Dustin Tokarski offers one more instance of why depth is so important to an NHL group.
He has executed that earlier than. In every single place, it appears. That significance extends effectively past the NHL roster as effectively. 5-and-a-half years in the past, Tokarski helped a gaggle of Carolina Hurricanes prospects discover their strategy to a Calder Cup championship. Now he may very well be positioned to assist one other wave of younger Hurricanes expertise discover its means within the AHL.
First return to the 2018-19 season. Tokarski, 29 years previous on the time, had come to the Charlotte Checkers late within the 2018-19 season in a cope with the Hartford Wolf Pack. The Checkers had rising prospect Alex Nedeljkovic in internet that season on their strategy to a 51-17-7-1 regular-season end. However the group wanted a bit of additional insurance coverage in internet and to lighten Nedeljkovic’s workload, and Tokarski offered precisely that type of assist. Down the stretch he went 7-0-0 | 1.14 | .956 for the Checkers after which went 5-0-0 | 1.74 | .935 throughout the Calder Cup Playoffs. Including Tokarski ended up being top-of-the-line late-season AHL trades of the previous decade.
However that Charlotte roster has lengthy since scattered. For one, the Hurricanes-Checkers affiliation itself formally ended simply 15 months after Charlotte had lifted the Calder Cup. Charlotte ended up in an affiliation with the Florida Panthers that has discovered success. The Hurricanes ended up affiliating with the Chicago Wolves – the group that fell to Charlotte within the 2019 Finals whereas partnered with the Vegas Golden Knights – and received the 2022 Calder Cup. Then the Hurricanes-Wolves association got here undone. The 2 sides spent final season aside earlier than getting again collectively this season.
From that 2019 championship roster, Martin Necas has gone on to change into a drive with the Hurricanes, rating third in NHL scoring. Nedeljkovic, Jake Bean, Morgan Geekie, Steven Lorentz, and Nicolas Roy all have change into NHL regulars. Head coach Mike Vellucci is now an assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Ryan Warsofsky, an assistant coach with the Checkers that season, went on to win one other Calder Cup in 2022 and now guides the San Jose Sharks. Patrick Brown, Trevor Carrick, Roland McKeown, Andrew Poturalski, and Dan Renouf are among the many base of that Charlotte group who nonetheless are contributing on the AHL stage. Others discovered roles in high-level leagues throughout Europe. A handful of gamers have retired.
As for Tokarski, his path took him to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Rochester, again to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and as soon as once more one other cease in Rochester. Alongside the way in which, he additionally ended up enjoying a mixed 46 video games between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres, together with a career-high 29 on the NHL stage in 2021-22.
However now Tokarski is 35 years previous. After getting caught in a crowded goaltending image final season in Rochester, no jobs materialized throughout the summer time. It was a troublesome job marketplace for veteran goalies normally. Malcolm Subban went unsigned earlier than finally ending up with the Belleville Senators following a fast cease with the Grand Rapids Griffins. Tokarski needed to accept a training-camp invitation with the Ottawa Senators that finally didn’t pan out. Michael Hutchinson and Kasimir Kaskisuo, two confirmed goaltenders at this stage are nonetheless unsigned after temporary NHL training-camp stints again in September.
When the season opened, Tokarski didn’t have a job. And shortly the Wolves would have every kind of questions in internet.
Spencer Martin had been despatched to Chicago going into the season. Martin is a dependable 29-year-old who might deal with the number-one job for the Wolves and new head coach Cam Abbott. Yaniv Perets, who had been with the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals final season, in the meantime might compete with 2023 fifth-rounder Ruslan Khazheyev for added work behind Martin. That plan made sense and adopted a longtime association that many NHL organizations make the most of on the AHL stage.
That plan rapidly unraveled for the Carolina group, nevertheless. An damage to Hurricanes netminder Frederik Andersen prompted Martin’s recall from the Wolves simply two weeks into the season. Pyotr Kochetkov took management of the Carolina internet with Martin in a back-up position.
Again with the Wolves, Martin’s departure prompted its personal points.
All of this occurred as Hurricanes prospects discovered themselves attempting to deal with the adjustment to the AHL and to one another. After having a number of prospects scattered throughout the hockey map final season, an essential ingredient of reuniting with the Wolves was having an opportunity to deliver that younger expertise beneath the Carolina group’s personal day-to-day management once more. Have them enjoying the identical system, listening to the identical coaches, and starting to gel collectively.
