BSH prospect report: Playoffs?

The news of the week

First up, a bit of housekeeping: Ronnie Attard was returned to the Phantoms from his NHL recall for this weekend’s games, so he’ll be there for the rest of the AHL season. And it’s a good thing too, as thePhantoms remain a bit thin on the back end, with Egor Zamula still out with injury. So it goes.

Also, we have a player who will not be long for this prospect report, as we’ve heard that the Flyers will be opting not to sign Jay O’Brien (going instead for the compensatory second round pick they’ll receive in doing so).

And some late breaking (read: I was finished typing this whole thing and the release came through)! Adam Ginning’s been called up to the Flyers for tonight’s game against the Blue Jackets.

What’s up with the Phantoms

The big news of the week, of course, is that the Phantoms are going to the playoffs! With a clean sweep of their two games on the weekend (a 5-2 win over Charlotte on friday and 4-3 over springfield on Saturday) they were able to clinch a playoff spot for the first time since 2018.

Their matchup is far from set – they’re sitting at third in their division at the moment thanks to the tie breaker, but there are two teams behind them also with 80 points, and one with 79 – so they’ll need to close out their season strong this week if they want to hold on to that spot and get the best first round matchup they can. Only three more games to go!

As we said, though, it was quite a successful last weekend for the Phantoms, and the prospects were leading the charge.

Emil Andrae continues to make an impression at the AHL level and make the most of the role he’s been given, and he picked up another goal and an additional assist in his two games played this weekend.

Olle Lycksell is also heating back up at just the right time, that’s for sure. He put up two goals and an assist on the weekend.

And, lest we forget, Eliott Desnoyers scored a nice little goal on Friday (and an assist) against Charlotte on Friday.

The Phantoms also got a pair of assists each from Bobby Brink and Tyson Foerster, so they’re still doing some solid work to drive offense, even if they didn’t convert on any of their individual shots.

Adam Ginning also picked up an assist on the weekend, but that’s not all – he’s quietly cruised to a +25 on the whole of the season. Now, +/- is a stat that some of us could probably do without, but having a big outlier like that is definitely something. And, if he can keep that rating for the rest of the season, he would break the organization’s season +/- record for a full season, previously set by Nicolas Aube-Kubel in 2017-18, when he recorded a +24.

And, of course, Sam Ersson was solid as always. He got both starts for the team this weekend, and as such got both wins. He made 29 stops on 31 shots (.935 SV%) on Friday and 33 saves on 36 shots (.917 SV%) on Saturday.

The prospect world tour

And all around the world, it’s playoffs time already for the prospects! The Frozen Four wrapped up this weekend, with Quinnipiac defeating Minnesota to win the National Championship. So the Flyers’ prospects came away from that one empty handed, but they did both produce a little bit.

O’Brien picked up a goal in the semi-final game, we’ll mention that one while we still can.

In his two games played, Bryce Brodzinski was able to chip in an assist and four shots on goal.

The bigger bits of scoring were happening elsewhere, though. Up in the Q, Gatineau closed out their series against St. John, and in those last three games played, Alexis Gendron put up another four goals (which included, if you can believe it, another hat trick). He also added an assist, just to prove he’s not a completely selfish player, and chipped in a total of 12 shots on goal. Not too shabby indeed.

Over in Peterborough, J.R. Avon is heating up, as he put up a tidy two goals, one assist, and six shots on goal in his last two games played. And, as a fun bonus, he was voted the East’s best skater in the OHL Coaches Poll.

And finally, over in Finland, Samu Tuomaala is still contributing well for his Kettera squad in the post season. In the first two games of their semi-final matchup against RoKi, he has a goal and two assists (meaning he has factored into three of the team’s four total goals scored so far).