Sometimes a trip to the AHL can be a win

Let's chat about Mavrik Bourque and what a trip to Texas could provide.

Editor’s note: this was written almost in its entirety before Mavrik Bourque left the game blocking a shot in the third period.

Before the Dallas Stars 4-2 win against the Ottawa Senators one of my podcast co-hosts at DLLS, Craig Ludwig, brought up the potential of Mavrik Bourque playing in the AHL again this season.

Here was the premise: the Stars forward hasn’t really found his groove in the NHL yet, and if Artu Hyry comes up and plays well enough before Mason Marchment returns from injury, would it make more sense to send Bourque to the AHL if he falls to the 13th forward role.

Personally, as I told Ludwig on our pre-game show, I’d have no issue with Bourque playing in the AHL, I believe his development is best handled with him playing games, not watching them in NHL press boxes.

I then watched the Stars game against Ottawa, where Bourque played a pedestrian 13 minutes and 13 seconds. Bourque, like he’s looked for most of the season, was good but not overly notable or impressive.

In the same game Hyry, making his NHL debut, played 8:54, but also seemed more noticeable with less time. This is partially reflective of the fact we overly focus on shiny new things in the lineup, but it’s also accurately a side effect of Hyry going to the net and playing with confidence.

That confidence has only grown in recent weeks for Hyry, who in his first North American season has shown more scoring touch in the AHL than anyone really expected. Hyry didn’t score or claim a spot in Dallas on Thursday, far from it, but he played a game that wasn’t scared nor timid.

And that’s what I desperately miss seeing from Bourque, who was downright fun to watch in the AHL last season. Bourque wasn’t just the AHL MVP for Texas last season, he was the focal point of excitement and carried that “it factor,” that made me bullish on his future. I thought, certainly, that he would be an instant NHL impact player this season.

I was wrong, Bourque has had much larger learning curve than expected, which wasn’t helped by some injuries and ailments earlier in the season. Watching from afar, my couch in Michigan, it seems to be wearing on the 22-year-old.

This takes me back to the conversation from earlier, about Bourque going to the AHL potentially when Marchment returns, and I can’t help but wonder if right now a couple games with Texas would be the best thing for Bourque.

Bourque needs a win, and while being sent to the AHL wouldn’t feel like a victory, the chance to provide an instant impact and play 22 minutes for Texas could be the necessary victory that both settles him down and restores some confidence.

I tossed this idea to a scout I know, someone who doesn’t work for the Stars, who offered this feedback.

“I get what you’re saying, it’s not really something I would do, but there are times a kid needs that moment to be grounded or re-set, and maybe that would work with him,” they said.

So it’s not a “no,” it’s more of a “that’s not something we typically do in hockey,” type answer.

Which gets to one of my other gripes — NHL teams never use their AHL teams properly for conditioning or keeping players sharp.

While hockey can’t be a controlled environment, like baseball, in the NHL a player comes back from injury and they are almost always expected to get back up to speed in the NHL.

AHL conditioning stints are reserved for players coming off long-term injury or in the rare case where a rarely used depth player is open to it as a way for a team to avoid the waiver wire.

I often wonder why we don’t see this happen with goalies coming off injury. They don’t have to play the full game, but wouldn’t two periods in an AHL game be better to find out if a guy is really ready to play than needing him to find all his rythym in an NHL start?

I admittedly might be a stronger believer in this opinion because I’ve watched what’s happened in recent years with Ville Husso in Detroit.

Again, this was bit ramble and all over the place, I know. But just some food for thought and it’s what I spent way too much time thinking about watching Stars-Senators.