A look back at the 2019-20 Bakersfield Condors

The 2019-20 Bakersfield Condors season officially ended yesterday when the American Hockey League announced they were shutting the season down.

And it’s time to take a look back at their season that was.

The Condors finished sixth in the seven-team pacific division and largely struggled all year seeing a drop off from their season prior. This largely due to the fact that the Condors lost a lot of their top performers from the 2018-19 season.

Ethan Bear, Caleb Jones and Kailer Yamamoto being the big three that had graduated to the Edmonton Oilers. The two rearguard were big parts of the Condors back end, and Yamamoto was a big piece offensively despite playing only 27 games.

This year’s version of the Condors were led by a big three of Josh Currie (24-17—41 in 56 GP), Tyler Benson (9-27—36 in 47 GP) and Evan Bouchard (7-29—36 in 54 GP). They were key to the Condors offence.

Bouchard, meanwhile, may have had the best season of any Condors player. He finished third in rookie scoring by a defenceman and 10th among all AHL rearguard in points. His 36 points put him 11th in the rookie scoring race.

Bakersfield also had some solid contributions from the likes of a few potential future NHL’ers. Joseph Gambardella (14-14—28 in 50 GP), Ryan McLeod (5-18—23 in 56 GP) and Cooper Marody (5-12—17 in 30 GP).

In net, Bakersfield ran with Stuart Skinner as their starter for the season. In 41 games played he posted a 16-17-6-1 record and a .892 save percentage. It was his first full AHL season as a starter, and his numbers showed that he did struggle. The team’s defensive game as a whole, however, didn’t show well with a -40 goal differential (162 GF-202 GA).

For a team that had lost some aforementioned key pieces, head coach Jay Woodcroft and his assistants, Jean-Francois Houle and Dave Manson, have continued to show his ability to develop young players. Bear and Jones have flourished into solid NHL defencemen in their rookie seasons while Yamamoto played better than anyone could’ve expected scoring 26 points in 27 games.

This year was clearly one of rebuilding for the Condors and we’ll see what they can do in the 2020-21 season. Below is a full breakdown of scoring for their season via HockeyDB.

On Twitter: @zjlaing