Newfoundland Growlers forward Giorgio Estephan will be participating in the ECHL’s all-star game later this month in Toledo, Ohio, and to say Estephan will be representing the expansion club at the annual get-together is correct on more than one level.
He’ll be there for the Growlers, of course, to compete in what will a three-on-three tournament, the latest in all-star fads. But it would also be fair to say Estephan is also representative of the many young and prolific forwards gathered in Newfoundland, a group from which there would be a number of worthy all-star candidates.
There’s Scott Pooley, whose 29 points tie him with Estephan for the team lead in scoring, or Zach O’Brien, who at 26 is the greybeard of the bunch and the lone non-rookie in the group. O’Brien has missed considerable time with injury, but has averaged far better than a point per contest, with 11 goals and 15 assists in 21 games. The same goes for Brady Ferguson, who has been sidelined by injury the last 10 games, but still has 25 points in 21 outings.
In fact, there are seven Growlers — Josh Kestner (23 points), Marcus Power (23) and Matt Bradley (20) are the others — with 20 or more points. And all are centres or wingers. Entering this week, no other ECHL team has that many forwards at the 20-plus points category.
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Besides their overall youth and the scoring by committee approach, the other hallmark of the Growlers’ forward group has been their stability as a group.
In a league where in-season player turnover is a given, only three of the 17 forwards who have dressed for Newfoundland this season aren’t still with the team, the exceptions being Scott Trask and Jimmy Soper, returned to Southern Professional Hockey League teams shortly after the start of the season, and Griffen Molino, back with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies after being sent to the Growlers for four games.
The rest are either on Newfoundland’s active roster or, like Ferguson, on some sort of reserve list.
Compare that with the Growlers’ defence, which has featured 15 different players, seven of whom aren’t with the team today
Or with the goalie corps. Michael Garteig was a consistent workhorse between the pipes, starting 24 of 33 games, but was recently recalled to the Marlies, meaning Newfoundland began a homestand that continues tonight against the Maine Mariners, with a netminding tandem of Brad Barone and Alex Levine, neither of who were with the team two weeks ago,
Meanwhile, that stable group of forwards has delivered 111 of the 119 goals scored by the Growlers this season (including one goal awarded in a shootout win).
It’s been part of what has made Newfoundland one of the top teams in the league during its inaugural campaign. The Growlers (21-11-6) head into tonight’s game against the Mariners (19-13-1) at Mile One Centre (7 p.m.) second in the Eastern Conference and fifth overall in the league. They are also top five in both goals-per-game (3.61) and goals-against (2.79).
The latter is an indication that while the rearguards haven’t produced much in the way of tallies, they’ve been stalwarts defensively. And it should also be pointed out that despite the many bodies that have been used on the blueline, there has always been a fairly steady core group: captain James Melindy, Alex Gudbranson, Kristians Rubins, Evan Neugold and Stefan Leblanc (who also was recently called up to the AHL), eventually augmented by trade acquisition Anthony Cortese and veteran Adam Pardy after the latter’s recovery from an injury that caused him to miss the team’s first two dozen games.
Dog Bytes
Four 10-member teams will compete in the all-star three-on-three tourney Jan. 21 in Toledo. The East and West Conferences will supply two of the entries, with the other two made up of members of the host Toledo Walleye. A skills competition will take place in between rounds of the tournament. The rosters for the conference all-stars were determined by a vote of coaches, team captains, media relations directors, broadcasters and members of the media … Joining the Growlers’ Giorgio Estephan on the East Conference all-stars is Maine defenceman Sean Day, who was one of only four players granted exceptional players status so as to be allowed to play in the Ontario Hockey League as a 15-year-old (John Tavares, Aaron Ekblad and Connor McDavid were the others). However, Day, who was a third-round draft pick of the New York Rangers in 2016, is on recall to the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack … The potential absences of all-star selections is one reason number of alternates have already been named. Among the alternates is goaltender and St. John’s native Evan Fitzpatrick. However, there’s a chance Fitzpatrick might not be available for Toledo. The 20-year-old began the season with the ECHL’s Tulsa Oilers, but progressed to the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL and the NHL’s St. Louis Blues. Over the weekend, the Blues demoted Fitzpatrick (he never saw any action in St. Louis), but to San Antonio … Still with goalies, the Mariners lost Brandon Halverson on a recall to Hartford on Monday. With Connor LaCouvee also in the AHL (with the Laval Rocket) as of Monday, that left the Mariners — temporarily at least — with former Boston Bruins first-round draft pick Hannu Toivonen as their only goalie … Forward Emerson Clark is eligible to return to the Newfoundland lineup tonight after serving a two-game suspension that stemmed from a game misconduct he picked up in recent road matchup in Reading, Pa. The suspension meant Clark didn’t get to play in the Growlers’ two weekend games against the Jacksonville Icemen at Mile One Centre, denying him an opportunity to line up opposite his younger brother, Everett, a forward for Jacksonville … Rookie forward Brady Ferguson, who had been Newfoundland’s top scorer before being injured in a game in early December, is back skating with the team, albeit in a red no-contact jersey … The Growlers and Mariners, who both entered the ECHL as expansion teams this season, have faced off three times, with Maine winning their inaugural meeting in Portland and Newfoundland sweeping two games in St. John’s in December … The teams meet up again Wednesday night at Mile One …
Twitter: @telybrendan
