Profile: Cory Conacher
Photo Credit: Douglas Jones-US PRESSWIRE
Syracuse Crunch left winger Cory Conacher has made quite a name for himself in the hockey world; he’s now in his second full season in the AHL and is coming off a spectacular season that resulted in a Calder Cup win and numerous awards for the young forward.
Conacher, 22, is a native of Burlington, ON, which is also where he started his junior hockey career with the Burlington Cougars of the OPJHL in 2006-07. That year, he was named to the OPJHL West Rookie All-Star Team and earned 62 points in 48 games. Burlington also honored the youngster with Rookie of the Year and Most Promising Player awards.
After a productive year, Conacher moved on to play for Canisius College, located in Buffalo, NY. Despite becoming draft-eligible in 2007, he remained undrafted through four years of college, where he majored in finance and earned – yet again – a number of hockey honors with the Golden Griffins.
Some of the highlights of his Golden Griffins years:
– Conacher missed the first 17 games of his freshman season due to injury, but returned for the final 20 games of the year. During that time, he recorded 17 points and led the team with an average of .85 points/game. He was twice named Atlantic Hockey Rookie of the Week and was the youngest player competing in Division I during the ’07-’08 season. His collegiate debut against Niagara saw him garner two assists, becoming just the third player since the 1999-00 season to post multiple points in his debut. He was named to the Atlantic Hockey All-Academic Team at the end of the season.
– His sophomore year saw him play in all 37 games that season, where he would score 12 goals and 23 assists. His three short-handed goals ranked him sixth nationally in that statistic, and is tied for the most in Canisius’ Division I history. Conacher had nine multi-point games, and was once again named to the Atlantic Hockey All-Academic Team.
– Conacher’s junior year was yet another outstanding season. With the Golden Griffins, he scored 20 goals and added 33 assists for 53 points in just 35 games. His points and assists set school records, and his 20 goals ranks fourth in the program’s history. On a national level, Conacher was ranked second with 1.51 points per game and was the only player in Division I to rank in the top 30 nationally in both goals and assists per game. He became the sixth player in Canisius’ Division I history – and the first junior – to record his 100th career point. He earned a number of honors that season, including twice being named Atlantic Hockey Player of the Week, earning first-team All-Atlantic Hockey honors and being named Atlantic Hockey Player of the Year.
– His final year at Canisius was another productive one, as he tallied 23 goals and 19 assists. Conacher led the team in goals and points, and his 23 goals are the most in the program’s history. He became just the second player in Canisius history to score two hat tricks in a single season. He earned second-team All-Atlantic Hockey honors, was twice named Atlantic Hockey Player of the Week, and was once again named to the Atlantic Hockey All-Academic Team. Finally, he was named to the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award All-America First Team.
He graduated from Canisius with 12 career, single-season and single-game records at the school, including 147 career points, 52 goals and three hat tricks.
Upon leaving the school, Conacher saw a few games of action for the Rochester Americans and Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL, as well as the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL, before ultimately signing with the AHL’s Norfolk Admirals on July 6, 2011.
The 2011-2012 season was his first full one in the AHL. With Norfolk, he once again stuck out on the ice, scoring 39 goals and 41 assists in 75 regular season games. He was also a plus-19 and had 114 penalty minutes and 213 shots that season, before the Admirals made it to the playoffs and eventually the Calder Cup.
In the postseason, Conacher had two goals and 13 assists in 18 games. This performance helped Norfolk capture the AHL championship, and the Burlington native became just the fourth rookie in league history to be awarded the league MVP honors. He also earned the Dudley “Red” Garrett Memorial Award, AHL All-Rookie and Second AHL All-Star honors.
Coming off of all that, Conacher is now in his second full AHL season and his “first” with the Syracuse Crunch after Tampa Bay’s affiliate switched from Norfolk. The season is young, but he already has four goals and five assists in just five games – and he’s nowhere near finished.