Flyers Farm Stars: Denver Barkey can’t slow down, Heikki Ruohonen breaks a slump

The pendulum swings: we’re back with another report on the goings on in the prospect pool, and after something of a slow week last time out, we’re loaded with news and big outputs to recap. That’s hockey, baby.

The news of the week

Things are picking up not just in the production department, but also in the world of news happenings. First up, to clear up some space to activate Sam Ersson from IR, the Flyers sent Helge Grans down to the Phantoms. He’s expected to return to action for them tonight against Rockford.

The other big news is that, with World Juniors coming up at the end of the month, the national teams have begun taking steps forward in their selection processes, beginning with making up their rosters for the upcoming selection camps. Each of Denver Barkey, Oliver Bonk, Jett Luchanko, and Carson Bjarnason made that initial roster for Hockey Canada, while Jack Berglund was named to Sweden’s camp roster.

Three stars

Denver Barkey

As we said, selection camp is right around the corner for Hockey Canada, and if there’s one player heading into it with a ton of momentum it’s Barkey. He had himself a huge week, putting up a goal and five assists in his last three games played with London — he’s really gotten going as of late, and there seems to be nothing defenders can do to slow him down.

He still has a handful of games ahead of him before he officially departs to camp, but he’s already making the most of his time with his regular squad, while putting together a very solid resume and leaving little question that he deserves the opportunity to represent his country on one of its biggest stages.

Olle Lycksell

It was a big week for the Phantoms, capped off with two huge wins over two of the best teams in the conference (Hershey and Laval) over the weekend, and it should come as no surprise that the success they’re finding has been largely driven by this productive prospect group. The biggest producer of the week this time around — also probably not much of a surprise — was Lycksell, as he came away with two goals and two assists on the week, including an overtime winning goal.

He’s had the hot hand as of late, and the even better news tied to this is that it hasn’t come at the expense of the finer points of his game. Everything’s clicking for him right now, and he’s reclaiming his place as one of the team’s most dependable players, in all areas.

Samu Tuomaala

And finally, there’s some mirroring in performance here between our second and third stars of the week, with Tuomaala also contributing two goals and two assists on the week, but he falls to the final spot on the tie-breaker — he lagged behind Lycksell in overall chances created, totaling six shots on goal to Lycksell’s nine.

Of course, it was still one more very productive week for Tuomaala in what’s been a very productive season on the whole. He’s still sitting at the top of the points leaderboard for the team, and beginning to create some real separation from the next couple of players trailing him — he’s five points up on second place Lycksell, and eight points up on third place Jacob Gaucher. In some ways, it feels like as Tuomaala goes, the team goes, and he’s on a real hot streak right now.

Honorable mentions

Barkey may have headlined the show, but he wasn\'t the only prospect to have a nicely productive week in the OHL. His Knights teammate Oliver Bonk put up a nice bot of offense, chipping in one goal of his own and three assists across his three games played. And then over in Guelph, Jett Luchanko is continuing to get it done, despite the team results lagging on the Storm a bit. Luchanko also played in three games over the last week, and he put up a goal and an assist over that time (more on that later).

It was also a bit of a week of streak-busting (in a good way) for the prospects. Out in Dubuque, Heikki Ruohonen picked up a goal in one of his two games on the week, breaking a three game points drought, and a seven game scoring drought. And then similarly, up in the QMJHL, Spencer Gill broke a six game scoreless streak with a goal on the weekend.

And finally, folks, there must have been something in the air, and you are not going to believe how many prospects had one goal and one assist weeks. Up in St. John, Matteo Mann -- known more for his stay at home defensive play — got involved in the scoring and put a goal an assist in his first of two games on the weekend. And then down in the NCAA, the trend appeared with more force — Alex Bump collected his goal and assist in Western Michigan\'s series split with Michigan, while Owen McLaughlin did the same across North Dakota\'s series (which ended in a loss and a tie) against Bemidji, and Ryan MacPhereson pickup his first goal and first pair of points of the season in his lone game on the weekend, a win for New Hampshite over RIT.

Talking Points