Manitoba Moose Update: Part One

As I was flipping my calendar to the month of April, I thought it might be a good time to check in on the Winnipeg Jets’ American Hockey League affiliate and with a long weekend to get it done, I figured that it would be worth effort. With the last of the snow just starting to melt, the Manitoba Moose are nearing the end of the 2023-24 regular season and only have 9 games left on the schedule before the AHL post-season kicks off.

This year’s version of the Moose are a fairly youthful bunch, with 13 players under the age of 24 and this definitely had an impact on how the season has played out. Some of the newbies include 19 yr olds’ Brad Lambert, Chaz Lucius, and Danil Zhilkin, 20 yr old defenseman Dmitri Kuzmin, and 21 yr old forward Nikita Chibrikov. Besides having a lot of eager yet inexperienced skaters, Manitoba had to deal with the loss of some mainstays as they faced a year without the likes of Declan Chisholm, Leon Gawanke, Jansen Harkins, Alex Limoges, and Cole Maier.

With a lot of roster turnover and early long-term injuries to defensemen Ville Heinola & Jimmy Oligny, perhaps it isn’t surprising that Manitoba’s season has had its ups & downs. In the beginning, the Moose shot out of the gate with youthful enthusiasm, winning 4 of their first 6 contests, but eventually things started to get more difficult. Here is how the next 56 games played out:

As you can see, after some initial hiccups in the first 36 games (especially that 0-9-1 stretch), Manitoba’s team play has progressed over the AHL’s season and they have put up an impressive 16-8-1-1 record in the past 26 contests. This streak of quality hockey has allowed the Moose to take a strong hold of the Central Division’s final playoff spot (7 pt lead) and has even given them an outside shot at taking over the 4^th place position (5 pts back of the Texas Stars).

In the AHL’s Central, the top five franchises qualify for the playoffs, with the top team getting to host the winners of a best of three play-in series between the 4^th and 5^th place squads. The other Division Semi-Final will be a best of five series between the 2^nd and 3^rd franchises. The Division Finals are also best of 5 games sets, but the remainder of the AHL post-season switches to the standard 7 game series in the final two rounds.

Here is a look at the current AHL Central Division standings (via theAHL.com):

The Manitoba Moose haven’t been elite offensively or defensively…