The trickle of offseason news continues on. Along with the news coming out today that Phantoms forward Zayde Wisdom will be returning for another season, even after not being qualified by the Flyers, came the announcement that the team’s captain in Garrett Wilson will be sticking around for another year as well.
“It’s just a world-class organization the way that Rob and Jim [Brooks] run it here,” said Wilson to Phantoms Communications about his decision to return for another season. “Our facilities, like we’ve said numerous times, are just second to none. We love coming to the rink. Our locker room is so nice and so national league that it makes coming to the rink fun. We have great fans. It’s a fun building to play in, it’s a loud building. When you’re winning, it gets more-and-more packed. We’re excited to get back after it.”
Wilson will be entering his sixth season with the team, and his third as their captain (after spending the previous three as an alternate), and his return will certainly bring with it some much needed further stability to the mix both from an on-ice as well as leadership perspective. That is, wherever he’s asked to play in the lineup, he brings the same type of responsible, details oriented, physically engaged style of play, and this works well to both help insulate any rookies that might be playing on his line (as we saw when the Phantoms stapled Jett Luchanko to him for the end of last season) as well as to set an example more broadly for the group of young players on the team at large. Wilson’s most productive seasons might be behind him, but he can still contribute nicely (he put up a cool 14 goals and 28 points over 68 games this past season), but the stability he brings will be extra valuable in a season like the one that’s approaching. The roster just seems to keep getting younger and younger, and with that, a bit more roster turnover, and a first-year head coach in John Snowden now at the helm, if there’s one thing the Phantoms could use, it’s a bit of stability.
Despite the bit of flux still at work surrounding the team at the moment, they’ll be looking to capitalize on the wealth of talent at their disposal and take a step forward after a disappointing playoff exit back in the spring, and the hope is that Wilson can help lead them onward in that forward trajectory.
