BSH prospect report: Settling in at last

The news of the week

The transaction news just keeps on coming. When we last spoke, Emil Andrae had just been sent back down to join the Phantoms ahead of Nick Seeler\'s return to the Flyers lineup, but with Cam York now set to miss at least two weeks with an upper body injury, Andrae is back up to help replace him. And this time he brought a friend along with him! As the Flyers are working to shore up the backup goaltending situation, they also called up Alexei Kolosov to join their rotation.

We also saw a bit more movement, with the inevitable finally coming, and Jett Luchanko being sent back to join his Guelph team in the OHL.

And then on the injury news front, we finally got some clarity on what’s been keeping Massimo Rizzo out of the Phantoms’ lineup. He had an appendectomy procedure after the preseason, it turns out, and the recovery time from that will be around six to eight weeks, so it’ll be a little longer still until we see him back on the ice.

What\'s up with the Phantoms?

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before, but things have not been going great for the Phantoms. They played three games this past weekend and were winless in that whole slate. They’re making some small steps forward — they’re finally starting to score a bit more for starters, but they’re having trouble avoiding the same mistakes on the defensive end, and on the whole really just struggling to get going . The good news is that they finally picked up their elusive second win on the season last night in Hershey, but they still have a ways to go to get themselves fully back on track.

Once again, Samu Tuomaala led the scoring charge for the prospect group this week, and he chipped in a goal and two assists over the last four games.

On the flip side, Olle Lycksell is still looking for his first goal of the season, and he’s trying hard as can be to get it, putting up a ton of chances (15 shots in the last four games), but still waiting for a bounce. He did add three assists to his season total this week, so there’s that.

Rounding out the forward group recap, they’ve had to rotate some players in and out this week, but that rotating group has been pretty successful — JR Avon had an assist in his two games played, as did Elliot Desnoyers and Zayde Wisdom, while Alexis Gendron put up a goal and an assist in his season debut (though was held without a point in his second game).

The Phantoms have also been getting a nice bit of offense from the back end as well, as this past weekend saw Helge Grans (who looks much more settled in, at last) pick up his first goal of the season, while each of Hunter McDonald (two assists), Ethan Samson (one assist), and Emil Andrae (one assist in his one game played) also got involved offensively.

The prospect world tour

Over in the Allsvenskan, it was a bit quieter of a week for Alex Ciernik — he had just one assist over his last two games played — but things still seem to be clicking well for him this season. He\'s finding a good role and a nice bit of consistency, and his nine points over his first 11 games this season is a perfectly respectable total.

Speaking of consistency, Jack Berglund has found some in location — he\'s stuck with Färjestad\'s SHL team, and he\'s started to find his production again. Though he was held without a point in his first two games, in his third of the week, he put up a goal and an assist, a nice little foundation to hopefully build on as he continues to settle in.

Also beginning to heat up again, it would appear, is Ilya Pautov. After going without a point last week, Pautov stepped up in a big way this week, scoring a goal and four assists over his last three games. The offensive potential is certainly not a question mark here, but we\'re still waiting for him to tap into a bit more consistency. It\'s a work in progress though.

The big story of the week, though, continues to be the play of Yegor Zavragin. He\'s had three more starts since we last spoke, and he began his slate of action with a 31 save shutout, then stopped 25 of the 27 shots he faced in his second game, and 23 of 26 in his third. And even with the slightest of stumbles in the third game — it feels telling of where the bar is for him if three goals allowed is a stumble — he\'s continuing to dominate.

This week also saw the first prospect faceoff of the season in the NCAA with Owen McLaughlin and his North Dakota squad facing off against Devin Kaplan and the BU Terriers. The series was a split, which is probably the best possible outcome for us more neutral prospect watchers. Each of McLaughlin and Kaplan got involved in the scoring that weekend too, with McLaughlin picking up an assist in North Dakota\'s 7-2 win, and then two assists in their 3-4 loss, while Kaplan had a goal and an assist in that win for BU.

Elsewhere in the NCAA, things are starting to heat up again for Cole Knuble, who put up a goal and three assists in Notre Dame\'s win over Long Island University. We also saw Ty Murchison pick up his first point of the season — an assist across ASU\'s pair of wins over Northern Michigan on the weekend.

Then down in the USHL, it was a quieter week for the prospects, as Austin Moline went without a point in his two games played, while Heikki Ruohonen was held to just one assist in Dubuque\'s pair of wins over the NTDP team.

Up in the OHL, things are off to an interesting start for the pair of Flyers prospects on the Knights, where it seems like only one at a time can be hot on a given week. This week it was Denver Barkey, who had a goal and three assists over his three games played. Oliver Bonk did still get involved offensively, but it was just one assist on the week for him. So it goes.

Jett Luchanko also got in for his first game of the season with Guelph, and if this is any indication of how things are going to go for them this season... oof. That first game was a 10-1 walloping by Brampton, but the good news, if there\'s any to be found here, is that Luchanko picked up his first point of the season, an assist on that lone goal for Guelph.

We\'ll wrap things up this week in the QMJHL, where Spencer Gill is off to a slower start than we might have anticipated. He was a pretty noticeable offensive presence last season, but he\'s been struggling to really get going in that regard. The points pace is lagging so far, and with just one assist in his last two games, he\'s on pace for 35 points this season, a decent step back from last year\'s 46. It\'s still early, and chances are he starts to put it together again before too long, but we\'re just still waiting for it to all come together again for him.

Talking Points