The Alaska Aces had a Hartford Whalers-esque finish to a somewhat similar chronicle this past Saturday. The franchise had spent two-plus decades operating in multiple leagues, under multiple datelines and under the same nickname before financial constraints, among other factors, precipitated its demise.
No longer a sustainable operation as the Last Frontier’s lone representative, the playoff no-go Aces officially folded following a 3-2 loss to the Idaho Steelheads.
This means the state will lack pro hockey for the first time since the Anchorage Aces took a one-year hiatus in the early ’90s. Apart from that blip, the Aces were a staple on the minor-league hockey landscape for a quarter-century.
The brand took form in four different leagues in 25 of the last 26 seasons, including the last 14 as the Alaska Aces in the ECHL. That incarnation alone accumulated 35 future or former NHLers, with the slight possibility of more to come. The West Coast League edition logged 20 players before or after their time in The Show.
Based solely on their AHL and NHL accomplishments from after their last appearance in Anchorage, the 10 best players to represent the Aces are as follows.
Wade Brookbank was more of a fighter than a player in the NHL, but managed a respectable 127 games played all the same. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
10. Wade Brookbank
The only player here who dressed for the WCHL’s Anchorage Aces (in 1997-98 and 1998-99), Brookbank was never much of a high-level player. His 10 points for Manitoba in 2004-05 constituted his most productive AHL season.
The following year was his busiest at the top, playing a combined 39 games between Vancouver and Boston. After logging 127 appearances with four NHL clubs, he spent his final five years exclusively in the AHL.
9. D.J. King
When his St. Louis Blues were Alaska’s parent club, King went to the ECHL base for a five-game conditioning assignment in 2005-06. He was coming off a rookie campaign with the AHL’s Worcester IceCats, and would spend another year-plus in Peoria before breaking in with the Blues.
His time in the top league did not last, yielding a mere 118 games played in all or part of four seasons.
8. Anthony Peluso
Originally a Blues prospect, Peluso played the bulk of his professional rookie season for the Aces in 2009-10.
Three subsequent years with the Peoria Rivermen gave way to a transfer to Winnipeg, where he made 142 uneventful appearances for the Jets. He remains in Manitoba, but regressed to the AHL’s Moose for all of 2016-17.
7. Chris Minard
Minard’s fourth professional season, second in Alaska and last at the Double-A level ended in triumph as he helped the Aces to the 2006 Kelly Cup. Two years later, he contributed substantially to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins’ run to the 2008 Calder Cup Final. He placed second on the team with 11 playoff goals and tied for fourth with 17 points that spring.
Sandwiching that run, he filled in on Pittsburgh’s roster for 15 games in 2007-08, then 20 in 2008-09, both years that the saw the team reach the Stanley Cup Final. Minard would add four more NHL ventures with the Oilers the next season.
Chris Minard helped the Pittsburgh Penguins as a practice player during their 2009 playoff run, and was rewarded with the chance to lift the Stanley Cup in the team’s moment of triumph. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
6. Joni Ortio
The 2009 Calgary Flames draftee scraped the blue paint for the Aces four times in 2013-14, his first exclusively North American campaign. The same year saw him dazzle for the AHL’s Abbotsford Heat, going 27-8-0, and make his first nine appearances with the parent club.
After another 28 NHL games over the next two years, Ortio returned to Scandinavia, finding a steadier starting job with Sweden’s Skelleftea AIK this season.
5. Ryan Reaves
As a first-year pro in 2007-08, the career-long Blues family member saw action in nine regular-season and two playoff bouts for Alaska. Reaves otherwise spent his development years with AHL Peoria before debuting in The Show in 2011.
Save one other ECHL stint with Orlando during the 2012 lockout, Reaves has been a staple on the Blues depth chart this decade. And the depth winger is just coming off a career-best seven goals and 13 points this past season.
4. Laurent Brossoit
There is not much on Brossoit’s Alaska or NHL transcripts. But you can tack a “yet” onto the latter fact, and most critically, the former began before any of the latter.
As a professional rookie in 2013-14, Brossoit played two full games for the Aces, posting a shutout in both. He logged another six scoreless minutes in a third outing, then switched organizations from Calgary to Edmonton.
To date, the 24-year-old Brossoit has made a mere 14 appearances in the Oilers cage. But this past season, he went 4-1-0 with a 1.99 goals-against average in eight outings and .928 save percentage. He has ample time to stretch that impression over a fuller sample size and elevate his standing on this list.
Laurent Brossoit has made a sound first impression in net for the Edmonton Oilers. (Photo by Derek Leung/Getty Images)
3. Nate Thompson
Thompson was one of three Anchorage products who were established NHLers to join the Aces amidst the 2012-13 lockout. He has since failed to match his career-high 10 goals and 25 points from 2010-11 with the Tampa Bay Lightning. And at 32 years of age, he is unlikely to find another peak.
Still, over the five seasons since that lockout, Thompson has put in 285 of his 550 total NHL appearances. And he chipped in respectable depth production for the Lightning and Ducks those first three years before injuries started setting him back.
2. Brandon Dubinsky
Like Thompson, Dubisnky went to his hometown club the last time the NHL brooked a work stoppage. Like Brossoit, he may still have better days ahead at the top level, assuming he can stay healthy.
Since his 2012 stint in Alaska, Dubinsky has lost a cumulative 64 man games to eight different injuries over four-plus years with the Blue Jackets. Nevertheless, he mustered a sound 50 points for third in the team in 2013-14.
He followed that up with 36 points in a mere 47 appearances in 2014-15. This despite missing the first two months while recovering from a preseason ailment, then missing another nine games in March.
1. Scott Gomez
Gomez was already a five-year NHL veteran and two-time Stanley Cup champion when he returned to his hometown to pass the 2004-05 lockout. His 61-game, 86-point stint two levels below his ceiling did not dumb down his assets when The Show rebooted.
Upon returning to New Jersey, Gomez led the Devils with 51 assists and tallied an NHL career-best 84 points in 2005-06. He subsequently turned in 60-, 70-, 58- and 59-point campaigns before his profile began to crumble circa 2010-11.
As it happened, he would resort to the Aces once more during the more recent NHL lockout in 2012, amassing 13 points in 11 appearances. By then, he was an irrecoverable shell of his old self, but that former version radiated for much of the interlude between his two Alaska stints.
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