The tough season for Jack Campbell continues as he was unavailable for the Bakersfield Condors’ most recent game due to taking a puck off the mask at the morning skate last Friday.
The Condors were forced to sign Scott Hay to an EBUG contract as a fill-in for the backup in their game that night against the Coachella Valley Firebirds in which goalie Oliver Rodrigue was able to secure the victory.
Interestingly enough, this was not Hay’s first appearance with the Condors as he last played for the team during the 2001-02 season back when they were part of the now-defunct West Coast Hockey League. His last professional hockey season was in 2005-06 when he played for the Port Huron Flags of the United Hockey League. While he was nearly two decades removed from his last game as a pro, Hay certainly would not have been out of place in the crease if things got dire for the Condors that night.
The extent of Campbell’s injury is unknown at this time, but it is bad enough that the Condors were forced to recall Ryan Fanti from the Fort Wayne Komets to join the team on a four-game road trip that kicked off Sunday against the Ontario Reign, where Bakersfield fell 4-3.
Fanti had recently recovered from a hip injury that kept him out of action for three months of the season. The Thunder Bay native has since played in 14 games with the Komets where he has gone 8-4-2 while posting a .910 SV%, a 2.86 GAA, and two shutouts. He will most likely only get into one game during this road trip and that will mark his first AHL start of this season.
Rodrigue should be able to carry the load during this road trip and beyond while Campbell recovers as he has a record of 16-8-4, a .918 SV%, and a 2.68 GAA.
As for Campbell, this is yet another setback in what has been a difficult season for him on an individual level. He started the season in the NHL, where he struggled mightily, where he went 1-4-0, registering a .873 SV% and a 4.50 GAA in just five starts. It got so bad that the Oilers had no choice but to place him on waivers in early November where he cleared and was promptly reassigned to the AHL.
Campbell has remained there ever since and while there have been flashes where he appears to have regained his confidence, it hasn’t been enough to earn a callup back to Edmonton. He was even on the receiving end of one of the flukiest shootout goals ever earlier this week so to say he cannot wait for the season to end would be an understatement.
He has played in 29 games for the Condors since his demotion, and he has a record of 16-12-0, three shutouts, a .920 SV%, and a 2.58 GAA. While those are good numbers, Oilers fans would have hoped he would be recording in the NHL and not the AHL.
Campbell is in the second year of a five-year, $25 million contract he signed back in the summer of 2022 that pays him $5 million per season until 2027.
Stats from HockeyDB.
Salary information from CapFriendly.
More must-reads: