MONDAY FEATURE: Conacher's Courageous Comeback

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Cory Conacher has just about seen it all as a professional hockey player, winning a Calder Cup with the Norfolk Admirals in 2012 while also going on deep runs with the Utica Comets (2015) and Syracuse Crunch (2017) at the American Hockey League (AHL) level. Sandwiched in between that was a championship overseas in Switzerland with SC Bern (2016).

After four years splitting time between the AHL and NHL with the Tampa Bay Lightning organization (2016-20), Conacher found himself back in Switzerland during the pandemic shortened 2020-21 AHL season and 2021-22 campaign.

"Over there, it's a fun time," Conacher told InsideAHLHockey.com. "It's definitely for guys to try out if they're, you know, kind of in a position like me where you just want a change of scenery. It's a great spot to go, Switzerland especially. We had a good few years there, got to travel a lot, won a championship there and played some hockey and had a lot of fun. My son had a lot of fun traveling as well. So it's kind of cool to put on his resume as as a young kid."

While Conacher enjoyed his time overseas, and recommends it as an option for players that were in a similar position as he was in his late 20s - playing that in-between role in the AHL and NHL - there were two major deciding factors on why Conacher wanted to return to the AHL for the 2022-23 season.

For one, his son is now four years old and the Conacher family wants him to begin his schooling in North America.

Which kind of goes hand-in-hand and leads to number two, which is Conacher's desire to be closer to home.

The AHL doesn't have a 'Comeback Player of the Year' award at the end of season's annual awards, but they should and Conacher would be a run away candidate to win the award this season.

For Conacher, the 2022-23 season brought something he probably couldn't have imagined he would have to endure in his 12-year pro career, but as is par for the course for Conacher's pro hockey story - he persevered and overcame tremendous adversity.

The 33-year-old Burlington, Ontario native was able to secure a professional tryout (PTO) close to home with the Belleville Senators in the beginning of the 2022-23 season, as injuries and callups in the Senators organization allowed an opportunity for Conacher to get in some AHL games and put himself on the map for further potential tryout or even an AHL contract later down the road.

After two games with the BSens in the beginning of November, Conacher needed medical treatment for something he described to InsideAHLHockey.com as "a bit of a situation with with my kidneys" which not only left him out of a job as he was released from the PTO, but unable to do much of anything.

"I was pretty much [on] bed rest for three months," Conacher told InsideAHLHockey.com in April. "Yeah, I couldn't do much. I couldn't work out."

After being away from things for so long, once Conacher was cleared medically after what he termed was "a couple of procedures" he said kept in touch with a former teammate and assistant coach with the Charlotte Checkers, Bobby Sanguinetti, as well as Leo Luongo, the team's goalie coach. And when the opportunity arose for another PTO contract - this time with Charlotte Checkers - Conacher joined the Checkers for their postseason push in March.

"They just kind of keep me in the loop. And as soon as I got healthy, they fortunately got something done for me," Conacher said appreciatively.

Conacher joined the Checkers on a PTO contract in March, suiting up for the team's three-game homestand against the Bridgeport Islanders which began on March 8. Conacher recorded an assist in his Checkers' debut, and scored his first goal with his new team in the third game of the three-game set against the Islanders.

"I think this is my 11th game and I'm finally starting to feel feel feel more normal so just a matter of yeah, just getting that the legs back in and get my energy back and stuff like that. And finally I think it's there," Conacher told InsideAHLHockey.com after an April 5 win in Wilkes-Barre, a game in which he was held off the scoresheet.

It should come as no surprise, based off Conacher's April 5 comments, that he was starting to feel like himself again.

He went on to finish the regular season with five points (two goals, three assists) in five games before adding two goals and an assist in the Checkers' seven-game 2023 Calder Cup Playoffs run which ended in the Atlantic Division Semifinal round against the Hershey Bears.

"What Cory brings, and if you look at his story, it's a pretty awesome story of where he came from and how he won the Calder cup with Norfolk and got to the NHL being a smaller guy from a smaller college and, you know, couldn't be happier to have a guy like that on our team," Checkers' head coach Geordie Kinnear said of Conacher.

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