The first half of the 2023-24 American Hockey League season was not kind to the Manitoba Moose.
Through 36 games, the team has a 12-23-1 record and sits last in not only the Central Division, but last in the entire league. Here, we’ll dive into their first half, looking at why they’re in the basement while checking in on the Jets’ top prospects.
Bottom-Feeding Moose Not Excelling In Any Facet
The Moose appear to lack drive, pride, and confidence, and that makes them an exceedingly frustrating team to watch. They were 12-12-0 in mid-December and battling for a playoff spot, but have since seen the wheels fall off in spectacular fashion. They are currently mired in a franchise-worst 11-game losing streak, going 0-10-1 in those 11 games, and have not won since Dec. 23.
Both the forwards and defensemen show good things in fits and starts, but the team rarely fires on all cylinders for an entire 60 minutes under head coach Mark Morrison, who looks at a loss as to how to turn the team around.
Their contingency of forwards is shallow after Dominic Toninato and Axel Jonsson-Fjallby were called up to the Jets, and even by AHL standards, the group is young and inconsistent. The few veterans left — Kristian Reichel, CJ Suess, and Jeffrey Viel — haven’t made much of an impact offensively, compounding matters. Right winger Nikita Chibrikov currently leads the team — which has scored the third-fewest goals in the league with 94 — in goals and points (13 goals, 16 assists, 29 points.)
He is followed by defenseman Kyle Capobianco (six goals, 20 assists, 26 points,) centre Brad Lambert, (12 goals, 13 assists, 25 points,) winger Jeff Malott (nine goals, 14 assists, 25 points) and winger Parker Ford (seven goals, nine assists, 16 points.) Chibrikov, the Jets’ 2021 second-round pick, is the only player in the AHL’s top 50 in points.
The team defense — unlike that of the historically stingy Jets club that had a dominant first half — is weak. Their shortcomings are partially due to a lack of talent, but partially due to the systems Morrison and company deploy.
The d-corp, without veteran captain Jimmy Oligny — who went down in November with his second season-ending knee injury in as many seasons and may be at the end of his hockey career as a result — makes a lot of mistakes and falls out of their structure too often. This leads to failed zone clearances, own-zone scrambling, terrible turnovers, and odd-man rushes against.
They are almost incapable of holding on to leads or locking things down, recently coughing up a pair of three-goal cushions in back-to-back nights against the Grand Rapids Griffins. The team has allowed 134 goals, third-worst in the league, and Capobianco is the only defenseman out of the 11 who have seen game action to have a positive plus/minus.
Goaltending Moose’s Biggest Achilles Heel
The goaltending tandem of Collin Delia and Oskari Salminen has been extremely subpar. In fact, they are the weakest goalie duo the Moose have had in nine seasons since coming back from St. John’s.
Not only have these goaltenders not stolen wins, their poor play and penchant for allowing weak goals at in opportune times — early in contests to put the team in a hole, late in contests to fall behind, after the Moose have built momentum but not yet scored — have led directly to more than a handful of losses.
Delia, playing on a one-year contract he signed last offseason, was seen to be an upgrade over departed goalie Arvid Holm and it was hoped he’d be a stabilizing presence in the crease due to his 100-plus AHL starts. It hasn’t turned out that way, though, as he has a 3.48 Goals Against Average (GAA,) .878 SV%, and 7-14-1 record in 22 starts. He has allowed three-plus goals in 13 of his starts.
Oskari Salminen’s numbers are even worse. The 24-year-old Finn has looked terribly unconfident — and sometimes downright lost — in the crease and has a 3.91 GAA, .870 SV%, and a 4-7-0 record in 11 starts. He has allowed four-plus goals in seven starts, and has taken a big step back from last season, when he went 18-13-6 with a 3.04 GAA, .869 SV%, and two shutouts. While he sometimes makes unbelievable, almost superhuman saves, he allows too many pedestrian shots to get through him and struggles to divert his rebounds into low-danger areas.
Thomas Milic, the Jets’ 2023 fifth-round selection, also made three starts and four appearances in November — and has recently been called back up — but at just 21 years old did not look ready for the level in his first stint. His numbers are slightly better — a 1-3-0 record, 3.48 GAA, and .885 SV% in three starts and five appearances — and he has seen success playing for the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals, being named to the Warrior/ECHL All-Star Classic.
The definition of insanity is doing the same things and expecting different results, and using Delia as the starter hasn’t gotten the Moose anywhere good, so Morrison would be well served to give Milic a lot more starts going forward. Unlike Delia, who is 29, Milic is a prospect with a future.
