Samuel Morin and Colin McDonald are heading back to the Phantoms. The Flyers made those two moves official on Wednesday morning.
The Flyers are off until Saturday at home against Columbus, and they’re giving back two of Lehigh Valley’s most important pieces as the Phantoms continue in their playoff push. As we’ve mentioned a few times recently, the Phantoms still have work to do with six games remaining in their regular season.
Their magic number is at six points, and they’re five points ahead of the Hershey Bears, who sit in the fifth spot in the Atlantic Division. The top four teams in the Atlantic will make the postseason, and that sets up a huge game this evening in Allentown where the Bears will look to close that gap head-to-head against the Phantoms. A win would pull the Bears up to 89 points, just three back of the Lehigh Valley. It’s tight.
Morin and McDonald will certainly help the Phantoms against Hershey tonight, without — at least in the case of a young guy like Morin — robbing them of valuable NHL opportunity. After tonight, Lehigh Valley is back in action on Friday night at home against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Saturday against Springfield.
We’d imagine that Morin will remain with the Phantoms through Friday’s game, but he could be called back up for the final two games of the Flyers’ season on Saturday and Sunday before heading back for the final week of the AHL season. We’ll see what happens.
