One of the AHL’s realities is that teams must deal with two sets of problems – theirs and those belonging to the NHL parent club.
The Charlotte Checkers, last season’s Calder Cup finalist, know that reality well.
Back-to-back Stanley Cup champions, the parent Florida Panthers’ ever-growing list of major injuries has impacted their AHL affiliate. Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov is out long-term with a knee injury sustained in training camp. Matthew Tkachuk’s groin injury has him out to begin this season. The same goes for forward Tomas Nosek and his knee injury. An upper-body injury to begin the regular season sidelined defenseman Dmitry Kulikov long-term. Yes, this Florida team has been to the Stanley Cup Final three consecutive years, and the games have piled up as has the wear-and-tear. Sometimes injuries are simply misfortune, too.
2025 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins vs Charlotte Checkers
Charlotte already had to deal with its own offseason roster losses. When Checkers head coach Geordie Kinnear’s team skated off the Bojangles Coliseum ice last June 23 following Game 6 of the Calder Cup Finals, everyone knew that it would be the last time for that roster to play together. While the visiting Abbotsford Canucks celebrated their Calder Cup championship on Charlotte ice, the Checkers had to be content with the memories of a long, grinding run to the Calder Cup Finals that had fallen two wins short.
Sure enough, those changes followed quickly. Sniper John Leonard took his 36 goals with him to the Detroit Red Wings organization. Defenseman Matt Kiersted (Minnesota Wild) and workhorse goaltender Kaapo Kähkönen (Montreal Canadiens) found free-agent opportunities elsewhere. Handy forward Justin Sourdif departed in a trade to the Washington Capitals three days after that season-ending loss to Abbotsford. Goaltender Ken Appleby went to the Toronto Marlies. Rasmus Asplund, Oliver Okuliar, and Jesse Puljujärvi all found jobs in Europe. Kyle Criscuolo, Will Lockwood, and C.J. Smith and do not yet have jobs. Captain Zac Dalpe, who had missed most of last season with an injury, retired.
So it goes in the AHL. Just when a head coach finally is able to have a team’s systems, structure, and identity in place, the offseason arrives upends all of that work. Rookies come in. So do free agents. Prospects take another step forward. Or backward, in some cases.
But top defenseman Trevor Carrick is back and has taken over the team captaincy. The 31-year-old Carrick’s return both gives the Checkers a high-end number-one blueliner as well as a top leader, a big-brother figure of sorts for a crew of rookies and youngsters on the Charlotte roster. Holdover Mike Benning is proven talent for Kinnear’s defense corps as well.
Moreover, this is not an organization that sits around, not one that hopes for the best. Hope is not a plan for the Florida-Charlotte partnership. When an injury or performance letdown or a surprise of some sort arises, the two sides act. Last season they brought in Puljujärvi from the Pittsburgh Penguins organization, and the 2016 third-overall pick ended up being an important contributor in Kinnear’s line-up. Needing a bit more in net, Florida went out and got Kähkönen from the Winnipeg Jets at the NHL trade deadline.
When last season’s talent exited, the organization went to work quickly. Forward Brian Pinho, who pocketed 25 goals for the Bridgeport Islanders, came to Charlotte on an AHL contract. Forward Jack Studnicka signed with Florida after his 45-point season for the Ontario Reign. So did forward Nolan Foote, who should be able to provide 20 goals. Florida president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito and his staff have been aggressive about finding undrafted talent out of Europe. They brought in Timrå forward Anton Lundmark with a one-year deal. One more offseason signing, goaltender Brandon Bussi, could have been Charlotte’s number-one in net. Instead he went to the Carolina Hurricanes on a waiver claim. Still, perhaps he returns to the organization at some point to provide goaltending help. For now, at least, the Checkers have gone out and brought in Kevin Mandolese on a professional tryout as some additional insurance for Cooper Black.
Youth has arrived as well. Forward Gracyn Sawchyn, a 2023 second-round selection, has turned pro with the Checkers. Defensemen Marek Alscher and Mikulas Hovorka have been through the rigors of a Calder Cup chase now. Another SHL product, defenseman Ludvig Jansson, won a championship with Luleå last season and has come to North America. Forwards Jack Devine, Brett Chorske, and Ben Steeves all got valuable playoff experience thanks to the Checkers’ extra two months of high-pressure, high-stakes hockey last spring. So did defenseman Eamon Powell. Forward MacKenzie Entwistle and defenseman Mitch Vande Sompel are back in the line-up after missing much of last season with injuries. Wilmer Skoog and Sandis Vilmanis give more help up front. Hunter St. Martin is a new face out of the WHL.
The moves have hardly slowed down, either. Ben Harpur, Hunter Johannes, Cole Krygier, Jake Livingstone, Josh Lopina, Robert Mastrosimone, Daniel Walcott, and Andy Welinski all got NHL and/or AHL opportunities with the organization in training camp. Livingstone has stuck with the Checkers while Johannes, Lopina, and Mastrosimone all have gone to their ECHL affiliate, the Savannah Ghost Pirates, where they can be dependable AHL recalls. Krygier just came back from Savannah on recall.
Last week brought PTOs for Mandolese (85 AHL games) along with forward Brett Leason, who spent last season with the Anaheim Ducks. Two days later came forward Tyler Motte on a PTO. The 30-year-old went to Florida’s training camp last month and has 454 NHL games on his ledger.
All of these new faces mean that the Checkers are very much a team in transition. That goes beyond getting systems and identities in place. For now, it’s something more akin to putting names with all of those new faces. But that takes time.
All the same, the Checkers have looked strong so far. They are out to a 3-1-0-0 start and handled the Iowa Wild by a combined 10-3 score this past weekend, holding the visitors to a franchise-record 12 shots last Saturday. Steeves has a goal in each of his four games, Charlotte’s power play has struck in every game so far, and Sawchyn has recorded a point in three of his contests so far.
A solid test comes this weekend when the 5-0-0-0 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton visit Bojangles Coliseum for games Friday and Saturday. The FloHockey AHL Game of the Week will feature Saturday’s game for free across all FloHockey social platforms at 6 p.m. ET.
The effort so far has Kinnear happy and encouraged.
“As a group, it’s going to take us some time to understand how we play,” Kinnear told the team website following their win last Saturday. He added that he did not focus on Iowa at all, not when there is so much to put into place with his players. “We talked about ourselves and how we want to play. We know we have a lot of work to do, so we want to get to how we want to play. We’ll start worrying about the other team at the appropriate time, and right now is not that time.”
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