As the Checkers' 2015-16 season comes to an end and the offseason begins, let's take a player-by-player look this week at how the team fared through the season.
To wrap things up, here are the goaltenders.
DANIEL ALTSHULLER | 28 GP, 10-10-5, 2.81 GAA, .905 SV%
It would have been hard to predict at the beginning of the season, but Daniel Altshuller finished the year with a share of the games played lead for Charlotte (Drew MacIntyre, who was traded to Chicago at the NHL trade deadline and
recently signed a deal with a German team, also appeared in 28 games for Charlotte). Coming off last year where he only saw 14 games as the third leg of a goaltending trio in Florida, Altshuller took the reins right off the bat for the Everblades, establishing himself as one of the top goalies in the ECHL before heading to Charlotte midseason. The rookie then locked in and was as integral a piece of the Checkers’ record-breaking hot streak as anyone on the team. Altshuller continued to wow as he gained complete control of the Charlotte crease, but eventually he, along with the team as a whole, fell back to Earth. Altshuller’s workload dropped toward the end of the season and he hit some of the struggles that come with rookie seasons, but all-in-all his performance stepping up in the middle of the season was a big part of the Checkers’ success.
JOHN MUSE | 18 GP, 9-6-1, 2.08 GAA, .918 SV%
When the Checkers hit a slump late in the season and lost one of their goalies in a trade, they brought in a familiar face to turn things around. After signing with Texas last offseason, John Muse returned to Charlotte at the AHL trade deadline and immediately made an impact. After serving mostly in a backup role last season, Muse hopped right in this year and took control, helping boost the Checkers out of their skid. The longtime Checker grabbed a hold of the starting job and kept it for much of the final stretch of the season, with his goals-against average hovering just above two over the course of his 18 games with the club.
Rasmus Tirronen | 11 GP, 6-2-1, 3.09 GAA, .888 SV%
At the start of the season it looked as though the tandem of MacIntyre and Rasmus Tirronen would be manning the net for Charlotte. Things obviously veered from that course, however, with Tirronen appearing in just 11 contests for the Checkers before heading to the Florida Everblades, where he would spend the majority of his rookie campaign. Tirronen’s numbers’ with Charlotte might have been a little rough, but the rookie was able to rack up wins during his time in the AHL, earning six victories in nine decisions with the Checkers.
