It’s been a big year for Giorgio Estephan.

The climb up the ladder of pro hockey has been slow but certainly steady for the 24-year-old Kansas City Mavericks forward, and he’s made his biggest strides yet during the 2020-21 season.

A prolific scorer in juniors with both Lethbridge and Swift Current in the Western Hockey League, Estephan was taken by the Buffalo Sabres in the sixth round of the 2015 NHL Draft, but, after some turnover in the front office, the two sides ultimately couldn’t come to terms on a deal that would get him into their organization.

Aside from a six-game tryout deal with the American Hockey League’s Rochester Americans in 2015-16, he’d have to wait until 2018 to get his professional career started; Estephan signed an AHL deal with the Toronto Marlies but spent the majority of that first year with the ECHL’s Newfoundland Growlers. 

Estephan potted 20 goals in the regular season, and another nine in the playoffs, to lead Newfoundland to the Kelly Cup.

Last year was mostly more of the same, although he received a bigger opportunity in the AHL, getting into eight games with the Toronto Marlies. This season, however, even after having only originally signed an ECHL deal with the Mavericks, Estephan has enjoyed his greatest success yet.

He’s been playing at slightly better than a point-per-game pace with Kansas City this season — Estephan has an 8-25—33 line in 31 contests — and has gone a long way towards establishing himself at the next level as well, posting seven points in a career-high 19 games with the AHL’s Stockton Heat this year.

“It’s been really busy, and there’s been a lot of times where I’ve been living out of a suitcase,” Estephan told FloHockey.

“But, it’s been super exciting. I got to spend quite a bit of time in the American League, and kind of make my stamp and play a lot of the season there. That was fun. I had a pretty good start to the season here with Kansas City before I went up, and now coming back and getting in the flow of things and seeing the guys again, that was really fun too. I’m going to try to help with the playoff push here, and hopefully we can get in and keep this season going.”

It’s hard not to think back to his time in Stockton, however, where he finally got a real opportunity at the next level and seemed to excel at times. 

“I think it was huge,” he said. “Just to kind of get the games in, and have the ability to say that I played a full season there, it’s something that’s a good stepping stone for me. Saying I have had that full year and have had that experience is something that I’m grateful for and definitely needed for sure.”

When Estephan entered free agency after last season, part of what he was looking for was an ECHL team that had a strong affiliation with their AHL team. It’s a move that’s certainly paid dividends for both sides.

“I knew coming into this year, I’d need to (get some games in) since we had a lot of time off with COVID and everything. It was kind of just getting my foot back in the game and making sure that I was getting back up to speed, so that when I did go back up, hopefully I’d have the ability to be dynamic and play my game from the outset. So, that was kind of the idea of coming to Kansas City first and then hopefully progress from there.” 

Now, however, his focus has shifted back to the Mavericks, who are currently in last place in the ECHL’s Western Conference with a 26-27-8-2 record, but still cling to slim playoff hopes.

“There’s a lot of games left,” he said. “We’re not that far behind, and we’ve just got to make sure we’re winning games. We’re a little bit behind, but winning games and making sure that we’re collecting a decent amount of points in this last little bit and not giving up too much is something that we really have to be adamant about. We can’t take games for granted, and we definitely have to start now.”

Mike Ashmore has 17 years of experience covering professional and college sports. You can follow him on all social media channels at @mashmore98.