Bakersfield Condors head into new AHL season with high hopes
By Paul Taylor
The Bakersfield Condors begin their AHL season on Friday and with a strong roster, they look capable of challenging for the Pacific Division title.
Summarizing last season for the Bakersfield Condors, is all about perspective. On the one hand, they only finished fifth in the Pacific Division and 10th overall in the Western Conference standings.
On the other hand however, the Condors had a winning record at 37-31-4 and qualified for the playoffs. It represented the third consecutive season of doing so, albeit they were knocked out in the preliminary round.
Regardless of your perspective, the Condors enter the 2023-24 AHL season with a lot of promise. This is down to the roster which is at the disposal of coach Colin Chaulk.
For a start, Chaulk has nine players on the team with NHL experience. Leading the way are forwards Drake Caggiula and Gregg McKegg, with more than 500 NHL games between them.
The team will also have Raphael Lavoie, Lane Pederson and Ben Gleason. As fans know, the trio were recently somewhat controversially put on waivers, to help deal with the Oilers injury issues.
Lavoie particularly stands out as a player of great potential for the future at the very highest level. Last season he scored a team-leading 25 goals for the Condors, on his way to 45 total points and a +10 plus/minus rating in 61 games.
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Seth Griffith — another player with decent NHL experience — will return to Bakersfield in 2023-24. Last season he led the Condors with 43 assists and 60 total points, in 72 games.
Another player back with the Condors is Xavier Bourgault, who totaled 34 points (13 goals and 21 assists) in 62 games last season. Bourgualt made an impressive showing for the Oilers during preseason, highlighted by scoring two goals in a 4-1 win over the Seattle Kraken.
The goaltender position will be more than ably manned by the duo of Calvin Pickard and Olivier Rodrigue. Impressively, it’s worth noting they finished tied-ninth among all AHL goalies for save percentage.
As per Mike Griffith of Bakersfield.com, Chaulk is happy with the roster he has to work with. He said:
"“The players that are returning are more experienced and we added some depth. I think (Cam) Dineen was an add last year. With losing a player, (Michael) Kesselring, we still got somebody back and he was someone that helped our power play a great deal. Obviously Gleason is someone who is an experienced player in the league as well. He made an impression in his first time with the organization.”"
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The Condors experienced success as recently as 2021, when they won the Pacific Division Finals. They have every chance of challenging for honors again this season, both for the Pacific Division title and beyond.