TERRY VIES FOR TROPHY
Current AHL points leader
The Laval Rocket’s Chris Terry has a good shot at winning the John B. Sollenberger Trophy this weekend as the American Hockey League’s scoring leader.
With two games remaining in the regular season — Friday night at home against the Toronto Marlies and a rematch Saturday in Toronto — Terry has 32-38-70 totals and is tied in points with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms’ Phil Varone (23-47-70). Terry would be skating away with the scoring title if he hadn’t missed 14 games because of injuries. Varone has played 13 more games than Terry.
The last time a player on a Canadiens farm team won the John B. Sollenberger Trophy was 1988-89 when Stéphan Lebeau posted 70-64-134 totals with the Sherbrooke Canadiens. The trophy is named after a longtime contributor to the AHL as manager and president of the Hershey Bears and chairman of the league’s board of governors.
The last Canadiens player to win the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer was Guy Lafleur in 1977-78. No Canadien has even finished in the top 10 in NHL scoring since Mats Naslund was eighth in 1985-86.
It’s a bit mind-boggling to think Terry was never once called up from Laval this season by the Canadiens, who missed the playoffs for the second time in three years and ranked 29th in the NHL in offence.
“It was frustrating, obviously,” Terry said after the Rocket practised Thursday morning at Place Bell in Laval. “We play down here to get called up. Last year, I got a chance with 14 games (posting 2-2-4 totals while averaging 9:53 of ice time with the Canadiens) and thought I did well in the minutes I played. Aside from the points and scoring down here, I thought I was at the top of my game for 200 feet. To go a full year without getting called up … it was frustrating. I really wanted to get called up this year and, unfortunately, it didn’t happen.”
Terry, a 29-year-old left-winger, was selected by the Carolina Hurricanes in the fifth round of the 2007 NHL Draft and has 22-16-38 totals in 152 career NHL games. The knocks on the 5-foot-10, 191-pounder have been a lack of speed and poor defensive play. Terry is minus-30 on a terrible Rocket team that is last in the overall AHL standings with a 24-40-10 record.
While Terry gets plenty of ice time with the Rocket — including on the power play, where he has 14 of his goals and 31 points — that wasn’t the case with the Canadiens last season, when he had to adjust to a more defensive role on the third or fourth line. His biggest strength is scoring goals.
“He just has an ability to score goals from all angles,” Rocket coach Sylvain Lefebvre said about Terry. “He’s got a wicked shot, especially his wrist shot, and his one-timer is one of the best in the league as well. He’s always a threat on the power play and I can use him on positions on either side on the flanks, or on the point.”
As for Terry never getting called up by the Canadiens, Lefebvre said: “Maybe this year they wanted to see the young guys. Plus, earlier in the season there were some guys who got called up and never came back. Then they picked up Logan Shaw on waivers.
“Chris has always been a professional about all this,” the coach added. “He’s always showed up at the rink eager to practise and work hard and get better.”
Terry has a one-way contract this season, earning US$650,000, and can become an unrestricted free agent this summer. He’s not sure what the future holds, but definitely wants to remain in North America rather than heading to Europe, believing he can still play in the NHL.
“There’s not really much (contract) talk going on here with the season that Laval and Montreal have had,” he said. “I’m not going to close any door … keep every door open and we’ll see where it goes, I guess.”
Terry has never won a scoring championship at any level. He finished second in the AHL last year with 30-38-68 totals in 58 games, 15 points behind the Chicago Wolves’ Kenny Agostino, who played seven more games. Terry also finished second in the OHL scoring race during his final junior season, posting 39-55-94 totals with the Plymouth Whalers to finish 10 points behind the London Knight’s John Tavares (58-46-104), who is now a star with the New York Islanders and will be the biggest fish in the NHL free-agent pool this summer.
“It’s a little bit on my mind,” Terry said about the AHL scoring title. “It’s been talked about now for a little while. I’m not really trying to change anything in my game. Offence is one of my biggest strengths, so I’m not overly focused on it.”
For Rocket fans — and Canadiens fans — a John B. Sollenberger Trophy for Terry would at least give them something to cheer about this season.
To go a full year without getting called up … it was frustrating. I really wanted to get called up this year and, unfortunately, it didn’t happen.