BSH prospect report: Regular season awaits

The news of the week

The Flyers made another round of cuts since we last spoke, sending the following prospects to Lehigh Valley: Samu Tuomaala, Emil Andrae, Adam Ginning, Helge Grans, Hunter McDonald, and Alexei Kolosov. Additionally, Olle Lycksell was sent through waivers, and he ultimately cleared and was also assigned to the Phantoms. This all means, too, that Jett Luchanko has survived another round of cuts, and it\'s looking like he\'s on his way to making the opening night roster.

What\'s up with the Phantoms

The Phantoms knocked out their slate of preseason games this week, and while we\'re not going to get ourselves overly worked up about the results -- given that they were without many of their regulars for at least some of those games -- we can\'t not mention that those three games were doozies. They kicked things off at home and were hit with a 6-1 loss to the Penguins. And though the responded well in their second game, putting up a pretty convincing 4-2 win over the Bears, it all collapsed again on them yesterday afternoon, and they came away from the rematch with the Penguins having been outscored 5-1. We\'ll see how things look next weekend though, after a week of practice with their full compliment of players and with a normal lineup in action.

We didn\'t see a ton of the prospects in action through these games, but a handful did get find a nice bit of productivity. Zayde Wisdom, looking to have a bigger season and get himself back on track, scored the Phantoms\' only goal on Wednesday and picked up a secondary assist against Hershey on Saturday. JR Avon was the one to kick off the scoring for the Phantoms in that Saturday game, with a power play tally, while Massimo Rizzo picked up his first point as a Phantom with an assist later in the game.

https://twitter.com/LVPhantoms/status/1842714049735237839

And on the flip side, the preventing scoring side, it was a bit of a mixed bag. Eetu Makiniemi made his debut on Wednesday and got pretty well shelled, giving up six goals on 38 shots faced. Alexei Kolosov fared much more favorably in his debut in the following game, managing to stop 22 of the 24 shots he faced (a dramatically less strenuous workload), and came away with the win in the end.

The prospect world tour

Jack Berglund, after the whirlwind week we spoke about last time around, is getting a chance to settle in a little bit more. He did begin the week back up again with Fjarstead\'s SHL team -- for one game, in which he was held without a point -- but he\'s now spent the last three games down with the J20 squad. And while they may not be as illustrious, it has allowed him to get some momentum going and find some success, as he\'s put up two assists over those last three games.

Over in the Allsvenskan, Alex Ciernik is starting to get rolling, but it\'s still been a little streaky for him. He picked up a goal in his first of three games played this week, but was then held without a point in the next two.

Ilya Pautov\'s week was a little up and down as well, but his points total average is still looking solid. By this we mean: he played two games this week and put up a tidy two points (a goal and an assist), but both of those came in his first showing of the week, and he wasn\'t able to break through onto the scoresheet at all in the second game. So it goes.

Up in the KHL, Yegor Zavragin continues his tear, and is finally getting the overall results going his way to match his strong underlying play. In his last two games, he put up a 36-save shutout, and then managed to stop 41 of the 43 shots that he was peppered with in the second game, and in both of them, his team in front of him was also able to lock it down and come away with wins for him. He\'s been great so far, but he can\'t do it all on his own, so it was nice to see him finally getting some more run support.

Things are continuing to slowly get rolling with the Canadian teams as well, and we saw another pair of prospects making their season debuts. In the QMJHL, Matteo Mann picked up a goal in St. John\'s season opener against Acadie-Bathurst, and it\'ll be interesting to see if the offense continues to develop for him as an older player in that league. Across the country in the WHL, too, Carson Bjarnason got going with a pair of games that kind of ran the gambit in terms of results. After giving up four goals in his season debut, he responded nicely in his second outing, stopping 33 of the 34 shots he faced and helped to carry the Wheat Kings to a win over the Oil Kings (so many kings).

And then down in the States, Heikki Ruohonen isn\'t quite piling up the points just yet, but he\'s rolling well enough and finding a nice bit of consistency. He played in two games last week, and picked up a goal and an assist across that pair.

We aren\'t yet in full swing over in the NCAA, but teams are starting to get rolling, albeit somewhat quietly. Devin Kaplan didn\'t manage to come away from Boston University\'s season debut against Holy Cross with any points, though he did get a major penalty for face masking (he did say he wanted to add some more grit and meanness to his game, so... mission accomplished?). All signs point to him getting a bigger role on the whole this season though, as he\'s wearing an A and has found himself seemingly promoted to the Terriers\' second line.

We\'ll close things out with a fun little multimedia bonus: the gang sat down and talked about some of the expectations we have for some of the big name prospects as their seasons get going.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glb1azl0qCs

Talking Points