Giorgio Estephan just went to Disney World. Now he’s going back to Toronto.
Estephan, who scored three goals as the Newfoundland Growlers gained three out of a possible four points in a couple of weekend road games against the Orlando Solar Bears, has been recalled from the ECHL Growlers to the American Hockey League’s Marlies.
It’s the second promotion to the Marlies this month for the 21-year-old forward from Edmonton, who leads Newfoundland with 12 goals and is second in scoring on the expansion team behind fellow rookie and linemate Brady Ferguson, who has 23 points on 10 goals and 13 assists, also in 19 games. Estephan has 21 points.
Both Estephan and Ferguson were brought up by the Marlies earlier this month and both suited up for a pair of AHL contests before being returned to the Growlers in time for a swing through Florida.
The two young players — and the rest of their Newfoundland teammates — were held off the scoresheet in a shutout loss to the Jacksonville Icemen, a result that snapped Newfoundland’s eight-game winning streak, but bounced back in the first of two matches with the Solar Bears as Estephan scored twice in a 3-0 victory. Orlando won in a shootout in the rematch — the Growlers’ first-ever extra-time loss — with Estephan scoring again.
Their brief call-up didn’t knock Ferguson and Estephan from atop the rookie scoring list in the ECHL — they’re still 1-2 in that department — and as we entered a new week, both remained in Top 10 in scoring in the league.
Whether Estephan gets to stay there will depend on how long this latest call-up lasts. Whatever the case, he’s certainly making the Toronto Maple Leafs’ organization look wise for signing him to an AHL contract after he never got an entry-level deal from the Buffalo Sabres, who selected him in the sixth round of the 2015 National Hockey League Entry Draft.
Estephan isn’t the only rookie forward on the Growlers who got an AHL pact from Toronto after going unsigned by the NHL team that drafted him.
Hudson Elynuik, the son of former NHL forward and eighth overall draft pick Pat Elynuik, has seven points (2G, 5A) in 10 games for Newfoundland. He was a third-round pick by the Carolina Hurricanes in 2016.
Stephen and Elynuik have much more in common. Both have 1997 birth years, both were born in Alberta (Elynuik in Calgary) and both registered 86 points in the Western Hockey League last season; Estephan had 30 goals and 56 assists in 69 games split between the Lethbridge Hurricanes, where he was the team captain, and the eventual WHL champion Swift Current Broncos. He added 23 points in 26 playoff games with the Broncos and six points (3G, 3A) in three Memorial Cup contests.
Elyniuk had 31 goals and 55 assists in 71 games for the Spokane Chiefs in 2017-18 as he finished off a unique junior hockey career, having played in the Western Hockey League in six different seasons. The lanky (six-five) Elynuik appeared in four games for the Kootenay Ice as a 15-year-old during the 2012-13 campaign.
