Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
The Charlotte Checkers are hosting the Stanley Cup on Saturday.
Hockey’s most storied trophy will be at Bojangles Coliseum when the Checkers take on Bridgeport as Charlotte celebrates the championship won by their NHL affiliate, the Florida Panthers, in June.
And the way the Checkers have been playing, they may well be making themselves Calder Cup contenders come this spring.
Just ask the Springfield Thunderbirds, a strong team in their own right. The Thunderbirds came to town owning an 8-1-2-0 record in their previous 11 games, but the Checkers made a statement of their own with back-to-back, come-from-behind victories in the teams’ two-game set this week.
Charlotte started 6-1-0-0 and quickly looked like it could be a top contender coming out of the Atlantic Division this season. A November slide in which they went 1-3-1-2 blunted some of that early momentum, but a rejuvenated Checkers club has won eight of its last 10 games and sits just six points behind first-place Hershey with four games in hand entering play this weekend.
As expected, the Bears with their back-to-back Calder Cup championships look dangerous. As so often seems to be the case, Providence is surging after a slow start. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton looks to be improved after some lean years. But right in the mix are the Checkers, thanks for an affiliation with the Panthers that has blossomed since it formed in 2020.
The same management group that helped to build a Stanley Cup winner in South Florida has applied that same high standard in Charlotte. Shortly after the Panthers had skated the Stanley Cup for the first time, the organization got down to work retooling the Checkers.
Defenseman Trevor Carrick, who won the Calder Cup with the Checkers in 2019, returned to Charlotte on a two-year AHL contract; he is second among all league blueliners in scoring (24 points). Another veteran, Jaycob Megna, was added to the back end, joining incoming prospects Marek Alscher and Mikulas Hovorka. Tobias Bjornfot, a 2019 first-round pick by the Los Angeles Kings, got a fresh start in the Florida organization after being claimed on waivers last March; he has become a reliable presence for the Checkers this season. Experienced forwards Kyle Criscuolo and John Leonard signed on with the Checkers. Aidan McDonough, an offseason AHL signing from the Abbotsford Canucks, arrived and is tied for the team lead with 10 goals. Oliver Okuliar, who had 24 goals last season with Czech team Mountfield HK, already has 13 points (seven goals, six assists) in 21 games for Charlotte.
Florida also went out and got dependable goaltending insurance, bringing Chris Driedger back to the organization as a free agent after he helped to take the Coachella Valley Firebirds to last season’s Calder Cup Finals. Ken Appleby came south from Bridgeport for an AHL deal in Charlotte and has provided an additional steady hand in net.
Amid all of those hockey moves came off-ice changes as well. Zawyer Sports & Entertainment bought a controlling interest in the Checkers in a deal that brought in new growth potential while still maintaining stability. Michael Kahn, the team’s majority owner since 2006, stays in the organization as its largest minority partner and the Checkers front office led by chief operating officer Tera Black remained intact.
This Checkers team is punishing in several areas. One-third of the way through their schedule, Charlotte has converted a remarkable 33.7 percent of its power plays (32-for-95). The penalty kill places seventh in the league at 85.1 percent, and they have scored a league-best six shorthanded goals. The Checkers lead the league in scoring, averaging 3.83 goals per game, and is first in shots on goal both for (32.54) and against (24.75) per contest.
There’s skill throughout the lineup, too, something that the Checkers have needed as injuries have hit. On Tuesday it was rookie Ben Steeves whose third-period equalizer set up an eventual 5-4 shootout victory over Springfield. On Wednesday, Charlotte trailed by two before rallying for a 4-3 win, with another Steeves goal early in the third period tying the game before Wilmer Skoog, a 22-goal scorer last season, pounded in a one-timer in the final minute.
This week’s work left head coach Geordie Kinnear impressed. Not one to dole out praise casually, these Checkers are earning respect from their head coach, a tough, punishing defenseman who came up through the demanding 1990’s-era New Jersey Devils development system run by Lou Lamoriello that produced one prospect after another.
“I give the guys a ton of credit,” Kinnear told reporters following Tuesday’s win. “You look at opportunities to build some toughness throughout the year, and tonight we built it.”
Kinnear called Wednesday’s win “gutsy.” It’s been a theme that could be leading the Checkers to big things this season.
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.