Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
Go back two weeks, and the Calder Cup Playoff hopes for the Manitoba Moose looked dire at best.
Already 15 points below the Central Division playoff line, the Moose had a pair of games at Calgary ahead of them. Then there was another two-gamer at Grand Rapids last weekend.
Those hopes looked even worse after Calgary put the Moose in a 3-1 first-period hole on Jan. 3. Instead the Moose dug in, rallied, sent the game to overtime and at least grabbed a point in an eventual loss. Two days later, they pulled out a 3-2 victory in the final 90 seconds of regulation.
They kept slicing their way through a daunting road schedule, winning in overtime at Milwaukee and going on to sweep their visit to the Griffins.
Then came Wednesday’s acquisition of defenseman Isaak Phillips, picked up by the parent Winnipeg Jets from the Chicago Blackhawks for fellow blueliner Dmitry Kuzmin. The move provides the Jets organization with a fifth-year pro who is still only 23 years old, who already has 56 games of NHL experience, and who is capable of competing for more opportunities.
More immediately, Phillips can come in and give the Moose a significant boost as they try to track down a playoff spot. With a 4-0-1-0 streak now, the Moose have trimmed fifth-place Rockford’s hold on a playoff spot to 12 points with three games in hand.
It’s the poise that jumps out most with Phillips, who made his Moose debut on Friday night. Phillips was drafted by the Blackhawks in 2020 and debuted during the most unusual 2020-21 pandemic season, coming into the AHL and quickly bringing a steady presence.
Phillips earned himself his first four NHL games by his second season, and spent 33 games on the Chicago blue line in 2023-24.
But the Hawks are in a full-fledged rebuild, and defense prospects have continued to pour into the system since Phillips’ arrival. Alex Vlasic is well-established in Chicago at this point. Nolan Allan came in as a 2021 first-round pick. A year later it was Kevin Korchinski as the seventh overall pick. Wyatt Kaiser left the University of Minnesota-Duluth after his junior season in 2023. Louis Crevier has broken through quite quickly. Ethan Del Mastro was an AHL All-Star last season. And last June the Hawks took Artyom Levshunov with the second overall pick in the NHL Draft.
Some of that talent is in Chicago already. The rest is continuing to develop in Rockford. Allan, Kaiser, Korchinski and Vlasic are all left-handed shots, just like Phillips. It became increasingly obvious that finding a long-term spot in Chicago would be difficult.
With Phillips, the Jets get experience on the back end. With the Jets, Phillips gets a new opportunity. At 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds, the Barrie, Ont., native offers plenty of bite in his game and a willingness to use that size. He can skate and dish the puck. This season he had eight points (one goal, seven assists) in 28 games with Rockford, and has 79 points and a plus-22 rating over 200 contests in the AHL.
Maybe most of all, he’s coachable, something that teams crave from their prospects. He served as an alternate captain while in Rockford.
So as they begin a run of 10 out of 13 games at Canada Life Centre, the Moose are looking for a boost from their new defenseman. They rank last in the league in goals scored per game, and 28th in goals as they approach the midway point of their schedule, but there is still plenty to play for. And for a still-young defenseman whose contract expires at the end of this season, it’s a key opportunity to make an up-close impression with Winnipeg management.
“I’m super-excited,” Phillips told reporters this week. “It’s a fresh new opportunity for me. I’m hoping to come in, play my game, and just add some stability to the back end here.
“I still feel like my game has a lot to grow.”
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.