Patrick Williamstheahl.com writer
It was a tough 2024-25 season in Bridgeport, but Brian Pinho It has always been a highlight.
The seventh-grade professional has created a high for his career with 21 goals and matched his personal best with a 37-point advantage and is honored to represent the Islanders in the 2025 AHL All-Star Classic.
Pinho has shown in the past that he can produce offensively at this level, reaching 20 goals with the Hershey Bears in 2019-20. The effort was made by a Hershey team that belonged to one of the upper echelons of the AHL, and the pandemic of potential Calder Cup contenders has not shortened the campaign.
He made his debut with Washington in the 2020 Stanley Cup playoff bubble and spent most of the following seasons on the capital’s taxi team. Between the disruption and shoulder surgery of the pandemic in 2021-22 years, Pinho is limited to 37 games, with the Bears in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons.
Shortly thereafter, Pinho and the nine-year association in the capital of Washington also ended. Washington chose him in the sixth round of the 2013 NHL Draft. Prior to joining Hershey in 2018, he played junior hockey for one year in four seasons with the USHL and Providence College. When the free agent opened in July 2022, he signed a new deal with the New Jersey Devils.
Pinho spent 2022-23 seasons at Utica, and after missing so much of his last two seasons, he has had regular rhythms with Comets, who signed with the Islanders in 2023. Bridgeport finished the final match in the Atlantic Division, but in some ways the season still had success for Pinho, who also recorded nine seasons of success and 25 solid matches on Pinho and set all the effort in all matches and had both hard work and 72 matches, which was a job and was once a match.
The organization retained Pinho last summer, signing a 2024-25 AHL contract.
Pinho’s 21 goals exceeded his total goals in the previous two seasons. Cooperate with it Chris Terry and Liam Foudy In front of Bridgeport, he regained the scoring touch he showed earlier. Part of his Renaissance was a concerted effort to simplify his all-round game. Shooting more (he produced 10 shots in two games last weekend in Lehigh Valley). Play speed. Move your feet. He was also able to resolve his mistakes against the Powerpin unit, with three short goals this season.
“I found that when I was going to move my feet, I tend to create more opportunities for myself,” Pinho detailed.
Bridgeport head coach Rick Kovalski Pinho and Terry were used together for two clicks throughout most of the season. Terry is one of the top organizers of all time to skate in the AHL, ranking 13th in points (791). The trio of Pinho, Terry (16 goals) and Foudy (17) scored more than 37% of Bridgeport’s goals this season.
“I think he’s always made up and he’s comfortable, he makes everyone else feel comfortable. And he’s just an amazing leader, and the room is great. He’s a special player.”
Still, during tough times, growth opportunities – for Pinho, the rest of the leadership core, as well as the young players of the team. The highly respected Pinho is a popular, low-key personality, wearing a letter that replaces the captain, which is what he did at Providence College.
Making it a difficult team to play with each night. Take serious games as an example and set an example.
“As one of the leaders, we just want to keep plugging in,” Pinho said.
During the fifty years in the American Hockey League, Theahl.com writer Patrick Williams currently covers the NHL.com and Flosports leagues and is a regular contributor to Siriusxm NHL New Network Radio. He won the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding league coverage in 2016.
