Prospect Info: Phantoms (AHL), Reading Royals (ECHL), NCAA, Jrs., Int'l, etc. (Mar.-Apr. edition)

[FLYguy3911]

Told Ya!

 

[Stizzle]

Told Ya!

You've gotta be kidding me.

 

[FLYguy3911]

Huskies lose. Down 3-2. Was it just me or was Myers laboring?

 

[Curufinwe]

Lamarche being used ahead of Willcox in and Friedman is so ridiculous. I wish Hextall would step in and send him down to the ECHL where he belongs. O'Neill getting hurt should have been used to develop actual prospects.

Anyway, reading Tony's tweets after I got out of F8 was a fun time. Going from 4-1 down to a 5-4 win isn't even surprising at this point.

 

[TonyAndrock]

RECAP: Lehigh Valley Phantoms clinch home ice in the first round of the playoffs and will host Games 1 and 2 next Friday and Saturday night against an opponent TBD (Winner of Hershey/Providence Saturday night).
Post-game reaction from Scott Laughton, Corban Knight & Colin McDonald: http://highlandparkhockey.blogspot.com/2017/04/comeback-thriller-nets-phantoms-second.html

 

[BringBackHakstol]

Lol Swavely is playing?

That's ridiculous

 

[Striiker]

It's almost annoying to see the Phantoms win because it makes Gordon's dumb ass think his lineup choices are acceptable.

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

You basically have to root for them to do well at this point so Gordon gets a promotion to the NHL (hopefully not with the Flyers). He's not getting fired.

If they had a good coach down there I wouldn't really care win or lose if the prospects were being handled well but that's not the case with him & Cote.

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

Everett has a period to go to avoid a sweep. Seattle is up 4-1 in the game going into the third.

If the Flyers wanted him to they could sign him to a try-out contract to backup Lyon for the playoffs if his team gets eliminated tonight.

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

Hart's season is over.

 

[Stizzle]

Everett has a period to go to avoid a sweep. Seattle is up 4-1 in the game going into the third.

If the Flyers wanted him to to their could sign him to a try-out contract to backup Lyon for the playoffs if his team gets eliminated tonight.

It seems like LV could definitely use him as a backup, but Hextall often says that he thinks these kids play too much. One would think Hart would fit the bill as someone who has played a ton of hockey this year. Both WHL and the whole WJC experience with camps and the tournament.

 

[Rebels57]

It seems like LV could definitely use him as a backup, but Hextall often says that he thinks these kids play too much. One would think Hart would fit the bill as someone who has played a ton of hockey this year. Both WHL and the whole WJC experience with camps and the tournament.

Yeah I would probably shut him down for the season at this point.

 

[Stizzle]

[Tweet]853304396813398016[/MEDIA]

He then stated that Hextall specifically praised Rubtsov as well.

It's tough to tell who Hextall is referring to. Guesses...

Laberge - Horrible concussion, but didn't impress when he returned.

Tomek - Can't get off the bench.

Marody - Academic suspension. Was also healthy scratched on a desperate team for 1 game, but did have good stretches of play.

Goulbourne - Banished to the ECHL most of the year.

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

I'd guess Labarge, based off expectations at this point. Early second rounder & signed to an ELC shortly after. While some of it was out of his control you're probably not too happy with chalking this year up to write off for a prospect like him.

 

[captainpaxil]

My guess is goulborne. He went from pking last year to echl. Thought he was going to be skilled enough to compete for a spot esp with the flyers without an enforcer

 

[Hurricane28]

I too think its Laberge but he was run at there's nothing much you can do.

 

[Striiker]

Obviously can't speak for Hextall, but personally I think Tomek was more disappointing than Laberge.

Laberge didn't have a good year, even after returning, but you can certainly understand why since he had a terrible injury.

Tomek simply wasn't good enough and didn't have any injuries as an excuse. When he did get a chance he didnt do anything to show he deserved more of them. Obviously Laberge was picked higher, but 90 is still fairly high, at least enough to have moderately high expectations for a player.

I guess it also kinda depends on how he's saying disappointing. Is he disappointed in them (as in, kinda blaming them), or disappointed for them (knowing it's not their fault and feel bad for them).

 

[JojoTheWhale]

I get the Laberge thought process, but for only one prospect to have jumped out as disappointing, I'm with Striiker -- has to be Tomek. He was healthy and basically didn't play. There's no getting around that.