Overall, the three goaltenders’ combined .872 SV% is not nearly good enough for a professional hockey team and it’s obvious the Moose are not offensively talented enough to outscore such profound goalie woes.
Top Prospects Lambert and Chibrikov Look Promising; Lucius Out For Season With Fourth Surgery in As Many Years
The Moose have had a few bright spots — primarily the play of Chibrikov and Lambert.
Lambert, the Jets’ 2021 first-round pick, looks far more comfortable this season than last and it’s obvious his time in juniors last winter and spring helped his development. While he has missed the past four games due to injury after taking a thundering hit against the Laval Rocket on Jan. 13, he has been noticeable and fairly consistent in the top-line centre and power-play mainstay role Morrison has given him.
The 20-year-old’s 25 points in 30 games represents leaps-and-bounds growth from last season, when those hoping the Finn would immediately dominate the AHL with his game-breaking ability were disappointed. In 14 games last season before the 2023 World Junior Championship, he struggled at times to adjust to the stiffer competition and North-American-sized ice, recording just two goals and one assist for three points and a minus-9 rating.
Lambert was sent to the Western Hockey League’s Seattle Thunderbirds after the World Juniors and he took what could have been perceived as a demotion in stride. He dominated the level, racking up 17 goals and 21 assists for 38 points in 26 games and six goals and 20 for 26 points in 17 playoff games. One key was Thunderbirds’ head coach Matt O’Dette moving Lambert back to his natural position of centre — which comes with more responsibilities than wing — and that’s where he’s stayed this season in his first full professional campaign.
Chibrikov, also 20, has been one of the only other Moose players to produce consistently and showcase game-breaking skill. The Russian left winger, in his first North-American season, has been used in a top-line and power-play role and has adapted to the North American game quickly. As previously mentioned, he leads the team in goals (13) and points (29) and has recorded at least a point in 23 of 35 games played.
Related: Winnipeg Jets Top 10 Prospects for 2023-24
Lucius, meanwhile, is looking like a seriously compromised asset and his lack of ability to stay healthy seems to be threatening his hockey career. Morrison recently announced Lucius will have season-ending ankle surgery, his fourth season-ending surgery in as many seasons.
The Jets’ 2021 first-rounder recorded two goals and seven assists for nine points in 12 games in a second-line centre role this season, but once again, has been bitten by the injury bug that’s robbed him of significant development time he’ll never get back. He has played just 59 games in the past three seasons.
Lucius’ injury history is extensive for someone who is just 20 years old. In late January last season, while playing with the Portland Winterhawks after winning bronze with the United States at the World Juniors, he suffered a shoulder injury that required surgery and ended his season. It was terrible timing as he was dominating with the WHL club, recording five goals and 10 assists for 15 points in just six games.
Last season, prior to the 2023 World Juniors, Lucius played 12 games with the Moose, recording two goals and three assists for five points. He also missed about three weeks due to shoulder troubles.
However, his injury woes go back much further: in 2019, he underwent a knee surgery that involved replacing the bone marrow with bone marrow from his back and the recovery required him to spend six weeks in a wheelchair and another six weeks in a heavy brace, “basically learning how to walk all over again.” (From ‘Jets prospect Chaz Lucius proving he can get through anything,’ Winnipeg Sun, Sept. 13, 2023.)
In 2020-21, after being drafted by the Jets, he sustained a hand injury and then had to have an ankle surgery which ended his first season with the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers after just 24 games. If you’re keeping track, that’s a knee surgery, an ankle surgery, a shoulder surgery, and another ankle surgery since 2019.
Moose On Pace for Worst Season in Franchise History
The Moose are on pace for just 22 wins by season’s end, which would be a franchise-low by five (and their current low of 27 wins in 2019-20 was because they only played 61 games; the AHL season was shut down due to COVID-19’s arrival in North America and was never restarted.)
It’s safe to say the Moose are historically bad, and while some of their prospects are still doing well, being on such a hapless team is not the best for young players’ development. Two big parts of becoming a viable NHL player are learning how to win and building the confidence that one can do so. Draft picks such as Lambert, Chibrikov, Simon Lundmark, Milic, and Danny Zhilkin certainly aren’t learning how to do either of those things right now.
If the Moose cannot get things turned around in the second half — they are currently 10 points out of a playoff spot and showing no signs a rise is imminent — True North Sports & Entertainment should consider a wholesale revamp of the coaching staff in an attempt to make a better environment for their young players to evolve into Jets one day.
