The News of the Week
The big news we have this week, which you’ve probably seen by now, is that Wade Allison was traded to the Nashville Predators for Denis Gurianov (who made his Flyers debut last night), giving him a chance for a fresh start. And that’s one more name coming off of these reports.
And to recap our transactions for the week (buckle in): Olle Lycksell, Bobby Brink, Ronnie Attard, Adam Ginning, and Felix Sandstrom were all papered down to Lehigh Valley on Friday, meaning that they’ll be eligible to play for the Phantoms in the playoffs if they get there. Attard and Brink were both then regular recalled to the Flyers, and Ginning and Sandstrom were emergency recalled (and Ginning has since been sent back down). And for those keeping track at home, that means the Flyers still have two regular recalls at their disposal for the rest of the season.
What’s Up with the Phantoms?
Speaking of the Phantoms, despite having their lineup pretty depleted at the moment, they still managed to put together a pretty successful week. They started things off with a loss to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, but were able to pull off a win in the rematch a couple of days later, and then closed out the weekend with a win over Bridgeport. And don’t look now, but this has put them up into a tie for sixth place in the division with Springfield (though the Phantoms have played two fewer games and have the edge by points percentage) with about 20 games left in the season.
And with what feels like all of the prospects up with the Flyers at the moment, that makes for a pretty brief recap of the scoring stats once again. Samu Tuomaala had himself another big weekend, with a goal and two assists across his three games played. Emil Andrae and J.R. Avon also got themselves on the scoresheet this week, and Andrae came away with two assists, while Avon had one.
The Prospect World Tour
One player who still hasn’t benefitted from that AHL roster depletion is Mason Millman, who’s still hanging out down at the ECHL level with the Royals. He had himself another good week though, tacking on another goal and two assists onto his season total, brining him up to a very respectable 24 points in 35 games.
The big happening for the week was the beginning of the Big Ten tournament, as we kick off our march towards the Frozen Four. Minnesota came out on top early in this one, as they knocked out Penn State in the quarterfinal, so it was a good team result, even if it was a quiet individual showing for Bryce Brodzinski, who was once again held without a point on the weekend. On the flip side, Cole Knuble had a pretty solid weekend on an individual level, as he contributed two assists, but this came in a losing effort, as Notre Dame was knocked out by Michigan.
Elsewhere, Alex Bump had a pretty solid final week of his regular season – the NCHC tournament kicks off this weekend – as he registered an assist between his pair of games played. And over in the non-conference space, Ty Murchison picked up a goal for Arizona State on the weekend, his third of the season.
And would you look at that! It was another productive week for Oliver Bonk and Denver Barkey. It really is just like clockwork, isn’t it? Anyway, this week it was a tidy goal and two assists for three points in his last three games for Bonk, and then Barkey doubled that up for six points (a goal and five assists) over that same span of time.
Carter Sotheran also had himself a pretty solid weekend — he played two games, and while he was held without a point in the first, he came back and registered three assists in Portland’s win over Wenatchee.
And over in Brandon, it was a similar sort of vibe for Carson Bjarnason, as he began the week with just a pretty good game (he allowed three goals on 32 shots) but then followed it up with a much more commanding performance (in this case, a 23 save shutout in his second game of the week).
And we’ll circle back to our playoff talks, and it’s a bit of a mixed bag here. On the positive side, Alex Ciernik had another assist this week, closing out his regular season on a high note. His Vasterviks team also began their relegation series against Ostersund, and are currently up 1-0 in the series.
The final playoff update is a less exciting one for Flyers prospect watchers. Despite some very solid work in the first round series put in by Alexei Kolosov, which saw him steal two wins to keep his Dinamo Minsk team alive, ultimately they were eliminated from the KHL playoffs in six games. Kolosov finishes the regular season with a .907 save percentage, and the playoffs with a .925 save percentage.
