The Week That Was – CHL alum are top performers through early Stanley Cup Playoffs action
Each week, CHL.ca goes coast to coast to highlight the top stories from around the league.
Huberdeau leads the pack
No player has scored more points than Jonathan Huberdeau this NHL postseason.
Through five contests, the Saint John Sea Dogs graduate and Florida Panthers forward has tallied 10 points counting two goals and eight assists.
Two of those points came Monday as Huberdeau recorded a pair of helpers in a 4-1 victory that ultimately staved off elimination against the defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning and pushed the NHL’s first all-Florida playoff series to a Game 6 coming Wednesday with the Panthers looking to win their first playoff set since 1996.
“(Huberdeau’s) patience level with the puck and play recognition and some of the passes he makes really alleviate a lot of the scrums,” Panthers head coach and Windsor Spitfires graduate Joel Quenneville told NHL.com’s Dan Rosen. “He is finding pucks, coming up with loose pucks, positionally aware. The line has been dangerous and the power play has really been effective.”
Jonathan Huberdeau is simply unbelievable. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/JuawVYd1HW
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) May 17, 2021
Huberdeau, of course, is no stranger to coming up clutch as in 2011 he came up big in helping guide Saint John to a franchise-first President’s Cup as QMJHL playoff champions before later capturing its first-ever Memorial Cup.
Following a dominant 2010-11 campaign in which he finished third in QMJHL scoring with 105 points over 67 contests, the Quebec native then continued that performance into the postseason where he amassed 16 goals and 14 assists through 19 showings, and was awarded the Guy Lafleur Trophy as the playoffs MVP. Not yet finished, Huberdeau added another five goals and two assists in four games at the year-end tournament, including a pair of points in the championship final versus Mississauga as he was once against recognized as the top player with the Stafford Smythe Trophy.
The 1993-born forward, who heard his name called third overall by the Panthers in the 2011 NHL Draft, then returned to Saint John for two more seasons, again helping them claim the QMJHL playoff title in 2012. In all, Huberdeau’s junior career totaled 195 contests in which he recorded well above point-per-game production with 104 goals and 153 assists.
Among the top 10 scorers in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, half are CHL graduates, a list that beyond Huberdeau includes Nathan MacKinnon (Halifax Mooseheads), Nikita Kucherov (Rouyn-Noranda Huskies), Gabriel Landeskog (Kitchener Rangers), and Steven Stamkos (Sarnia Sting).
Morrissey takes flight
Meanwhile, among the top performing talent from the back end through the early goings of the NHL postseason has been Winnipeg Jets defenceman and Kelowna Rockets alumnus Josh Morrissey.
Picking up four points in his club’s four-game sweep of the favoured Edmonton Oilers, Morrissey was particularly noticeable in the latter half of the series, marking Games 3 and 4 with two points apiece.
Among those performances included Morrissey’s game-tying marker in the closing minutes of Game 3 that saw the Jets rally for three goals in a span of 3:03, with the final two tallies coming just 16 seconds apart.
Dylan DeMelo on winning the first round of the playoffs, Josh Morrissey on the intensity of the series, and much more from the two of them.
🎥 WATCH: https://t.co/vgM73aluHk
— Winnipeg Jets (@NHLJets) May 26, 2021
Despite the short series, it included part of five overtime periods, and Morrissey saw no shortage of usage from Jets head coach and former Detroit Junior Red Wings bench boss Paul Maurice who deployed him for an average of nearly 30 minutes of ice time per night, the most among all Winnipeg skaters.
For Morrissey, he is finding his motivation in part from the playoff fever that has overtaken Winnipeg.
“I am really feeling the energy of the fans here in Manitoba without them even being in the building – the support, people honking, driving around downtown,” Morrissey told reporters. “Seeing streets lined up with cars and people waiting to wave at us and celebrate, it is pretty cool.”
Skating in his fifth season with the Jets, the 26-year-old Morrissey was originally selected 13th overall in the 2013 NHL Draft following a decorated junior career that counted 249 total games split between the Rockets and Prince Albert Raiders and was highlighted by a host of accolades including an Ed Chynoweth Cup win with Kelowna as WHL playoff champions in 2015.
Nedeljkovic’s net
Rounding out the top performers, among the most impressive has been Carolina Hurricanes first-year netminder Alex Nedeljkovic.
Taking command of the crease in Raleigh over a pair of experienced hands, the 25-year-old Niagara IceDogs graduate has gotten the nod in all five of Carolina’s playoffs contests against the Nashville Predators that has seen all three most recent games require extra time, including a pair of double overtime sessions.
“There is nothing like a close game, a tense game, the whole time from the first puck drop to the final buzzer,” Nedeljkovic told Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer. “Everybody was on the edge of their seat. The next shot, you never know what could happen. It could be a hit, it could be a broken stick, just whatever could change the tide of the game. That is the beauty of the game.”
Alexander Nedeljkovic pic.twitter.com/7gU2CDLkzl
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) May 20, 2021
Through it all, the one-time OHL Goaltender of the Year has impressed, surrendering just 13 goals over 372 minutes of playing time while turning aside 165 shots from the Predators.
Undoubtedly, it has been a breakthrough campaign for the American-born netminder, one where earlier in the year he found himself on waivers, available for the taking by any of the other 30 NHL clubs. But in resurfacing with the Hurricanes and finding his game that previously made him a top-two round selection in the 2014 NHL Draft, Nedeljkovic appears poised to help the NHL’s Central Division champion Hurricanes challenge for their second-ever Stanley Cup.
While that possibility is still more than a month and three opponents away – and there is still the matter of picking up a fourth win against the Predators – a victory would mark the latest success for Nedeljkovic at the pro level who just two seasons against helped the Hurricanes’ AHL affiliate capture the Calder Cup, while it would also come on the heels of a successful four-year junior career that counted stops with two franchises and a litany of accomplishments.