ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Moose GM Craig Heisinger hit a home run by signing rookie Mark Derlago last week. But in very next inning, Heisinger watched three strikes right down the middle.

The kid scored five points in his first four AHL games and fit very well on the team's top line. Thursday, Heisinger sent him back to his ECHL team in Bakersfield, Calif.

Genius or fool?

The Moose GM, in his usual straightforward manner Thursday at Blue Cross Arena, was in no mood for a debate about the matter.

He said it came down to doing the right thing. Period.

"As far as the Mark Derlago situation goes, sometimes it's not all about the Manitoba Moose," the GM said. "Mark Derlago is not our player. He's the Bakersfield Condors' player and they're in a fight for their lives. Their coach is in a fight for job security. They desperately need their player back.

"In this situation, we, as the Manitoba Moose organization, have to do business with ECHL teams and have done it ethically with those teams and we need to continue to do that down the road.

"In the big picture, sending Mark Derlago back to the Bakersfield Condors for this weekend is the right thing to do. Did we want to do it? Absolutely not. But when they take the time to call to say they need arguably their best guy back for their three most important games of the season, I can't tell them no. It wouldn't be right."

The Condors have five games left in the regular season and are tied for the last National Conference playoff spot in the ECHL. Their coach, Marty Raymond, has been a co-operative sort over the years and Manitoba forward Alex Bolduc is one of his original recruits.

"Marty Raymond has been a very good partner of ours for four years, even though there's no direct affiliation," Heisinger said. "And there's probably no team in the American league this year that's leaned on the ECHL more than the Manitoba Moose.

"Has Mark come in and done a yeoman's job for us? Certainly he has. We have other people who are at least as good as him, if not supposedly better, and hey, we'll just have to continue to grind our way through like we have been.

"But I'm not going to jeopardize somebody's job when he did all the work to recruit Mark and he's been their player for two-thirds of the year. In the big picture, for one weekend, we can survive without him."

The Moose are hardly in survival mode. They've won 10 straight, eight straight on the road and 13 of the last 15 on the road. They're solidly in second place in the AHL's North Division. They play here again tonight, where they beat the Rochester Americans 4-1 on Wednesday, thanks in part to another point from Derlago.

Tonight, Moose coach Scott Arniel said, he's contemplating three other rookies to take the spot of injured sniper Jason Jaffray on the team's top offensive line with Brad Moran and Jannik Hansen. It'll be one of Juraj Simek, P.C. Labrie or Michael Grabner. But Arniel won't decide until some time today.

In the meantime, Heisinger said Derlago isn't gone for good.

"Mark will probably find his way back here on Tuesday next week," Heisinger said. "This was just the right thing to do. I can't have the Bakersfield Condors not making the playoffs because we had their best player. His impact there remains to be seen but if he's not there, lots of it falls squarely on us."

How, you may ask, will the Moose ever get ahead in the hockey world with a conscience?

"That's fine to say," Heisinger grunted. "As long as the Manitoba Moose are under my watch, business is going to be done with a conscience. I have to deal with these people. I'm not leaving here next year and I'll have to continue to deal with these ECHL teams down the road. I have a conscience and I'll treat those teams how I expect to be treated. For me, this is the right decision.

"Our coaches might have a different opinion, but I'm the one who makes the decision and I can sleep at night."

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca