Wednesday, November 28, 2012

NCAA Players in the AHL

About a month ago, I did a piece detailing the Hockey East players in the American Hockey League this season. With the NHL Lockout, there has been more attention paid to the AHL. The top seven goal scorers in the AHL did not play college hockey. Here is a look at the top five goal scorers currently in the AHL, of those players that played college hockey. Out of the five, three left school early while two, Conacher and Flynn, played all four years. Schultz and Conacher are Canadian while Zucker, Flynn and Atkinson are American born.

7. Justin Schultz (Wisconsin) - In 18 games played for the Oklahoma City Barons, the Kelowna, BC native has 10 goals. The 22 year-old, who played junior hockey for the Westside Warriors in the BCHL, has benefited from playing alongside Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. The former Badger has three power play goals.

8. Jason Zucker (Denver) - In only 14 games played, the former Pioneer has 9 goals scored, including 5 on the power play. In his rookie season for the Houston Aeros, the Newport Beach, CA native is playing on a team that also boasts former college stars such as Charlie Coyle of BU, Justin Fontaine of Duluth and Chay Genoway of North Dakota.

11. Cory Conacher (Canisius) - The Former Atlantic Hockey star has nine goals in 17 games played. Conacher, who had 62 goals over four seasons for the Griffs, had 39 goals for the Norfolk Admirals in the AHL last season. The Burlington, Ontario native is the top scoring collegian on the Syracuse Crunch this year, in front of former Harvard Crimson Alexander Killorn and former UMD Bulldog J.T. Brown.

17. Brian Flynn (Maine) - The former Black Bear captain is playing in his first year in the AHL. The Lynnfield, MA native got off to a slow start, before lighting up the month of November. Of his eight goals on the season, seven of them came in November. Flynn also has produced all seven of his assists in the month of November, helping him to his current eight game point streak.

19. Cam Atkinson (Boston College) - Atkinson is one of 15 former Eagles to have played in the AHL this season. The Greenwich, CT native has eight goals in 17 games played. After scoring 61 goals in his final two seasons at the Heights, Atkinson has scored 40 AHL goals and seven NHL goals when he was called up to Columbus.

Brian Flynn and his Rochester American teammates in warmups.