With everyone now off and running in their respective leagues, it’s been a busy week in the world of prospects near and far. Join us as we dive into some of the top performances by Flyers prospects around the globe.
The News of the Week
It’s been a bit of a busier week as far as transactions go, as Massimo Rizzo was sent down from the Phantoms to join the Royals down in Reading, and since we last spoke, Emil Andrae was recalled to the Flyers, got in for one good game, and has since been sent back down, it would seem.
Three Stars
Devin Kaplan
The Phantoms played a very good game on the whole on Saturday, getting a number of plus performances from the prospects on their roster, but there was no bigger standout in that mix than Kaplan. Coming out with some serious jump, Kaplan scored two goals for the Phantoms in the first period alone, and while he fell short of recording the hat trick by the end of the game — though certainly not for lack of trying, as he rang a shot off the post in the third period, coming about as close as can be to doing it — he maintained a notable level of checking pressure and physical engagement, settling in nicely on the team’s fourth line.
Kaplan wasn’t quite as noticeable in his second game of the weekend, but the Phantoms as a whole looked pretty well bogged down by fatigue, so we won’t count that as an indictment of him individually. All in all, though, he’s doing a nice job to make the most of the limited minutes he’s been given to work with.
Porter Martone
Martone made a nice bit of noise in his exhibition debut with Michigan State in the weekend before last, and he built up a nice bit of momentum that he was able to carry into his first pair of truly meaningful games this weekend. It worked out to be a split series with the University of New Hampshire, with each team coming away with a win apiece, and Martone stepped up as a really noticeable presence in that series — he came away with three assists on the weekend and five shots on goal registered, but seemed to be really buzzing, getting comfortable already at that level.
Elsewhere in that matchup — one of the two prospect bowls taking place this past week — Shane Vansaghi was held off the board, though he did put up three shots on goal, while Ryan MacPhereson didn’t crack the lineup for New Hampshire against the Spartans.
The Phantoms’ goaltending tandem
We’re playing a little fast and loose with the rules around here and making this final star more of a two-for-one special, but for the makers of the structure, the structure is a malleable thing.
Anyway, the Phantoms opened up their regular season with a pair of games at home over the weekend, and while they weren’t able to pull off a clean sweep, they still got quite solid performances from both of their young goaltenders. Aleksei Kolosov was given the nod for the start on Saturday’s game against the Senators, and he brought a largely more settled form than we saw from him in his preseason start, and he came away from that one with a good 27 saves on the 29 shots he faced, and the Phantoms’ first win of the season to top it off. Sunday, then, saw Carson Bjarnason make his regular season debut, and while his numbers turned out to be just a tick behind Kolosov’s (26 saves on 29 shots), he also had a bit more working against him — a tired collective skater group and a thinner defense group, and Andrae was held out of the lineup while they waited to announce his call-up. All the same, a few bad breakdowns put him in a difficult spot, but he seemed to be reading play well and keeping his positioning tidy, and overall not looking daunted by the size of the moment of his proper AHL debut.
Honorable Mentions
Sticking with the Phantoms for a little while longer, the list goes on quite a bit as far as who stepped up as a notable contributor for them on the weekend. Helge Grans was able to step up to put up their lone goal in Sunday’s game, but both Karsen Dorwart and Ty Murchison got themselves involved in the scoring on Saturday, both picking up their first goals of the season (and first goal in the league for Dorwart). There was a nice distribution of playmaking up and down the prospect group as well — Andrae put up two assists on Saturday, while each of Alexis Gendron, Denver Barkey, and Hunter McDonald each chipped in one.
And then back in the NCAA, it was a nice little weekend for the Terriers, as they hit their first full weekend of the season and came away with a win and a tie in their series with Colgate. It was a pretty productive weekend for the Flyers’ prospects on the team as well — Jack Murtagh played perhaps his most active game on Saturday, and came away with his first goal of the season as a reward for his hard work, while Owen McLaughlin got himself on the board in the Friday game, chipping in an assist in that win. Carter Amico, though, is still looking for his first point of the season, but he’s continuing to ramp up into a heavier usage, so that’s good news at least. Meanwhile, out west, though Noah Powell was held off the board in his season opening series against Penn State, he picked up his first goal of the season against Notre Dame on Friday, making a statement in a limited usage, while on the other side of that matchup, Notre Dame seemed a little starved for offense so they stacked Cole Knuble’s minutes — 23:05 in total — and he contributed an assist in that time.
Finally, it was another reasonably productive week in the Canadian juniors world. Jack Nesbitt had a busy week, with three games on deck, wherein he had one assist in Windor’s matchup against Guelph, was held off the board in their game against the Soo (though put three shots on goal), and then rebounded nicely with a goal in his next time out, with a goal in their overtime loss to Oshawa. Nathan Quinn is continuing to plug along nicely for Quebec, and he added another goal and an assist in their first game of the week against Sherbrooke, but then he was held off the board entirely in their next two games, so we’ll see when he’s able to snap out of that cold spell.
