Appleby taking long road to the NHL

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This article was published 28/09/2018 (2625 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s rare that a goalie plays in the ECHL, AHL and NHL during the course of one season, but you can count Ken Appleby a proud member of the club.

Like Jonathan Quick (2007-08), Michael Hutchinson (2013-14), Garrett Sparks (2015-16) and Brandon Halverson (2017-18) before him, the 23-year-old product of North Bay, Ont., took a road less travelled in 2017-18.

Appleby started the season with the ECHL’s Adirondack Thunder before being promoted to the AHL’s Binghamton Devils. Then, in late January, he made three appearances for the parent New Jersey Devils, including his first NHL start — a 3-0 loss to the Nashville Predators on Jan 25.

His NHL debut came five days earlier when, as an injury replacement for Keith Kinkaid, he stopped all 24 shots in a relief appearance that resulted in a 3-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. On Jan. 23, he stopped all four shots he faced after coming on in relief of Cory Schneider to start the third period of a 3-2 loss to the Boston Bruins.

Despite posting a 1.45 goals-against average and a .945 save percentage in 124 minutes of work, the Devils released him during the summer.

“I think there was a lot that went into it,” Appleby said.

“At the end of the day, we had a tough season down at Binghamton (he was 2.76 and .901 in 26 AHL games) and maybe they were looking to change things up, I’m not sure. I think part of it was they knew Schneider was going to be hurt (while rehabbing from hip surgery) for the first month of the season.

“You try to learn from it, move on and make the best of your next opportunity.”

Which brings us to Appleby’s next stop. After signing a one-year AHL deal with the Manitoba Moose this summer, he is in a position where he must prove himself all over again.

Manitoba’s developmental goaltending coach and scout Rick St. Croix, who spent five years in the minors before reaching the bigs, respects any goalie able to persevere and rise from the lower-level minor leagues.

“If you’ve done that, you deserve a lot of credit,” St. Croix said. “It can be pretty frustrating going through that process. It’s sort of the haves and the have-nots when you get down to the (ECHL).”

St. Croix, like other talent evaluators in the Jets organization, listened to the scouting reports, but also took time to review additional footage of Appleby in action.

“I saw enough potential to say, ‘Go ahead, if that’s the direction you’re going,’’ St. Croix said. “I saw the three NHL games. He was effective in all three. He didn’t look like he was out of place. He didn’t allow a bad goal, he held his own and contributed in a good way.

“I thought, well, there’s obviously more to the situation because I saw only three games… there would be other things you would probe into but in that short body of work, he had shown some good strengths.”

Appleby understands he’s under the microscope.

“It’s different this time around because I’ve been in the pros for a few years now,” Appleby said on the second day of the AHL club’s training camp. “But it’s similar in that it’s like a prove-it-to-me situation.”

In junior, Appleby served as a backup for two seasons before becoming the No. 1 man in Oshawa, where he backstopped the OHL’s Generals to a Memorial Cup championship in 2015. He remained unheralded as a pro prospect, however, and went undrafted before earning his first pro contract based on his performance at New Jersey’s development camp later that year.

St. Croix believes poor numbers, particularly while playing on an underachieving team, can be lousy indicators of future performance.

“You definitely get caught,” St. Croix said. “Somebody has to be watching you from a very technical view and recognizing who you’re playing with and what’s the true picture here. In the (ECHL), it can be worse because you’re in a lower level and you think you should really be doing well and you might have the worst team in that league.

“And that’s not fair. Sometimes, you have to ignore some information.”

The Moose said goodbye to Hutchinson in the off-season and are happy to have Appleby, who is expected to battle for the backup job behind four-year pro Eric Comrie.

Curiously, the Moose will not play any pre-season games prior to their season-opener in Iowa Oct. 5.

The team returns from the road to host its home opener Oct. 12 against the Belleville Senators.

“It’ll be a little difficult but I think they’ve been doing a very good job with Flats (Jets goaltending coach Wade Flaherty) and Rick (St. Croix) and keeping us prepared,” Appleby said.

“They’re putting us through a lot of different drills. Even in practices, we’re doing some pretty good game-like scenarios. I’m feeling pretty good about anything that comes.”

Training camp participants will get their best opportunity to make an impression during an intrasquad game today at Bell MTS Iceplex. Game time is 6 p.m.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14