His invite is secured.
His flights are booked.
His parents and his girlfriend have even made plans to join him.
And yet, Rory Kerins is playing like a guy who isn’t all that interested in a trip to the 2025 AHL All-Star Classic.
In his first week and change as an NHLer, the Calgary Flames forward currently is producing at a point-per-game clip. If he keeps this up, you won’t be seeing him at the minor-league showcase, which is scheduled for Feb. 2-3 in Palm Springs.
“The goal is to stay here, right?” Kerins said with a wide smile. “So yeah, hopefully, I won’t be going. But if I do, it would still be awesome.”
Indeed, this probably counts as a win-win.
Anytime you’re skating in an all-star shindig, you’re doing something right.
Then again, nothing beats being in the big leagues.
An up-and-coming Andrew Mangiapane would have told you that in 2018, when he was supposed to attend the AHL All-Star Classic — alongside his best buddy Rasmus Andersson — but had those plans scuttled because he had been recalled by the parent club.
Kerins, 22, will tell you the same now.
“And I love that and I know that’s coming up,” Flames head coach Ryan Huska said. “That’s the best part about a young guy when they come up — there’s a different energy around them. They’re wide-eyed and their ears are wide open and they’re taking everything in and they are always going to play their very best. You know the energy you’re going to get from them.”
Sure, but you don’t expect four points through four games on the big stage.
You can ask around the Flames locker room and Kerins’ teammates will tell you that is a heck of an introduction.
“He’s come up and done a great job of playing really well for us and helping us out,” Flames captain Mikael Backlund praised. “I’m super excited for him. He has had a long way to get to the NHL and he’s worked really hard to be here today, and we’re really happy to have him on the team.”
Kerins, who was drafted by the Flames as a sixth-round long-shot in 2020, will log his home debut in Thursday’s battle with the Buffalo Sabres.
The third-liner will be looking to add to an impressive stat line that so far shows a pair of helpers during his NHL debut in Chicago, plus additional apples in St. Louis and Winnipeg.
Some will point out that three of those were secondary assists, but he was key to the scoring sequence in each case — twice winning a battle along the wall and another time hauling the puck through the neutral zone on the power play and making a heads-up pass at the blue line for a successful zone-entry.
Further evidence of his hot streak, Kerins apparently won six straight hands Tuesday at the Flames Ambassadors’ Celebrity Poker Tournament, which raised a record-setting $610,000 for charity.
“Just getting some bounces, I think,” Kerins insisted. “I’m just trying to make plays and a couple times, some of the other guys have made great plays and it’s ended up in the back of the net. I think in terms of my confidence with the puck, it’s been there at some times. But I’m excited because I think it’s going to get a little better.
“The more comfortable I get, I think it will shine through.”
Although it has been two-plus weeks since Kerins most recently suited up for the Wranglers, he remains tied for top spot on the AHL’s goal-scoring charts.
Maybe we should be taking bets on what comes next: His first NHL goal or a replacement named for the Pacific Division roster at the AHL All-Star Classic.
“I think he’s been a good player for us,” Huska said of Kerins. “The one thing that I’ve been impressed with in his game is he is very strong on the puck and he makes high-skilled plays that aren’t high-risk plays.
“For a coach, I like that sort of thing. Like, there’s no ‘hope’ plays that come from him, but some of the small plays that he makes are highly skilled.
“Over the next little while, he’s probably learning that the pace of the game is a little bit higher than the American League, and he’s going to have to continue to push that envelope a little bit for us. But I think he’s done an excellent job so far.”