The Gulls are the hottest team in the American Hockey League. They’ve won five straight games and in the span of a week and a half went from 9th (and last) place in the Pacific Division to 3rd place.
A big part of that is young players living up to their potential and Brayden Tracey is figuring things out fast. A 1st round pick by the Anaheim Ducks in 2019, Tracey struggled to find his footing last year but it looks like the light has gone off for the 20-year-old who’s one of the NHL’s top prospects.
Tracey was named the AHL player of the week after scoring seven points (three goals, four assists) in three games. He had a pair of goals on Wednesday night in a 5-1 thrashing of San Jose then assisted on both the Gulls goals in Saturday night’s 2-1 win in Bakersfield.
Now, we get the litmus test because keeping their winning streak alive is not going to be easy. Their next four games are against Stockton and Ontario, owners of the two best records in the AHL’s Western Conference, and the first three of those are on the road. If they even split those games then we have a legitimate Calder Cup contender on our hands again in America’s Finest Hockey City.
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