November is winding down and the Flyers’ prospects worldwide have been busy in action. Let’s get into some of this week’s top performances.
The News of the Week
It’s been a relatively quiet week around here, all things considered, but there was just one pretty major bit of news that broke yesterday morning — Jett Luchanko has finally been traded to a true contender, and he’ll finish out his junior career in Brantford.
Three Stars
Jett Luchanko
Luchanko certainly — knowingly or not — closed out his time with Guelph with a bang, putting together his most productive weekend of the season to date. It was not a great stretch for the Storm on a collective level, as they lost all three of their games on the weekend and saw their active losing streak stretch to four games, but Luchanko was doing well to drive much of the offense that they were creating. The Storm lost their first game of the weekend to Owen Sound by a score of 10-7, and while Luchanko did not account for one of those seven goals, he did assist on five of them, which is a tough margin to be upset about, even if we do want to see him putting up more individual offense. From there, he closed out the weekend with one more assist in the Saturday game against Flint, before being held off the board in their final game against Windsor. It seemed a fitting final weekend with his old team, but now the question shifts to what he’ll be able to do as he takes this next step and has a more skilled lineup around him to compliment his game.
Porter Martone
It was also an uncharacteristically poor weekend for the Michigan State Spartans, as they were swept by Wisconsin in their two-game series, but Martone certainly did his part to keep his team in those games. He came out of that pair of games with three goals and an assist, including the goal on Saturday to tie that game at one goal apiece late in the third and force overtime (though they did still lose in overtime, credit to Martone for at least getting them there and giving them the chance to win it, but he can’t do it all himself). He’s continuing to step up as a hugely clutch player for the Spartans, and it’s been a real treat to watch.
And before we move on, we should also note that fellow Flyers prospect Shane Vansaghi assisted on one of Martone’s goals on Friday, snapping a six game points drought, which was nice to see.
Denver Barkey
Would you look at that, it was another productive week for one Denver Barkey. Barkey picked up two goals and an assist on the week, making up a nice portion of the team’s offense and seeing him continue to make headway in his rise up the leaderboards in production among AHL rookies. He’s finding a nice level of consistency in his scoring game, but he’s also continuing to provide a high level of play across the board, stepping up as a dependable and disruptive forechecking presence on the top line as well as on the penalty kill. His game is still a work in progress in developing to its full potential, but he’s certainly making a statement in these early goings that he is in fact a player who can outperform his size and establish himself as a good pro.
Honorable Mentions
Elsewhere down in that mix for the Phantoms, Christian Kyrou is continuing to produce at a very good clip, and he also put up another two goals and one assist on the week, and he still hasn’t seemed to markedly slow down since his arrival in the trade, now going on several weeks. Along with that, both of Karsen Dorwart (snapping a 10-game scoring drought) and Jacob Gaucher added on with a goal and an assist apiece, while Alex Bump and Alexis Gendron got into the mix with two assists each, and all of Ethan Samson, Ty Murchison, and Devin Kaplan got on the board with one each.
And back in the NCAA, there was a bit more notable action unfolding away from what Michigan State was doing. BU split their series with Northeastern over the weekend, and in that, Owen McLaughlin picked up an assist in each of those games, as he’s seen his game start to pick up again. On the flip side though, Jack Murtagh was again held off the board, as he’s struggling a bit to find his game in a more limited usage with the Terriers.
Elsewhere, Harvard extended their winning streak to four games over the weekend as they tacked on a win over Vermont in their lone contest of the schedule for the week, beating them by a 5-1 score. And in that win, Heikki Ruohonen chipped in one assist bringing him up to five points in his first seven games of his season.
Back up in the CHL, it was a quieter week for Jack Nesbitt, as he had just two games on the schedule — a mini-series against Saginaw, which the two teams split — and he put up just one assist across that pair of games.
And finally, things finally seem to be turning around for Jack Berglund. After a lengthy cold spell and a bit of bouncing between levels earlier in the season, Berglund seems to be picking up some steam again, back up with his SHL squad. He was held off the board last week in his first couple games back from a break for some international play, but this week saw his production veritably explode — he put up a goal and two assists in Thursday’s game, and then two goals in the Saturday game, his first points in 10 games. And here’s hoping this is him unlocking something, and that he can continue to build up from here.
