Prospect stat report: The premiere

Welcome to a brand new bit of prospect watching content! We\'ve been diligent in checking in with the Flyers\' prospects and recapping what they\'ve been up to on a week over week basis, but if you\'ve been wondering how all of that is coming together into a fuller picture of their season on the whole, now is when we start digging into that. This is the beginning of our once a month pull back to look at the big picture. Let\'s get into it.

Prospects Playing in North American Professional Leagues

We\'ll kick things off with the group of players currently playing in the AHL and ECHL, because they make up the largest section of the prospect pool.

If we\'re looking for the biggest pleasant surprise of the season, undoubtedly that would be found in the impact Samu Tuomaala has had so far. He arrived for camp already looking like he\'d found another gear to his game, and he really hasn\'t slowed down since. There were some questions earlier on in the season as to whether he was just a product of having strong linemates to begin, but with the Phantoms\' lineup being shuffled pretty significantly due to call ups and injuries throughout the season, Tuomaala has remained and continued to produce at a good clip, so that\'s put some of those concerns to bed. We\'ll see what he\'s able to do down the stretch, but he\'s off to an excellent proper start to his North American professional career.

On the flip side, one of the least surprising developments from this season is Olle Lycksell\'s continued positive impact. Lycksell has been yo-yoed a bit between the AHL and NHL levels this season, so he hasn\'t been the same mainstay in the lineup for the Phantoms that he was last season, but when he has been down with them, he\'s been on of their most consistent and productive players on a game to game basis. He\'s built well on what was a very solid rookie campaign last season, and turned himself into one of the Phantoms\' most dependable pieces in what\'s been, on the whole, a bit of a difficult season.

And turning now to the back end, there have been two young defensemen fighting it out for a spot at the top of the depth chart in Ronnie Attard and Emil Andrae, and so far, Andrae has taken the edge in that battle by the numbers. That said, he has benefitted from having more power play minutes to work with, and has collected more points from quarterbacking the Phantoms\' top unit, whereas Attard has been more productive at 5-on-5, and that\'s context worth taking into consideration.

And finally, there is also a couple of players who have taken a step back this season: Elliot Desnoyers and Zayde Wisdom. Desnoyers\' case is a particularly interesting one, as we\'d be hard pressed to say that the defensive side of his game has fallen off, or the energy, it\'s just that the points aren\'t coming for him this year. And perhaps that\'s something we can live with -- points getting wasn\'t going to be the bread and butter of his game at the NHL level anyway, and so long as the rest of his game is coming together, that\'s the more important bit. But who knows, we\'re keeping an eye on all that.

With Wisdom, though, his overall impacts across the board have taken a hit, and with them, his trust from the coaching staff, and he\'s struggled to find a regular spot in the lineup. We talked before the start of the season about him needing to find his game again at the AHL level, and that\'s still something he\'s struggling to do.

Prospects Playing in the NCAA

For a player who at one time seemed like he might be something of a throw-in addition on the trade which shipped out Tony DeAngelo, Massimo Rizzo has been one of the biggest positive surprises in the Flyers\' system this season. He\'s missed some time with injury, and that\'s cost him his spot at the top of the NCHC scoring ranking, but his excellent play before taking that injury can\'t be denied.

It hasn\'t been a hugely flashy season for him, but Devin Kaplan has been quietly building on his solid rookie season from last year. In 11 fewer games, he\'s already nearly matched his points total (23) from last year, and with Boston University primed to make a long run in the post-season, it will be exciting to see what he\'s able to do down the stretch.

Speaking of solid rookie seasons, Alex Bump has really been putting things together nicely in his first year with Western Michigan. He\'s playing in one of the (if not the) most difficult conference in college hockey, and he\'s rapidly closing in on that point per game mark, and that is quite the accomplishment.

Prospects Playing in Canada

The breakout seasons by both Oliver Bonk and Denver Barkey have been two of the most exciting prospect storylines of the season, bar none. As we stand, Barkey is sitting at fifth overall in points scored across the whole of the OHL, and Bonk is fourth among defensemen -- a nice bit of work done indeed.

Alexis Gendron missed a bit of time with injury after being loaned back to Drummondville of the QMJHL, but when he\'s been healthy, he\'s been very productive, which is exactly what we needed to see. He wasn\'t playing poorly in the AHL, but his playing time wasn\'t all that regular, and he has a chance now to get his confidence back and just clean up back in Juniors, and that\'s going well so far.

And finally, we haven\'t seen a huge offensive output from Matteo Mann -- that isn\'t his game anyway -- but he has already more than doubled his points total from his draft year (five points), and is on pace to nearly triple that total. And that\'s pretty neat.

Prospects Playing Abroad

Matvei Michkov may have ultimately fallen just short of matching the record for points scored by a U20 player in a season in the KHL, which is a little disappointing, but one point short of matching that record still amounts to an excellent season for a player this young. The sky\'s the limit for Michkov, and while everything feels a bit in flux with the Flyers at the moment, what he\'s been able to do already should leave fans with a good bit of optimism for the future.

Alex Ciernik has had some bad luck with injuries this season, but when he has been healthy, he\'s found a nice bit of production in his first full season in the Allsvenskan. It still feels like there\'s another gear left for him to hit, but this is a very solid foundation, at least.

And finally, after a bit of a down year in his second season in the OHL, Brian Zanetti returned back home to Switzerland to play. He made a professional debut with their top league, but the offensive numbers haven\'t really come together for him.

The Goalie Grab Bag

We want to start this section off with a bit of caution, a bit of brakes pumping -- those numbers for Yegor Zavragin are very good, but it\'s worth still acknowledging that they\'re relatively small samples, and goaltending numbers can get a bit wonky in those Russian lower leagues. So we\'re restraining our excitement just a bit for now, until we see what he can ultimately do up a level in the KHL, but also... so far so good, right?

Carson Bjarnason has been a little up and down this season on a game over game basis, but overall, his numbers have averaged out pretty well.

And finally, Alexei Kolosov was getting quite overworked particularly early in the season, so we saw some drop-off in this play at the end of his longer streaks of play, and he\'d rebound after he\'d gotten a break. All in all, he proved quite dependable when they worked out how to manage his workload better.

All stats via Elite Prospects

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