Tucson Roadrunners goalie Villalta, forward Guenther named AHL All-Stars

On Wednesday the American Hockey League announced Tucson goalie Matthew Villalta and forward Dylan Guenther were selected to the Pacific All-Star team.

The AHL All-Star format, which mimics that of the NHL, includes four teams (one for each of the league’s four division) with 10 skaters and two goaltenders each. Every team gets at least one All-Star.

Committees of AHL coaches picked the All-Stars.

“It’s a huge honor, obviously. I feel like any time you get acknowledged for your game and how things are going it’s a pretty cool moment,” Villalta said. “The start of the year it was a goal to make this game and it’s a goal we had with the coaches and just personally as well.

“But I think it reflects how well the team has been in front of me,” he said, referencing the Roadrunners and their 20-1-1-1 record, the sixth-best mark league-wide so far this season. “Obviously I can’t do what I do in there without all the boys and the coaching staff. (The) organization has been top notch and I think it’s just the result of having fun and just have the mindset ‘keep getting better everyday,’ and luckily and thankfully enough I’m going to that game so it’s definitely pretty cool.”

At San Jose’s TechCU Arena, the 2024 AHL All-Star Skills Competition will be on Sunday, Feb. 4 and then the AHL All-Star Challenge will be Monday, Feb. 5. The Challenge will be the four teams playing a 3-on-3 round-robin tournament and then a championship game.

Tucson head coach Steve Potvin said Villalta has been so good he now worries about the Roadrunners easing up a little bit like “oh we got Matty in the net tonight.”

Potvin clearly thinks the Villalta is deserving.

“If you looked at the stats with Matty and how much he had played,” Potvin said. At one point he had played seven more games than the next guy behind him, and his numbers were through the roof.

“Statistically he was unbelievable and what a leader he’s been for us. What we love about him, and I’ve said this before to everybody, he’s just such a great kid. Everybody wants to fight for him.”

As of press time, Villalta (15-9-1) leads the league in saves (741), games played in goal (25), minutes played (almost 1482), and is 16th in save percentage.

The goalie from Godfrey, Ontario, Canada, joined the Roadrunners over the summer after four seasons with the Southern California-based Ontario Reign expecting to back up — or at least goalie 1B alongside longtime Roadrunner Ivan Prosvetov. But after the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche claimed the Russian off waivers, Villalta was thrust into the clear No. 1 role, leading Tucson to the second best mark in the Pacific so far.

Prosvetov (4-3-0) has a 3.16 goals against average and save percentage of .895 with Colorado in the NHL this year.

Guenther, who spent a large portion of last season wit the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes, has 28 points in 29 games for Tucson this season. He was recalled to the NHL Saturday on an emergency basis, but has three points and two goals in two games for the Coyotes over the this past week.

The Pacific Division includes 10 of the AHL’s 32 teams; the Central and North each have seven and the Atlantic has eight, meaning that making the Pacific Division All-Star team is statistically more difficult. Last year the Pacific won the All-Star Challenge, going 3-0-1 in 3-on-3 tournament.

The only other Pacific team with multiple All-Stars is the first place Calgary Wranglers.

“It’s unreal,” Villalta said about getting multiple all-stars. “(Guenther’s) up with the Coyotes ripping it up but just from watching him I think anyone can tell, you walk in, any fan they see this guy on the ice that he’s got a really bright future ahead of him. He’s going to be a hell of a player, and he already is.

And he’s a great teammate, great friend. So for us to have two guys going to that is definitely pretty cool and I think it just reflects on how well we’re doing as a group down here in Tucson.”

There isn’t a deadline for being in the AHL to play in All-Star Classic so technically the Coyotes could send Guenther down to play in the game if a replacement isn’t named. Typically replacements come from the same team, although that’s not guaranteed.

Potvin himself just missed out on the chance to coach the Pacific. The division leaders as of Dec. 31 send their head coach to the ASG but Tucson was in second place.

Former Roadrunners captain Adam Cracknell will be one of two playing captains. Cracknell, who plays for the Henderson Silver Knights now, served as the Roadrunners’ captain last year.

Going going back back to Cali

Last week the AHL announced next year’s All-Star Classic would go back to California.

The Coachella Valley Firebirds will host the 2025 ASG at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, Calif. Acrisure Arena, the closest rival rink to Tucson, opened last season. The Roadrunners were the Firebirds’ first-ever opponent in the new arena, which also hosted the Arizona men’s basketball team’s showdown with Michigan State this past Thanksgiving Day in a clash of high-level college basketball programs.

Last year the All-Star Classic was in Laval, Quebec, in the Eastern Conference but the Coachella Valley announcement means the Pacific Division will host in back-to-back years.

Other than the Covid years, the All-Star Classic became an annual affair in 1995.

Future stars

Last season, forward Michael Carcone represented Tucson as an AHL All-Star in Laval. This season with the Coyotes full time, he’s second in goals for Arizona with 14 and eighth in points with 19.

The AHL says that, since 1995, more than 94% of AHL All-Stars have gone on to play in the National Hockey League.