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THE BEST IS YET TO COME FOR AMERKS’ JACK QUINN

Dec 3, 2021

By Suzie Cool

 

The other day Rochester Americans head coach Seth Appert brought up a good point: you don’t know what you don’t know. This rings extremely true when looking at the season that Amerks rookie forward Jack Quinn is stringing together.

 

If we were to rewind all the way back to March of 2020, and if, a big one at that, COVID-19 never happened, then Quinn would’ve never have made his professional debut with the Amerks just 10 months ago. At 19-years-old, Quinn would’ve returned to the Ontario Hockey League for the 2020-21 season. As fate would have it, though, the season was canceled, thereby giving him the unique opportunity to jumpstart his pro career.

 

Appert truly feels that this little taste of the American Hockey League, even if it was for only 15 games, was exactly what Quinn needed to figure out what it takes to play at this level.

 

“I think what we’re seeing is a product of the work he’s put in, more than just with us even before he got here, but I think his time with us last year gave him a real mission this offseason,” said Appert, whose team is off to an 11-6-0-0 start to the season and has the best power-play in the league.

 

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Looking at Quinn’s stats from his condensed 2020-21 campaign, the young forward appeared in 15 games with Amerks, notching nine points. After getting an assist in his first game with Rochester on Feb. 18, Quinn didn’t get another point for almost an entire month while finally scoring a goal seven games into his pro career and recording just two multi-point efforts on the season.

 

“If he was in the OHL scoring 60 goals last year, it’s hard to know what you don’t know,” said Appert, “So if you’re scoring 60 goals, then you think you’re doing the things you need to do to become a great player. When you’re with us last year, and you go through some adversity in the American League, it points a few things out.”

 

While Quinn didn’t exactly perform how he wanted to in his first professional season, albeit 15 games, to top it off, it ended quite abruptly as he underwent season-ending hernia surgery. This abrupt ending to Quinn’s first year in the pros was to ensure that he’d be ready to go and back to 100 percent for the start of the 2021-22 campaign.

With Quinn having ample time to rehab and work on the little things needed to up his game in this league, Appert had no worries that Quinn would come back better than before now knowing what he needed to focus on.

 

“The beauty of Jack is once you have a conversation with him and you talk through things, he just goes and does it. There’s no babysitting. I don’t need to hold his hand. It’s just go and attack these things this summer and he went and attacked them.”

 

Quinn even admits that he was nowhere near where he wanted to be last year, however, those 15 games helped him learn what it takes to be in this league.

 

“Last year, obviously, I struggled a little bit and was nowhere near where I wanted to be. In the 15 games I think I learned a lot about the league and was able to have a lot better of a mindset this year.”

 

Coming into this year, Quinn has stated time and time again that he has unfinished business he wanted to settle. Just a month-and-a-half into the 2021-22 campaign and now we know what he meant.

 

After leading all first-year players with 10 points (5+5) through the first month of the regular season, Quinn was named the AHL’s Rookie of the Month in October. Not to overlook that In Quinn’s first six games to begin the year, he had already surpassed his offensive output from his truncated 2020-21 campaign and became the first AHL player to reach the 10-point mark this season.

 

Quinn’s strategy? He’s just trying to get back to scoring like he did in juniors.

 

“What I’m trying to do is kind of get back to how I scored in juniors by getting to the dirty areas and all that stuff, all the little habits.”

 

November fared just as well for Quinn as October did, as he continued his torrid start to the season by scoring his team-leading 11th goal of the year while adding an assist in Rochester’s 4-2 win over the Syracuse Crunch on Nov. 27. On Nov. 12, he became the first AHL rookie since Frank Vatrano in 2015- 16 to score eight goals through his first 10 games of the season.     

 

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He currently leads the AHL in scoring with 24 points with 11 goals and 13 assists, including a team-best 11 points on the power-play. Additionally, Quinn has been held scoreless just three times through his first 17 games and has recorded eight multi-point performances this year in which the Amerks are 8-0-0-0 when Quinn records these multi-point efforts.

 

Although we can pull some impressive stats from Quinn’s season already, both him and Appert agree on one thing – there’s still more to come.

 

“I think there’s still better, and so does he, and that’s the exciting thing for me,” said Appert of Buffalo’s eighth overall pick in 2020. “He’s doing a lot of great things, he’s always looking for ways to get better, he’s always curious, and as good as he’s playing now, I do believe there’s still better inside of him.”

 

It’s a good thing Quinn now knows what he knows because this he’s been incredibly fun to watch and it seems the best is yet to come.

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