signs with Tampa Bay for next season. If not, there is a strong crop of number-one AHL goaltenders to be available this summer as unrestricted free-agents. Tolvanen showed enough promise in NCAA action to at least be a potential depth option if the organization wants to bring him back next season.
Moreover, on-ice performance is always the best reply for any NHL organization, and the Lightning can certainly cover that. They are on track for one of the best NHL seasons in the post-1967 era. Syracuse is second overall in the AHL and doing so in large part because of a deep prospect pool. Tampa Bay won a Calder Cup in 2012 with one of the most remarkable seasons in AHL history, Syracuse made Calder Cup final appearances in 2013 and 2017, and the Crunch may well be on track for a lengthy postseason run this spring. Tampa Bay has packed the Syracuse roster with several high-quality prospects to the point where the main question for the Lightning may eventually be how many of those players can fit on the NHL roster.
Down in Orlando, the Solar Bears are on track for a playoff spot, and they have a pair of CHL graduates in Corbin Boes and Clint Windsor to handle their goaltending. In fact, Orlando put Ingram on its ECHL reserve list this past Monday, re-activated him, and dressed him as a back-up to Windsor on Wednesday night. Starting Friday night, the Solar Bears will play six games in eight nights, including a 3-in-3 set on the road this weekend.
Still, this situation does not really benefit any party. Tampa Bay has a third-round pick in the ECHL. Syracuse is missing someone who has shown that he can compete with some of the best goaltenders in the AHL. Orlando is juggling three goaltenders. And Ingram is on track to miss out on a potential deep playoff run with the Crunch.
Only time will tell whether the Tampa Bay-Ingram relationship goes from here.
MAKE AN IMPRESSION
Player quotes pile up over the course of a regular season that extends more than six months, but Hershey Bears sniper Riley Barber had a quote in February that still stands out.
Barber can be a bit more of a blunt speaker than most players. With nearly an entirely new roster that featured eight rookies, and a brand-new coaching staff, the Bears struggled badly through the first half of the season and had themselves stuck last in the Atlantic Division in January. That would not be an easy position in any of the AHL’s four divisions, least of all the one the Bears call home.
But the Bears went to work. Ryan Sproul had already been a good in-season addition to their blue line after he had cycled through brief cameos in the Calgary Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Montreal Canadiens organizations following his 2017-18 campaign with the Hartford Wolf Pack. Much-anticipated goaltender Ilya Samsonov ironed out his first-half struggles, and the Bears went from a one-line club to a group capable of rolling out four capable lines nightly.
Hershey put together a 16-0-0-1 tear that started January 12th and extended until February 24th. In between, they pulled off a sweep of the AHL-leading Charlotte Checkers in a two-game set at Hershey in February. That weekend might have put aside the first half’s bad memories for good.
It was a goal “to show the league that our start isn’t our team,” said Barber at the time. “We knew what was on the line.”
After sweeping Charlotte, the Bears carried their streak for another two weeks and ripped off five more victories. Two of them came against the rival Lehigh Valley Phantoms in a home-and-home series. Going into that weekend, already-wobbly Lehigh Valley held fourth place in the Atlantic Division and a two-point lead on the Bears. Since then, the Phantoms have won only five of their past 14 games (5-8-0-1) and fallen six points out of a playoff spot.
Now three points clear of the Atlantic Division playoff line, the Bears look to be on track for their 12th playoff appearance in 14 seasons since affiliating with the Washington Capitals in 2005 and building one of the most successful NHL-AHL model partnerships in the business. Barber is second in the AHL with 31 goals.
That weekend set with the Checkers may also be something that the Bears can look back to if they do lock down a playoff spot. They could be on course to see those same Checkers in the first round next month. Hershey is 3-0-0-1 against Charlotte this season, making the Bears one of only three teams (the Providence Bruins and Toronto being the others) to have a winning record against the AHL leader so far.
Just to re-emphasize that the second-half run was not a fluke, the Bears have also had a solid March performance. Faced with 11 games in 23 days, the Bears have gone 4-3-3-1. Not great, perhaps, but playing through that schedule at a .545 clip is more than respectable.
A COMEBACK GONE BAD
Meanwhile, the San Antonio Rampage’s misery continues.
For Rampage fans, this is another difficult season. This time it is in their first season of an affiliation with the St. Louis Blues. Barring a miracle comeback, this would become San Antonio’s fourth NHL affiliation to miss the Calder Cup Playoffs since 2011.
After a 3-12-0-0 start to their season, the Rampage had undone much of that damage and pushed ahead to 24-21-4-0 by February 11th, putting themselves within two points of a Central Division playoff spot. The team’s annual February road trip quickly undid that progress, however. They lost six of the remaining seven games of that 10-game trip (1-5-1-0). Finally back home, they had a three-game point streak (2-0-1-0) on San Antonio ice before starting their current nine-game losing streak (0-8-0-1) that has buried them at the bottom of the Central Division.
On Tuesday the Rampage also announced that six players are finished for the AHL season with injuries (the Blues have not announced their potential availabilities for any potential Stanley Cup Playoff games).
Goaltender Ville Husso missed two months with a lower-body injury before returning at the end of February. He played seven games after that return and fared poorly; he has not appeared since March 15th. Considered a key Blues prospect, Husso will finish his AHL season at 6-17-1 | 3.67 | .871 in 27 AHL games.
Leading scorer Jordan Kyrou (lower body) is also done for the season. The rookie went 16-27-43 in 47 AHL games while also playing 16 games with the Blues. San Antonio also confirmed that forward Nikita Soshnikov (upper body) is done for the season, but he has not played since December 16th. Forwards Trevor Smith (lower body), Austin Poganski (lower body), and Conner Bleackley (upper body) are also done for the season.
Two years ago the Blues-Chicago Wolves affiliation produced a 101-point regular season that led the Western Conference. That affiliation ended after the 2016-17 season, and the Blues scattered their prospects among several AHL clubs in 2017-18 before establishing their affiliation with San Antonio for this season.