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

My only thought process with Tomek was he didn't play last year & North Dakota returned both goalies ahead of him this year.

The same thing happened to Madsen his freshmen year but the starter from that year graduated & the starter was wide open leading into the next year.

It's disappointing but was it really unexpected at this point? I would say not really & there's a good chance it happens again next year.

 

[Striiker]

My only thought process with Tomek was he didn't play last year & North Dakota returned both goalies ahead of him this year.

The same thing happened to Madsen his freshmen year but the starter from that year graduated & the starter was wide open leading into the next year.

It's disappointing but was it really unexpected at this point? I would say not really & there's a good chance it happens again next year.

I don't mean to argue here (obviously this is all speculation and I'm just thinking out loud) but don't you think that it would be considered disappointing that Tomek wasn't able to win a better role when the Flyers did invest a solid pick in him? I assume when they drafted him they thought he'd be the kind of player who earns a spot on a college team over two undrafted guys. I know there's a college pecking order due to what year they're in, but I doubt they'd stick with that if they felt one gave them a better chance to win, right?

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

I don't mean to argue here (obviously this is all speculation and I'm just thinking out loud) but don't you think that it would be considered disappointing that Tomek wasn't able to win a better role when the Flyers did invest a solid pick in him? I assume when they drafted him they thought he'd be the kind of player who earns a spot on a college team over two undrafted guys. I know there's a college pecking order due to what year they're in, but I doubt they'd stick with that if they felt one gave them a better chance to win, right?

But we came into this year knowing he lost out to Cam Johnson. He backstopped them to a national championship last year. It was going to be tough to really unseat Johnson on the year from the get go.

It's disappointing but to me I just don't really think it was all that surprising at this point. It very well could happen again next year. Laberge had the concussion but he wasn't playing too hot before it & after it. I'd imagine expectations were a lot higher on him coming into the year than Tomek.

It's all pointless though as who really knows but we've probably got who he's talking about narrowed down here. I doubt it's Goulbourne. So it possibly could be one of Laberge, Tomek, or Marody (I'm only thinking him because his issue was really self-inflicted & could have easily been avoided).

 

[Random Forest]

It would be disappointing to some extent, but goalies are generally crapshoots anyway, so the expectations for Tomek relative to Laberge were pretty low, especially given his status at UND going into this season as well. Plus there's a sizable difference between the 36th overall pick and the 90th pick. If "disappointment" is the difference between expectations and reality, I'd say Laberge was much more disappointing given those two factors. I think most of us were hoping/expecting Laberge to have a relatively prolific year this season, so it's a bit of cold water that he didn't even maintain .75 PPG despite the concussion.

 

[Striiker]

But we came into this year knowing he lost out to Cam Johnson. He backstopped them to a national championship last year. It was going to be tough to really unseat Johnson on the year from the get go.

It's disappointing but to me I just don't really think it was all that surprising at this point. It very well could happen again next year. Laberge had the concussion but he wasn't playing too hot before it & after it. I'd imagine expectations were a lot higher on him coming into the year than Tomek.

It's all pointless though as who really knows but we've probably got who he's talking about narrowed down here. I doubt it's Goulbourne. So it possibly could be one of Laberge, Tomek, or Marody (I'm only thinking him because his issue was really self-inflicted & could have easily been avoided).

It would be disappointing to some extent, but goalies are generally crapshoots anyway, so the expectations for Tomek relative to Laberge were pretty low, especially given his status at UND going into this season as well. Plus there's a sizable difference between the 36th overall pick and the 90th pick. If "disappointment" is the difference between expectations and reality, I'd say Laberge was much more disappointing given those two factors. I think most of us were hoping/expecting Laberge to have a relatively prolific year this season, so it's a bit of cold water that he didn't even maintain .75 PPG despite the concussion.

Yeah, I can see what you're both saying. Unfortunately, we're not going to able to know for sure, and it'd be pretty funny if it was someone we didn't even think of.


Also kinda off topic, but I'm super excited to hear that at the same interview Hextall specifically mentioned being impressed by Wade Allison. Ive already said I think he's probably my favorite non-top-prospect in the organization, so it's nice to hear good things about him.

Also pretty funny that Wade retweeted the tweet saying Hextall had praised him too.

 

[FLYguy3911]

Hextall must have forgotten he sucked as a 17 year old.

 

[flyersfan018]

Wonder if the Phantoms would rather play Hershey or Providence. I'd assume Providence.