Nashville Predators’ AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals, are a powerhouse this season. The team is 9-2-0 and has been led by the league’s leading scorer, Vinnie Hinostroza.
This 30-year-old veteran of 374 career NHL games was signed this summer as organizational depth. He has greatly exceeded expectations to this point in the season as he has five goals and 17 points in 11 games. He is tied with Jansen Harkins of the San Diego Gulls, who just got called up to the Anaheim Ducks, for the AHL lead in points and the two have a three point lead on the next closest player.
Hinostroza has to be called up next.
Hinostroza has played for five different NHL teams in his career. If called up and put in the Predators’ lineup, it would make it his sixth. He last played in the NHL last season for the Pittsburgh Penguins, scoring one goal and three points in 14 games. This came alongside 16 goals and 35 points in 42 games in the AHL for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
The last time Hinostroza was a full-time NHLer was in 2021-22 when he put up 13 goals and 25 points in 62 games for the Buffalo Sabres. This was while playing bottom-6 minutes. In his entire professional career, the veteran has not come close to the kind of production he has this season and it needs to not only be recognized, but rewarded.
The Predators would like to see continued success in the AHL and Hinostroza is at the helm, but Nashville really needs the jolt in their lineup. There have been so many different combinations that haven’t worked and the team is four games under .500 and needing some wins.
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Last season the Predators called up Mark Jankowski, a player in a similar role in his career to Hinostroza, and it injected life into the bottom-6. With Jankowski out of the lineup because he has one assist in 12 games and other fourth liners like Michael McCarron and Cole Smith struggling, it is time for a change.
What more does Hinostroza have to do to get called up? He has dominated the AHL this season while the Predators have struggled and need to shuffle things up. He will be in a different role than in the AHL, but he is used to that. He is more than capable of finding the scoresheet.
With Dante Fabbro recently being placed on waivers and Tommy Novak currently sidelined, the time is now to recall Hinostroza and see what he can do to help.
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