The Philadelphia Flyers have their roster set ahead of Thursday night’s season opener, but elsewhere in the organization, things are still up in the air. So let’s run through the minor league rosters — both in the AHL with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and in the ECHL with the Reading Royals — and see where things stand, shall we?
Goalies set in Lehigh Valley and Reading
2012 second-round draft pick Anthony Stolarz and veteran Jason Labarbera are your Phantoms goaltenders for the year. In a set of four moves on Monday, the Phantoms sent goalies Connor Knapp and Martin Ouellette to Reading.
That gives the Royals three goaltenders, including Tate Maris, a 26-year-old career backup who has apparently, miraculously only played two games in the last seven years. (This can’t be right, can it?) On Monday, Reading cut 28-year-old goalie Louie George, an alum of Toronto’s Ryerson University who most recently played in the Federal Hockey League.
So that’s the goaltending situation. Maris will probably get cut before the ECHL season begins and that’ll be that.
Jobs to be won on defense
The demotion of Andrew MacDonald to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Tuesday complicates things considerably on defense for the team, and has a ripple effect all the way down to Reading. The Phantoms already have eight healthy defensemen on their roster following Tuesday’s demotion of Nick Luukko to the Royals. AMac now makes it nine.
Among the nine, there are a handful of locks to make the roster: Shayne Gostisbehere, Samuel Morin, Robert Hagg and Mark Alt are all going to be there. Then there’s veteran Davis Drewiske, who is certainly an AHL-level player and seems like a safe bet to make the team. Add MacDonald and you probably have your top-six on the Phantoms’ blue line.
Then there are the four others: Veteran Matt Lashoff — who split the 2014-15 season between the KHL and AHL — is fighting for a job, in Phantoms camp on a pro tryout contract. But then there’s 2014 seventh round pick Jesper Pettersson, who played 51 games with the Phantoms a year ago, in the mix. 23-year-old Maxim Lamarche is still in Phantoms camp as well, but he played most of last year in the ECHL with the Reading Royals so it wouldn’t be shocking to see him back there. Logan Pyett is the final name on defense, but he’s hurt and not in the equation right now.
So, lots of moving parts here. You’d be safe to assume that one of Lamarche or Pettersson will be sent to Reading, if not both of them. That’ll probably depend on if Lashoff is able to earn a contract with the Phantoms before their season opener on Saturday.
MacDonald will presumably be in Phantoms camp on Wednesday morning, so by then we might have a better idea of what coach Scott Gordon wants to do with all this.
Phantoms’ forwards all set?
Here’s the current list of forwards for the Phantoms: Cole Bardreau, Tim Brent, Chris Conner, Nick Cousins, Tyrell Goulbourne, Taylor Leier, Danick Martel, Colin McDonald, Pavel Padakin, Aaron Palushaj, Michael Parks, Jay Rosehill and Petr Straka.
That’s 13 guys, and it could be your final crew, as Kevin Goumas and Derek Mathers were each cut and sent to Reading on Monday. The only other complication is Christian Marti, who’s injured and expected back by November. Since he was injured in training camp with the Flyers, he’ll technically remain on the non-active NHL roster until he’s healthy.
Mathers is in a similar boat to last year, where he started the season in the ECHL before playing just three games and earning a call-up to the AHL. He’s strictly an enforcer at this stage — 147 PIM and two points last year in 40 AHL games — so he’s not very valuable with Jay Rosehill also on the Lehigh Valley roster. Might be tough for him to get back up.
Goumas is another guy who played just a short time in the ECHL a year ago — one game, mid-season, to be specific. He had 18 points in 63 games for the Phantoms in what was his first full pro season after being signed out of the University of New Hampshire.
Both of these guys were AHLers last year, but when the organization adds veteran depth — Brent, Conner, McDonald and Palushaj all have NHL experience and all were signed with the express purpose of making the Phantoms a competitive team this year — there’s going to be collateral damage. Unfortunately for Goumas and Mathers, they’re the first guys on the chopping block.
