Reminders of dog days at Mile One Centre
As ECHL hands out 2020-21 honours, some former Growlers figure prominently
The Newfoundland Growlers haven’t played a game in 15 months, but as the ECHL continues to reveal its award-winners for the 202021 season, we keep getting reminded of those who have skated in canine-logoed jerseys at Mile One Centre.
That includes forward Aaron Luchuk of the Orlando Solar Bears, the ECHL’S leading scorer entering the final weekend of a late-finishing regular season.
Luchhuk, a 24-year-old forward who played for the Growlers in the abbreviated 2019-20 season, has been named winner of the league’s Sportsmanship Award, which was determined in a vote of ECHL coaches, broadcasters, media relations directors and media members. He was also named to the league’s first allstar team earlier in the week.
Luchuk, who has 74 points in 70 games with the Solar Bears, had 50 points in 45 games with Newfoundland in 2019-20 before departing in late February as the result of a trade between the Growlers’ NHL parent team, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators. He was flipped again just four days later from the Senators to the Montreal Canadiens, but didn’t see much playing time with either the Sens or Habs organization, appearing in only four more minor-league contests after leaving Newfoundland before both the ECHL and American Hockey Leagues were shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The defending champion Growlers had the ECHL’S best winning/point percentage at the time the season was cancelled.
Luchuk wasn’t the only exgrowler named an ECHL allstar this week. Sam Jardine, who was a key player in Newfoundland’s run to a Kelly Cup ECHL championship in 2019, also got a first-team nod on defence.
Jardine played only 10 regular-season games for the Growlers, having spent the majority of the 2018-19 campaign with the Toronto Marlies, the Maple Leafs’ AHL affiliate, but was a stalwart at the end of the season, with a plus-seven rating and then playing all 23-playoff games in Newfoundland’s championship run.
The 27-year-old Jardine played overseas last season, with the Cardiff Red Devils in Britain’s top pro league, before returning to North America and the ECHL, this time with the Greenville Swamp Rabbits.
And goaltender Parker Gahagen, who was with Newfoundland in 2019-20 and is now a member of the Utah Grizzlies this season, was named the ECHL goalie-ofthe-month for May.
The Grizzlies, Swamp Rabbits and Solar Bears are among the just 14 ECHL teams operating this season. Eleven others, including the Growlers, temporarily suspended operations in 2020-21 because of the pandemic. And the effects of COVID-19 also impacted those clubs that did compete. Half the operating teams have averaged less than 2,000 fans per games this season, with the league average at 2,250.
The league recently revealed a 2021-22 regularseason schedule for 27 teams — the 14 operating this season, the 11 with suspended operations and expansion teams in Trois Rivieres, Que., and Coralville, Iowa, both owned by Dean Macdonald, owner of the Growlers.
The recent news from the Newfoundland and Labrador government with regard to its re-opening plan might be seen as somewhat positive for the Growlers as it projected the possibility of increased capacity for indoor gatherings by mid-september. But even if the Growlers were permitted to have 50 per cent or more capacity at games at Mile One Centre — which is pretty much seen as an operational necessity in terms of a business model — the reopening plan does not address the biggest factor in if — or at least how — the Growlers would operate in 2021-22.
That would be the status of trans-border travel between the United States and Canada. The current federally imposed restrictions and quarantine requirements would make it impossible for most ECHL teams to visit St. John’s, since 25 of the 27 are located in the U.S., and similarly, for the Growlers to go to the States. There might also be the question of access to players for the Growlers since a significant percentage of minor-league pros are Americans.