AHL alumni to battle for Stanley Cup | TheAHL.com

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … The Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues are able to face off for the Stanley Cup, and the convention champions’ rosters are stocked with AHL All-Stars, Calder Cup winners and different graduates of the American Hockey League.Boston’s run to their third Japanese Convention championship this decade has featured a roster made up solely of AHL alumni: each participant to seem in a recreation for the Bruins this season got here by the American Hockey League. And of the 23 gamers with at the very least one recreation performed within the Stanley Cup Playoffs, 16 frolicked with the Bruins’ AHL affiliate in Windfall.Tuukka Rask, who sports activities a 1.84 goals-against common and a .942 save share this postseason, performed 102 AHL video games with Windfall over the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons, and was an AHL All-Star in 2008.David KrejciBrad Marchand recorded 59 factors as a rookie with Windfall in 2008-09, and David Krejci scored 31 targets in his first skilled season (2006-07). David Pastrnak was simply 18 years previous when he made his professional debut with the P-Bruins in 2014-15, notching 28 factors in 25 video games.Boston’s Danton Heinen, Jake DeBrusk, Matt Grzelcyk, Sean Kuraly and Noel Acciari all reached the AHL’s Japanese Convention Finals with Windfall simply two years in the past, with Heinen capping an All-Star rookie season by main the group in playoff scoring with 18 factors in 17 video games.Along with Rask and Heinen, 5 different Bruins are former AHL All-Stars: Chris Wagner (2015), John Moore (2011), Jaroslav Halak (2007), Patrice Bergeron (2005) and Zdeno Chara (1998).Defenseman Connor Clifton and ahead Karson Kuhlman each spent nearly all of the 2018-19 season in Windfall earlier than serving to Boston attain the Stanley Cup Last. Clifton’s 27 factors in 53 video games led all P-Bruins defensemen in scoring, and Kuhlman was Windfall’s top-scoring rookie with 30 factors whereas main your entire membership in plus/minus (+23).Behind the bench, head coach Bruce Cassidy spent eight seasons in Windfall as an assistant (2008-11) and head coach (2011-16) earlier than being promoted to Boston. Cassidy, who gained the Louis A.R. Pieri Award because the AHL’s excellent coach again in 2001-02, guided Windfall to one of the best report within the league in 2012-13.Bruins assistant coach Kevin Dean owns a particular place in hockey historical past: he’s one in all 4 gamers ever to win each the Stanley Cup and the Calder Cup in the identical season, conducting the feat with the New Jersey Devils and Albany River Rats in 1995. The Western Convention champion Blues present 18 AHL graduates amongst their 23 playoff members and 5 members of the Blues frolicked with the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage this season, most notably goaltender Jordan Binnington.Binnington was one of many AHL’s high netminders this season earlier than his recall to St. Louis on Jan. 5, going 11-Four-Zero with a 2.08 GAA and a .927 save share for the Rampage. An AHL All-Star in 2018 whereas on mortgage to the Windfall Bruins, Binnington performed 164 video games within the AHL earlier than breaking out with the Blues.Sammy Blais, Jordan Binnington (Photograph: Darren Abate)Sammy Blais appeared in 26 video games with San Antonio this season, recording eight targets and 10 assists. Blais, who scored 26 targets as a rookie with the Chicago Wolves in 2016-17, scored a objective in his Stanley Cup Playoff debut in Sport 6 of the Blues’ second-round sequence in opposition to Dallas.Binnington’s goaltending accomplice is Jake Allen, who captured the Baz Bastien Memorial Award because the AHL’s excellent goalie in 2013-14. Allen performed 172 video games over 4 seasons with the Blues’ AHL associates in Peoria and Chicago earlier than graduating to St. Louis.Defenseman Vince Dunn was named an AHL All-Star as a rookie in 2016-17, when he tallied 45 factors and a plus-15 score in 72 video games with the Wolves. Robert Bortuzzo performed 236 video games with the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and was an AHL All-Star in 2011, and Patrick Maroon skated in 353 video games within the American Hockey League over 5 seasons earlier than turning into a full-time NHL participant.Jay Bouwmeester performed in San Antonio earlier than they have been the Blues’ affiliate, and represented the Rampage on the 2005 AHL All-Star Basic. Later that season, he reached the Calder Cup Finals as a member of the Chicago Wolves, the place they misplaced to a Philadelphia Phantoms group that included Craig Berube behind the bench as an assistant coach.Berube, who was elevated to interim head coach of the Blues on Nov. 19, 2018, coached the Wolves to a division title in 2016-17 earlier than becoming a member of St. Louis’s workers and spent 4 seasons (2004-08) with the Phantoms as each an assistant and head coach.Blues assistant Mike Van Ryn spent final season as head coach of the Tucson Roadrunners, main them to a Pacific Division title.The 2019 Stanley Cup Last begins Monday night time at TD Backyard in Boston.In operation since 1936, the American Hockey League serves as the highest growth league for the gamers, coaches, managers, executives and broadcasters of all 31 Nationwide Hockey League groups. Almost 90 % of right now’s NHL gamers are American Hockey League graduates, and for the 18th yr in a row, greater than 6 million followers have attended AHL video games in 2018-19.