As the calendar’s turned to November, Flyers prospects near and far have their seasons well and truly rolling. Roles are beginning to emerge, and momentum is beginning to get going, and we’re back to recap all of the week’s biggest happenings. Let’s get into it.
The News of the Week
Things were beginning to feel a little bit to quiet around here, but the Flyers gave us a little bit of movement to keep our need for news sated — yesterday, Sam Ersson was activated from IR, and Jacob Gaucher was sent down to make room for him, so the Phantoms will have him back at their disposal for their lone game on the schedule this weekend, along with Aleksei Kolosov, who was sent down this afternoon.
Three Stars
Denver Barkey
After a quieter start to this slate of action — being held off the board in the Phantoms’ two games up in Hartford — Barkey got things rolling again in a big way in Wednesday’s road trip finale in Bridgeport. The Phantoms came away from that one with a huge 6-2 win, and Barkey stepped up as a real game breaker for them in that one, putting up a goal of his own and three additional assists, and delivering what was arguably his most dynamic and well-rounded game of the season.
Barkey’s been given some real runway to get himself acclimated to the AHL game, playing pretty consistently at the top of the Phantoms’ lineup, but it’s still been a pretty steep adjustment. All the same, he’s beginning to hit his stride, and the hope now is that this last big outing can serve as a foundation for him to continue to build up from.
Jett Luchanko
As he’s gotten a chance to get rolling with his junior team in Guelph again, Jett Luchanko has taken off running and hasn’t proved able to be slowed down easily. In his first three games back with the Storm, Luchanko has been able to put up a goal and five assists, playing some heavy minutes for them across all situations and immediately stepping back into the role of a player who their offense really flows through. Along with that, he’s playing with a notable drive towards the net, something that was a little lacking in his time spent up with the Flyers.
This season will be a big one for him, as he closes out his junior career and works to improve some of the areas of his game that the development staff would have left him with notes on, and while there’s still a lot of season left to go, the initial returns here have certainly been promising.
Porter Martone
Another week, another edition of talking about how impressive Martone has been in his first season of college hockey. Michigan State has been rolling nicely through these early goings, and Martone has stepped up as a key contributor in their success, to date. Last week, the Spartans collected a pair of wins over Northern Michigan, and Martone chipped in a goal and an assist in each of those games (his fellow Flyers prospect in that lineup in Shane Vansaghi, though, was held off the board, to not leave him unmentioned).
With those four points added to his season total of three goals and nine points in his first six games, Martone has also pulled into the top spot on the Spartans’ points leaderboard. The game seems to be getting even easier for him as he continues to settle in, and the feeling here really remains that sky’s the limit for him.
Honorable Mentions
Getting back to the Phantoms, while this was a week where the heavier load of contribution was carried by their more veteran players, the Phantoms prospects still got well enough involved in the scoring. Alex Bump has really been seeing his game coming alive of late, and he was able to pick up his second goal of the season on Friday against Hartford, breaking a bit of a cold spell, and added another goal and two assists to round out his week’s production. Tucker Robertson is also continuing to roll nicely, as some of the depletion in the forward group opening up a door for him to get some more games, and he had a big showing last Friday, chipping in a goal and an assist (though he was held off the board in his next two games), while Carson Bjarnason put up two huge starts this week, coming up with 30 saves on 33 shots in the overtime win over Hartford, and a really stellar 35 saves on 37 shots against Bridgeport. Their big story of the week, though, if the introduction of Christian Kyrou into their mix this week, and the immediate impact he’s found — Kyrou’s mobility and stability of defensive game have been nice boosts, but he’s also getting really nicely in feeding the team’s offense, as he has a goal and four assists over his first three games.
And down a level more in Reading, Massimo Rizzo is taking his demotion –if we want to go so far as to call it that — in stride, and finding a really nice level of success with the Royals. Over his last three games played, he has a tidy three points (a goal and two assists), moving him up to nine points scored over seven games, good for the team lead in scoring, which is not too shabby at all.
Up in the CHL, the Flyers have a few more prospects who are continuing to make some noise, and keeping it from being just the Jett Luchanko Show up there. Nathan Quinn is continuing to have a very productive season up for Quebec, as he added four points (two goals and two assists) in the last three games, and he’s continuing to roll at a point per game pace, and holding on to his spot as the team’s top points getter. And then over in Windsor, Jack Nesbitt had himself another solid week — not as scorching of a series of showings as we’ve seen from him this season, but a nice goal and an assist put up over his last three games is certainly nothing to sniff at.
And finally, three was still a nice bit of production unfolding for Flyers prospects in the NCAA, even in the face of a bit of a mixed bag as far as results go. That is, both Owen McLaughlin and Jack Murtagh got themselves on the scoresheet over the weekend, picking up an assist apiece across BU’s pair of losses to Maine. It’s been a tough start to the season for the Terriers, as they’ve dropped to 3-5-1 to start things off, but at least these two prospects are finding some production. Elsewhere, Cole Knuble added an assist to his season total, finding a bit of production himself in Notre Dame’s two tough losses to Michigan over the weekend. For Knuble, too is been a slightly slower start to the season — he’s at six points in eight games — as he’s struggling a bit to get rolling on an even more notably struggling Notre Dame team, but here’s hoping he can find a springboard into some more sustained success before long.
This week also saw Harvard finally get their season going, and Heikki Ruohonen making his NCAA debut, in turn. He played two games on the weekend, and they were largely successful ones — he picked up an assist in each of those first two games, and has been holding up well under a pretty heavy workload, as he’s logged around 19 minutes in each of those games.
