Tyrel Bauer spent four seasons with the Manitoba Moose before the Winnipeg Jets finally called him up. Two games into his NHL career, most of the league now knows exactly who he is.
The 24-year-old defenseman, a sixth-round pick from Cochrane, Alberta, made his debut against Boston on Friday and immediately found himself across from Mark Kastelic, one of the more experienced tough guys in the league. Bauer took a few shots, then returned considerably more, and left Kastelic bleeding by the time the officials stepped in. HockeyFights voters gave Bauer the decision by 77 percent to 12.
Sunday in Detroit was worse for the other guy. Bauer leveled J.T. Compher at 12:06 of the first period, and Keegan Kolesar, acquired by the Red Wings from Vegas in July specifically to handle this sort of thing, went straight at him. Two left hands later, Kolesar was on the ice and didn’t appear on Detroit’s bench afterward. Winnipeg scored on the resulting power play through Cole Perfetti.
Who is Tyrel Bauer?
Winnipeg took him 164th overall in 2020 and left him in the AHL for four years, where the 6-foot-4 right-shot defenseman racked up 401 penalty minutes in 214 games with the Moose. That reputation is now arriving in the NHL at speed.
The reaction has been something close to disbelief.
“Bauer’s a DAWG, holy s***,” one fan wrote, while another asked the question most people were asking: “Who is that Bauer dude?”
“Geez, this guy can fight. Another new enforcer on the block, I guess,” a third said.
Not everyone was entirely on board with how the second one started. “Dirty hit, but god that kid can fight,” one fan wrote of the Compher collision.
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The approval that probably means most came from someone who did the job as well as anyone. Georges Laraque, one of the most feared enforcers of his generation, weighed in with two words: “My man…”
Bauer himself has been notably level-headed about the whole thing.
“It goes a lot more than just the actual physical act of fighting,” he said after his debut.
The Jets have taken notice internally too, handing him their new player of the game award, which this season takes the form of a rope inspired by a team bonding trip.
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