Jakob Pelletier leads the AHL in assists. He believes he should be a big-league regular and he’s hellbent on getting back there.
Rory Kerins leads the AHL in goals. He’s pushing for his first career call-up.
These Calgary Wranglers linemates have plenty in common, including that something-to-prove mentality that drives most guys in the minors and one important differentiator.
“I’m more a passer and he’s more a shooter, so that’s great,” Pelletier said. “But I think for Rory, it’s kind of the same thing as me — people have doubts about him.
“He’s always been a good player for us but this year, I think he took a step. They didn’t give him a chance in the pre-season and I think it fuelled him a lot too, you know what I mean? It fuelled him and as soon as we hit the first game, he was great for us. And for me, it’s pretty easy to play with him. It’s nice.”
Kerins is too quiet and too careful to gripe to a reporter about being shut out on audition opportunities during exhibition action this fall, but a third-year pro should be a bit sour when he isn’t even tapped for duties on split-squad night. That would suggest there were two-dozen forwards ahead of him on the Flames’ organizational depth chart.
Pelletier’s slight played out much more publicly. It was big news when the buzzsaw left-winger — a first-round draft pick in 2019 — was placed on waivers … and when he cleared without a claim.
“I think both of us, we probably had something to prove coming into this season,” Kerins acknowledged. “Me and him, we’re both hungry. We just try to take that into every game and it’s paying off.”
It certainly is.
The 22-year-old Kerins has been the most dangerous marksman on the stepping-stone circuit in the early stages of this new season, popping for eight goals in the same number of games.
Pelletier, 22, leads the loop with 10 assists. He has earned an apple on all but one of Kerins’ snipes so far.
With 10 points piece, they are tied for the team scoring lead and are among just four AHLers in double digits already.
They’ve both been huge factors in the Wranglers’ sprint to a 7-1 start, with seven straight Ws since they dropped their season-opener. The Flames’ farm-clubbers will be looking to extend that streak Tuesday as they welcome the San Diego Gulls to the Saddledome.
“It’s kind of our first time playing with each other, too, so I think we just have a natural chemistry,” Kerins said of his connection with Pelletier. “Everyone knows Jakob. He’s very energetic. He’s very talkative, unlike me. On the bench, he’s always telling us what to do and I’m listening and giving some head nods. I agree with everything he says.
“But I think we’ve had good talk on the bench. We’re just on the same page.”
It was important for Pelletier, who has logged 37 career appearances in the Flaming C logo and wasn’t expecting to be back in the minors, to turn the page after an underwhelming pre-season performance and the sort of confidence hit that comes with sliding through waivers without another NHL club claiming you off the freebie heap.
“It was tough for a day,” Pelletier said. “But after that, you just play hockey, right? You try to prove all 32 teams wrong again. That’s kind of fuelled me since the start of the season. You know, I’m kind of back to the same Jakob that I was a year and a half ago, so it’s nice to see.
“Since I’m young, people kind of doubt me. It’s the same thing again. People doubt about my level of play, if I can play in the NHL or not. It was the same thing when I was in midget, going to junior. People always said, ‘Oh, he’s too small. Oh, he’s not strong enough. Oh, he’s not this or he’s not that.’ But at the end of the day, I kind of block that noise. I mean, I hear it and it’s fuelling me. I think it’s working since I’m young.”
What seems to be working for Kerins is a switch back to centre, the position he has preferred since he was young. He has had Pelletier on his left and either Dryden Hunt or Martin Frk on the opposite flank.
“I feel like I thrive in the middle,” he said.
Selected by the Flames in the sixth round of the 2020 NHL draft, Kerins has primarily worked the wing in two previous campaigns as a pro, in part because of concerns about his pace that he has been working hard to address. When Cole Schwindt was lost on the waiver wire and Justin Kirkland scored a promotion before the AHL schedule had even commenced, the young lefty was given first crack at filling this key role. (A self-described “late bloomer,” Kerins already had impressed by adding five pounds of muscle over the off-season and posting his best fitness-testing results to date.)
“We had a call-up, and maybe you lose a No. 1 centre. And I thought Rory was the guy to find that area,” Wranglers head coach Trent Cull explained after Sunday’s 2-1 home victory over the Colorado Eagles. “One thing about Rory is he has great hockey sense and he can play with good hockey players. And he has shown that the whole time. He’s done a great job.”
When you lead the league in goals, that’s usually a great sign.
“I’m just getting some opportunities,” said Kerins, who was productive as a pivot in junior, piling up 43 goals and 118 points in his last winter with the OHL’s Soo Greyhounds. “That’s something I know I can do. I know I can score goals. I’ve proven that in this league. I just have to keep it going for a full season. I think that’s the thing I’m most focused on — just keeping this going for a full season.”