2019-20 Season Preview: Lehigh Valley Phantoms

ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania -- After a whirlwind of change derailed their 2018-19 campaign, a new-look Lehigh Valley Phantoms squad aims to get back among the top teams in the American Hockey League (AHL) and put themselves into the "contender" category in 2019-20 - the franchise's sixth year in the Lehigh Valley as the AHL affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers.

While some of the Flyers' top prospects have graduated from Lehigh Valley and moved up to the NHL roster - goaltender Carter Hart, defenseman Travis Sanheim and forward Oskar Lindblom just to name a few - the Phantoms' roster boasts no shortage of highly-touted, legitimate NHL prospects along with a revamped core of not only experienced veteran players but talented guys that are hungry to win.

Put that all together with returning head coach Scott Gordon, and it's not hard to see why there's a new buzz in Lehigh Valley heading into Saturday's regular season opener at home against the Providence Bruins.

Let's take a look at the opening night roster, shall we?

The Roster

Goalies

J-F Berube, Alex Lyon and Felix Sandstrom

It wouldn't be the Philadelphia Flyers organization if there wasn't some kind of goalie controversy to talk about, right?

Now, it's not quite the controversy Flyers and Phantoms fans might be used to, but still -- there seems to be more goalies than nets with six netminders signed to NHL contracts and all playing pro hockey in North America this season.

After last year's debacle with several goalies going down with injuries in a short amount of time, the organization brought in veteran J-F Berube to further bolster depth at the position.

Kirill Ustimenko was the only goalie of the four not to see any AHL preseason, and he was assigned to ECHL Reading to begin the season.

Scott Gordon seemed pretty adamant after the rookie game that Lehigh Valley would NOT carry three goalies at the AHL level, which leaves three goalies - Berube, Lyon & Sandstrom - vying for two spots.

Lyon is currently with Flyers in Europe as a third goalie, so a Sandstrom/Berube AHL tandem seems most likely to begin the month. What happens when the Flyers return remains to be seen.

Defense

Chris Bigras, T.J. Brennan (veteran), James de Haas, Mark Friedman, Phil Myers, Nate Prosser (veteran), Reece Willcox and Tyler Wotherspoon (veteran)

What really plagued the Phantoms most last season, after their team was picked apart with call ups and injuries, was their inability to effectively break out pucks from their defensive zone.

Controlled exits weren't performed with much consistency, and after Phil Myers was called up down the stretch last year they seemed to lack having enough mobile, puck-moving defensemen that were confident enough to carry the puck up ice.

Guys like Chris Bigras and Andy Welinski (currently injured and still on the NHL roster) are two guys you could point to as potential puck-movers that could help the Phantoms in that regard this fall.

Nate Prosser and Tyler Wotherspoon are billed as a pair of veteran defensemen that can really help stabilize the younger players - even the plethora of rookie and second year pros up front at the forward position.

This is an area where the Phantoms will need marked improvement if they want to have a legitimate chance of contending for a deep playoff run this spring.

Forwards

Andy Andreoff (veteran), Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Greg Carey (veteran), Kyle Criscuolo, Joel Farabee, Gerry Fitzgerald, Morgan Frost, Kurtis Gabriel (veteran-exempt), David Kase, Pascal Laberge, Cal O'Reilly (veteran), Isaac Ratcliffe, German Rubtsov, Matthew Strome, Maksim Sushko & Mikhail Vorobyev

There's a new core of exciting forward prospects entering the Lehigh Valley this fall, as Joel Farabee is slated to join Morgan Frost, Isaac Ratcliffe and Maksim Sushko when the Flyers return from Prague.

There's also a new veteran core brought in by new management for this season. Three of them - defenseman Nate Prosser and forwards Andy Andreoff and Cal O'Reilly - begin the 2019-20 season as co-captains.

With the team's abundance of veteran players, they enter the season with more veterans than they are allowed to dress for any given game. Add in the fact that a lot of the veteran core is new to the organization, and this is largely a transitional year from the players signed by previous GM Ron Hextall and the new additions inked this summer by Chuck Fletcher, it's not too farfetched or silly to have three co-captains this year.

The way this team is built, it could be a very entertaining season for Phantoms fans in the Lehigh Valley. The prospects have high-end offensive potential, but the new veteran additions are well-established, high-caliber players in this league too. A potentially dangerous combination.

Projected Opening Night Lineup

Greg Carey (V) - Morgan Frost - Andy Andreoff (V) Matthew Strome - Cal O'Reilly (V) - Nicolas Aube-Kubel Mikhail Vorobyev - German Rubtsov - Isaac Ratcliffe Kurtis Gabriel (VE) - Kyle Criscuolo - Maksim Sushko

T.J. Brennan (V) - Nate Prosser (V) Chris Bigras - Mark Friedman James de Haas - Reece Willcox

Felix Sandstrom - J-F Berube

Extras: Alex Lyon (with Flyers), Phil Myers (with Flyers), Tyler Wotherspoon (veteran scratch),  Joel Farabee (with Flyers), Pascal Laberge, Gerry Fitzgerald and David Kase (undisclosed)