The Moose have finished 25% of their regular season games (72) and are holding onto the final wild card spot in the Central Division. If they remain in that position, Manitoba will face a best-of-three series versus the 4th place team, with the winners going onto a best-of-five series against the Central’s top franchise.
With the amount of young players sporting Moose jerseys this season, it is not that surprising to see Manitoba doing worse than previous seasons. They had pretty poor goaltending to start the year, but Collin Delia has been a brick wall in his past two starts and Oskari Salminen had a .935 save % in his last appearance.
It is on the defensive side of things where Manitoba had to deal with the most changes. Gone are Ville Heinola, Leon Gawanke, and Declan Chisholm (excluding a 6 game stint with 5 assists), taking with them a significant amount of offense. Kyle Capobianco has filled the role of one of the missing defenders, as he has contributed offensively consistently (16 pts in 18 gms). No other Moose defenseman has more than 5 points, although Tyrell Bauer (1) and Auston Sautner (3) have chipped in goals. The 6’3″ Bauer plays a physical game and it’s not shocking that he leads Manitoba in penalties, though the vast majority of his minutes are due to fighting majors. I wouldn’t say that he’s a goon, despite being very adept at fisticuffs, as all four of the RHD’s bouts were a result of standing up for a teammate. The defenseman with the lowest amount of PIMs is another RHD in Simon Lundmark. The Swede pretty much focuses on his own end, but has chipped in 2 assists despite having the least amount of shots on net (11) from the blueline. He is a smooth skater and seems to make the safe play on Manitoba exit attempts. Newly acquired Artemi Kniazev is an interesting one to watch at times. Consistency is an issue, but some games his skating and puck distribution is reminiscent of Josh Morrissey and he certainly can get involved in the offense. The Russian LHD leads the Moose in shots on net (38), edging Capobianco (31) despite playing three less games. The team has lost their captain Jimmy Oligny for most, if not all, of the season to injury, so the younger players on the backend will get more playing time going forward.
Rookie Nikita Chibrikov has played very well in his debut season, with his 18 points tying him for 28th in AHL scoring. When you focus just on the rookies, the Russian winger jumps up to a tie for 5th in points. Chibrikov missed the last game due to an illness, but appears to be set to return this evening and try to add to his 8 goals and 10 assists (17% shooting). Veteran winger Jeff Malott is 2nd in points for Manitoba with 15, after exploding for 4 points in the past two games. Up next is Brad Lambert with 14 points in 18 games, a 15% shooting percentage, and he’s one of the few forwards with a positive plus/minus (+3). 24 yr old Wyatt Bongiovanni has really stepped up his game in his 2nd year with Manitoba. After putting up 18 pts in 56 games (incl. 13 goals) in his rookie season, Wyatt has already amassed 12 pts (6 goals) in 16 games and the 2nd best shooting percentage (19.6%) in 2023-24. Last but not least, Chaz Lucius has also been impressive centering Manitoba’s 2nd line. He missed a bit of time after a cheap shot, but the American has 2 goals & 7 helpers in 12 games to date. Lucius has one of the lowest shot totals of any Moose and that’s a bit of a tragedy since he has a very capable release. Coach Mark Morrison has recently moved Chibrikov onto his line, so it will be interesting to see if Chaz can get into good shooting locations and take advantage.
Parker Ford has recently joined Malott & Lambert on the top line, so that may help him improve on his 7 pts in 18 games. He is a sparkplug that is tenacious on the forecheck, so the trio may work out well if Ford can consistently get either of his linemates the puck on dump ins. Younger forwards Danny Zhilkin and Daniel Torgersson have not found a lot of offensive success to date, despite getting their shots on opposing goaltenders. With shooting percentages under 5%, the duo are likely to find more luck if they keep getting into prime scoring areas. It appears that Henri Nikkanen has dropped down the depth chart severely, as the Finn has only dressed for 9 games and is the only Moose without a point. The big center is a great shut-down forward, penalty killer, & face-off man, but the lack of offense has made him a frequent healthy scratch.
Veteran players have also chipped in for Manitoba, such as Dominic Toninato (6 pts in 7 gms), Axel Jonsson-Fjallby (5 pts in 10 gms), CJ Suess (5 pts in 16 gms), Nicolas Jones (3 pts in 10 gms), Jeffrey Viel (3 pts in 17 gms), and Kristian Reichel (1 pt in 17 gms).
It will be interesting to see how the rest of the AHL season unfolds, but I can’t say that I am unhappy with the Manitoba Moose’s compete level this season. Personally, I think watching the next few years of the Winnipeg Jets’ forward groups will be quite entertaining.
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