We might still be stewing over last night’s tough loss to the Maple Leafs for the Flyers, but there’s a bit of good news that came down the pike to hopefully help lift our spirits. The AHL announced the selections for this year’s All Star Classic, and Olle Lycksell was named as the selection from the Phantoms. It will be his first All Star showing.
Olle is an All Star! ⭐️
— Lehigh Valley Phantoms (@LVPhantoms) January 8, 2025
Catch the All-Star festivities February 2nd and 3rd on @FloHockey! pic.twitter.com/t6GQjXGLrf
And that showing is well deserved, there’s no doubt about it. Lycksell has stepped up and been a hugely productive and consistent player for the Phantoms. Through 25 games played, he has nine goals and 24 points, a pretty remarkable total when we remember how snakebitten he was to start the season, how it somehow took him 11 games before he finally put away his first goal of the season. He was also the league leader in shots on goal for the first couple months of the season, though he’s slipped in that ranking with the time he’s been out of the league (he’s still sixth though). Altogether, it’s been a very successful first half of the season for Lycksell.
Now, his participation in the All Star festivities do require that he’s on the Phantoms’ AHL roster ahead of the weekend, a compliancy that the Flyers have to reckon with in the next near-month. That is, Lycksell was called up to effectively serve as the extra forward for their road trip which began last month. But now, the road trip is over and the Flyers have played their first of four home games on deck, and Lycksell is still hanging around. He hasn’t gotten in for a game, and one imagines that if the coaching staff can’t find a way to get him into the lineup, they’ll have to send him back down, as much as he’s earned his next look at the NHL level.
But, all of this said, we’ll cross the bridge of Lycksell’s availability when we get to it. All the same, it’s a nice acknowledgement of his work well done in his time in the AHL, that much is for certain.
