Damien Carfagna still sits well outside the spotlight, and he doesn’t have the frame you usually picture when you think about a pro defenseman. But the rest of his profile is hard to ignore.
He’s quick, reliable in coverage, able to move the puck, and he reads the game well. Last season, he jumped from college to the AHL with Bakersfield and handled it cleanly, almost quietly.
That’s part of why the case for more attention feels overdue.
The numbers back up the eye test. Carfagna posted a 57 percent even-strength goal share with the Condors last year, while the team’s overall share sat at 51 percent.
Bakersfield went 53-40 with Carfagna on the ice, compared with 128-133 when he wasn’t, a 49 percent mark. That kind of split matters.
He also stood out in the comparison group. On even-strength goal share, Carfagna showed better than anyone in the group except Philip Broberg, and there are two actual NHL players in that mix. The same pattern showed up when looking at even-strength points per game among rookies during that stretch.
Kesselring, for his part, isn’t really the same kind of player. He’s 6.05 and 220.
Carfagna’s value comes from a different place, with speed that plays on both sides of the puck. The expectation here is that he could turn heads this fall and winter, but last season’s numbers suggest the surprise may already be baked in.
If anything, the conversation should be shifting toward Carfagna and whether an NHL future is coming sooner rather than later.
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Oilers Nearly Missed The Goalie Upgrade They Desperately Needed
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Andersen also brings fresh credibility after a strong playoff run that helped his previous team win the Stanley Cup, which is exactly the kind of resume Edmonton needed to consider. What makes the move even more interesting is how close the Oilers may have come to missing out entirely, with the path to Andersen changing late in the process before he landed in Edmonton. [Read more 🡒]