And it’s a significant crop of gamers that the Hurricanes have positioned with Chicago. Domenick Fensore, Noel Gunler, Aleksi Heimosalmi, Scott Morrow, Bradly Nadeau, Ronan Seeley, and Felix Unger-Sorum all assist to make up a robust prospect group. Ryan Suzuki has had an up-and-down begin to his professional profession, however he’s nonetheless solely 23.
All of that youth is there to develop, which is a long-term funding for the Hurricanes however one which comes with day-to-day issues within the current. Rapidly it grew to become obvious that Chicago’s goaltending wanted a lift. Perets surrendered 5 objectives apiece in his first two begins. Khazheyev solely turned 20 this week and got here to North America with all of 1 recreation of professional expertise behind him. To proceed to go solely with two goaltenders unproven within the AHL might danger the event of Carolina’s different prospects in Chicago. And it additionally risked the long-term well-being of two younger netminders attempting to ascertain themselves as execs.
Already Abbott has been in a position to get this group to play accountable hockey. They permit the fewest photographs per recreation within the AHL (24.8). Scoring stays a major problem, although, as they rank second-from-last at 1.83 objectives per recreation. If the Wolves can get their scoring and special-teams play on monitor – the facility play ranks final whereas the penalty kill is twenty eighth – they might trigger issues for opponents.
That’s the place Tokarski, who has performed 80 profession NHL video games, got here into the image. The Wolves introduced the 35-year-old in on knowledgeable tryout Nov. 2.
He has introduced immediate safety in internet for the Wolves. Together with that 2019 championship, he additionally took the Norfolk Admirals to the 2012 title. That Norfolk group received a league-record 28 consecutive video games and tore by the Calder Cup Playoffs.
Exterior of the AHL, he additionally has taken on among the most pressure-packed goaltending assignments that the game can supply. As a 20-year-old he helped take Canada to the gold medal on the 2009 IIHF World Junior Championship, and he did it on dwelling ice in Ottawa, no much less. A 12 months earlier, he had carried the Spokane Chiefs to a Memorial Cup title. In 2014, he stepped in for Carey Value with the Montreal Canadiens of their Japanese Convention Ultimate match-up with the New York Rangers. That position for Tokarski included two elimination video games – one at Bell Centre, one at Madison Sq. Backyard – earlier than the Rangers took that sequence. When the Habs wanted assist in internet that 12 months, they relied on the type of depth that Tokarski might deliver.
This can be a goaltender who can deal with stress. And a goaltender like that may calm down a younger group, particularly one struggling to seek out scoring. In his season debut final Sunday, he shut out the Rockford IceHogs with a 29-save afternoon.
Then got here phrase on Thursday that Andersen’s well being has far more long-term implications. Carolina introduced that he can have knee surgical procedure Friday and be out between 8-12 weeks. The lengthy finish of that timeline would put Andersen’s return within the second half of February. This can be a group that has began 14-5-0-0. It’s cheap to contemplate Carolina as a possible Stanley Cup contender. It’s much more cheap to suppose that normal supervisor Eric Tulsky is likely to be busy
Proper round when the Andersen information trickled out Thursday, Tokarski was doing his job once more for the Wolves. Taking part in a morning highway recreation at Manitoba, he shut down the Moose with 25 stops in a 5-0 win. He’s 54-for-54 in stopping opponents thus far, and instantly a group that had mustered 18 objectives in its first 11 video games now has unloaded 9 objectives in two video games. The ability play is starting to indicate some life as effectively with a 3-for-14 efficiency in these two wins.
Tokarski is now as much as eleventh all-time in wins by an AHL goaltender with 218. Ought to he keep on with the Wolves for a protracted spell, it’s actually conceivable that he might tie or cross AHL Corridor of Fame member Frederic Cassivi’s 232 wins for seventh in league historical past. Tokarski’s two shutouts in two begins now have him as much as 30 in his AHL profession, placing him eighth in league historical past. Jason LaBarbera’s 32 shutouts can be subsequent.
Even with these accomplishments, what is likely to be subsequent for Tokarski remains to be murky. His masks nonetheless bears Buffalo’s blue-and-gold theme as do his pads, in spite of everything. If the Hurricanes exit and purchase goaltending assist, that will push Martin again to the Wolves and crowd the Chicago internet. Possibly Perets would possibly get a shot with Carolina. Tulsky even raised Tokarski’s identify unprompted in an interview with the group web site, saying that the veteran “may very well be an choice for us.”
Hockey, particularly within the AHL, might be such a day-to-day existence. What the Hurricanes do or don’t do will influence the Wolves immediately. At 5-7-1-0, Abbott’s membership nonetheless has numerous work to do. However for now, at the least, Tokarski has work, and the Wolves look much more harmful.
2024 Chicago Wolves vs Manitoba Moose
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