The Flyers confirmed the below news on Wednesday, announcing that Kevin Goumas has signed an ATO with the Phantoms for the remainder of this season, and it’s just an AHL deal with the Phantoms for the 2014-15 season.
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It appears as though the Flyers have signed University of New Hampshire senior forward Kevin Goumas. We were tipped off to the news via a tip on Twitter, and although we’ve been unable to 100 percent confirm it, there’s a whole lot of smoke leading us to believe the news is true.
Why do we say that? Well, a USHL scout confirmed it (Goumas played in the USHL before college), a bunch of Goumas’ UNH teammates have tweeted about it, Goumas then favorited those tweets, and finally Goumas himself followed @PhantomsHockey on Twitter today. Lots of smoke. Probably fire. Probably a Flyer.
(Feel free to comment on this article and confirm the news yourself, Kev. You’d become an instant BSH favorite!)
Goumas, 22, seems to be a highly skilled playmaker. United States of Hockey had this brief scouting report on him last week:
After returning to UNH for his senior campaign, Goumas put together a 50-point season. He could have signed as a free agent last year but had a career year for the Wildcats instead. He is the highest scoring player left in the conference tournaments and will have to be excellent if UNH is to get past Providence. He probably has an NHL deal waiting for him when his season is over.
We’ll work on getting an even-more-detailed report on his game should the news become official.
Goumas’ season ended in the Hockey East final over the weekend, when he and the Wildcats were eliminated by the UMass Lowell River Hawks (coincidentally enough, UML’s led by Christian Folin, a soon-to-be free agent defenseman in whom the Flyers also have interest). In the semifinals against Providence, Goumas was dominant in helping UNH reach the conference title game, scoring two goals and leading the way.
He did the same for most of the season, pacing the UNH roster in points with 52 (19 goals, 33 assists) in 40 regular season games. That mark was good for sixth nationally in scoring and third in Hockey East behind only Johnny Gaudreau and Kevin Hayes of Boston College, both Hobey Baker Award finalists. Overall, Goumas finished his four-year collegiate career with 146 points in a 146 games. A point per game player; not too shabby.
The knock against Goumas is that he’s tiny. He’s listed at just 5’10, 160 … which is … well, uhhh …. small. Will he be able to compete at the NHL level at that size? He’ll almost certainly need some AHL seasoning first, and if the news is true and he’s joining the organization, we’d expect it to be with the Adirondack Phantoms.
The Flyers have had a lot of success with NCAA free agents in the past, Matt Read being the shining example. Let’s hope Goumas turns out to be another checkmark in the plus column for Paul Holmgren and his scouting staff.
