The Phantoms played three games last week, going 1-2-0. First, they suffered a 4-1 loss to the powerhouse Penguins on Wednesday, then beat Hershey in Lehigh Valley on Friday 5-4 thanks to same late-game heroics by Zayde Wisdom, but the Bears evened the score and beat the Phantoms back in Hershey on Saturday in a shootout 4-3.
Trending Up
Karsen Dorwart
Dorwart scored a power play goal on Friday, which overtook Devin Kaplan for the team lead for point with five in the first six games. Dorwart has been a pleasant surprise centering Alex Bump and Devin Kaplan and has been the best and most consistent of the three so far.
Emil Andrae
Andrae racked up a pair of even strength assists, also bringing him to five points in six games. Spoiler alert: Andrae is going to play well and produce when he’s in the AHL. It’s almost like he’s too good for this league and should be in the NHL…
Helge Grans
Grans scored a goal and two assists in three games last week. Grans has been one of the more disappointing players early in the season after he failed to make the Flyers’ roster in what was supposed to be a close to guaranteed spot. Producing offense has never really been his strong suit, but he has four points in seven games, even though he was technically demoted to the third pair for both Friday and Saturday’s games in favor of a double-lefty Ty Murchison – Emil Andrae tandem.
Sideways Trending
Alesksei Kolosov
Kolosov went 1-1 in his two starts this week, allowing four goals in both games. He has walked away with three wins in his first four games (2.50 GAA and .920 SV%), but this week we got a bit more of the ugly side of Kolosov than the near-bullet proof version he was during the first weeks of the season. Kolosov has largely been better than expected entering the season based on his play last year, but man, some of the goals he’s allowing are Bryzgalov-esque in their softness. If he can clean that up, the the sophomore goalie may climb back into the NHL picture in due time.
Alexis Gendron
Gendron scored a power play goal and added an assist on Friday. Hopefully this weekend was a sign of good things to come for Gendron, who has been all around the net, but hasn’t been seeing consistent results just yet.
Denver Barkey
Barkey registered an assist on Saturday. It was just his third point of the season. Now, he does have seven shots on goal in the last three games, a big turnaround considering it took him four games to put his first shot of the season on net heading into the week. He has taken residency on the team’s “top” line wing with Lane Pederson and Carl Grundstrom, but he hasn’t been quite as electric as that role would have you hoped. Barkey is a rookie and undersized, so the rocky transition wasn’t unexpected, but even with limited expectations he’s been a bit flat out of the gate.
Alex Bump
Bump recorded a power play assist on Friday. It’s kinda been one step forward, one step back for Bump’s early season play. He is second on the team in shots on goal with 17, but he’s got just one conversion and two apples to show for it. The ebbs and flows are part of development, unfortunately we’ve been getting more of the latter to start the year with just flashes of the star he seems like he can be.
Carson Bjarnason
Bjarnason took the shootout loss on Saturday against Hershey. It was Bjarnason’s second appearance in a shootout in just three starts on the season. He’s sitting with a 2.53 GAA and .910 SV%, stats mildly helped out by his 10 minutes of beyond-regulation play. He’s kept the Phantoms in the games he’s played, but the expectations for the rookie are still a bit higher than what we’ve gotten so far.
Ty Murchison
Murchison recored his first assist of the season on Saturday. With the various absences on the Phantoms’ blue line, the coaching staff has turned to rookie Ty Murchison to step up and take a bigger role than expected. He’s largely risen to the occasion so far playing in all situations.
Trending Down
Devin Kaplan
Kaplan went pointless through all three games he played this week, and was used rather sparingly in those games. The Phantoms have too many prospects and not enough ice time to go around, and Kaplan has just been drawing the short stick early in the season. He does have four points in six games, but there hasn’t been much else going for the rookie forward yet.
Samu Tuomaala
Tuomaala has played in just three of the team’s seven games. He’s pointless with just three shots on goal. the third-year forward has had some wildly inconsistent play over the last few years, but it sure seems like the coaching staff has made the decision that he’s the odd man out by a hefty margin to start the season.
Jacob Gaucher
Gaucher scored his first goal of the season on Friday. But as the Phantoms second line center and one of their surprising risers last season, it’s been a quiet, underwhelming start for Gaucher in 2025-26.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
brotherlypuck.com 