The Manitoba Moose announced their end of season award winners Thursday Night.
Jansen Harkins was named Team MVP after scoring seven goals and adding 24 assists for 31 points in just 30 games before being recalled by the parent Winnipeg Jets just before Christmas. Harkins went on to play 29 NHL games, scoring two goals and making five assists for seven points.
Seth Griffith was the Moose’s top scorer with 21-20-41 in 58 games.
Cameron Schilling was named top defenceman while goalie Mikhail Berdin won rookie of the year honours by going 20-21-1 with a 2.89 goals-against average, .910 save percentage, and two shutouts in 42 games played.
To commemorate their 20th anniversary season in Winnipeg, the Jets AHL affiliate also revealed the selections of their all-time team representing those past two decades.
Following an online vote by fans, a selection panel chose Jason Jaffray, Mike Keane and Jimmy Roy as the all-time forwards during the Winnipeg-based portion of Moose franchise history. Former captains Nolan Baumgartner and Brian Chapman were selected as the top two defencemen and Cory Schneider got the nod as the all-time goaltender.
Jaffray, who announced his retirement from professional hockey earlier this year, played a total of 269 games in parts of six seasons for Manitoba and scored 96 goals to go with 139 assists for 235 points. He added another 25-28-53 in 66 career AHL playoff games for the Moose, highlighted by a hat trick performance in Game Two of the 2009 Calder Cup Final against the Hershey Bears, which Manitoba eventually lost in six games.
Keane played the final five seasons of his highly successful 22-year professional career in his hometown and suited up for 365 games. His modest offensive stats of 36 goals and 78 assists for 114 points did not even come close to measuring the impact he had on the team as a leader. The three-time Stanley Cup champion (with Montreal, Colorado, and Dallas) served as team captain for all five of his Manitoba seasons — the longest stretch in franchise history.
Roy spent all nine seasons of the North American portion of his professional career wearing jersey No.21 for the Moose. Like Keane, the Sioux Lookout, Ont., native was recognized more for what he brought to the rink on a nightly basis. But Roy is the franchise all-time leader with 603 games played, 101 goals scored and 1434 PIM’s. His 212 career points rank third behind only Brett Hauer and Jaffray.
Baumgartner and Chapman also served as team captains for multiple seasons. The acquisition of Chapman from Long Beach for Russ Romaniuk was often referred to as one of the best in franchise history. The former Hartford draft pick played the better part of six seasons on the Manitoba blueline, serving as captain for four of them. Chapman’s 447 games played for Manitoba rank second all-time in franchise history while his 23-135-158 totals are third-highest behind Hauer and Baumgartner.
The former first-round pick of the Washington Capitals joined the Moose for the first time in the 2002-03 season in the second year of Manitoba’s NHL affiliation agreement with Vancouver. “The Baumer” came and went a number of times while spending short stints with Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Dallas. In all, the Calgary native played a total of seven seasons for the Moose and finished with the third-most games played (385) and second-most assists (144) and points by a defenceman (185).
Schneider played three seasons in the AHL from 2007-2010 before moving up to the NHL on a full-time basis. The Canucks 2004 first-round pick played in 136 games and was 84-45-5 with a career 2.31 goals-against average and .921 save percentage to go along with 12 shutouts. His final season in 2009-2010 saw the Marblehead, Mass., native play in 60 games and win 35 of those starts — which are both Moose single-season franchise highs.