AHL Training Camp: Day 1 News, Notes, Observations
ALLENTOWN, PA -- The Lehigh Valley Phantoms opened training camp Monday morning at the PPL Center, where a total of 26 players took the ice in what was a very up-tempo skate with the team's preseason opener in Wilkes-Barre against the Atlantic Division rival Penguins fast approaching on Wednesday night.
"The challenge is there are a lot of new players and we're not really sure who we are going to get back from Philly, when we are going to get [them] back, so we are sort of in a little bit of a waiting mode to see what we really end up with in terms of our team," assistant coach Kerry Huffman told Inside AHL Hockey. "But we also want to have good, hard, crisp practices and make sure the guys conditioning is there."
While there weren't suicide sprints, head coach Scott Gordon ran a fast-paced 90-minute session similar to what the Flyers did on their opening day of NHL camp. One drill right into the next, neutral zone transitions, some odd-man rushes - all with purpose.
"We have some guys that haven't been at camps in a mix with guys that have, so some of the players are trying to make a mark and get going really fast here," Huffman said of Day 1's intensity. "So, it'll be a good couple of days and then we're right into it."
In total, three goaltenders, nine defensemen and 14 forwards participated on the ice Monday. Of the 28 players now on the Phantoms' camp roster, only seven spent more than just the final months of the season with Lehigh Valley last season. While there is always a lot of turnover at the AHL level -- and the Phantoms will likely receive a few more familiar faces from Philadelphia before the AHL's regular season begins on October 5th -- it's worth noting that this will almost be a brand new team in 2019-20.
"Obviously it was a pretty tough year on everybody last year in terms of all the changes and what happened," Huffman said, adding, "but now it's a really good fresh feeling where everybody knows their role, everybody knows what their responsibilities are and we're just going to get going and do things [like we've done before]."
Roster News, Notes
Defenseman Nate Prosser wasn't with the team today, but a team source told Inside AHL Hockey that Prosser was given an extra day - presumably with family to get things together - and was expected to get into town Monday night and be at practice Tuesday.
Goaltender J-F Berube cleared waivers Monday afternoon and has been assigned to the Phantoms' training camp roster.
Flyers assistant GM Brent Flahr was in attendance at today's AHL training camp practice, as was Reading Royals head coach Kirk MacDonald and assistant coach Nick Luukko.
The Phantoms have six players on a tryout contract at camp, with several of them being 'local' kids - D Jeremy Beaudry, D Josh Couturier, F Trevor Gooch (Mantua, NJ), F Nick Master (Broomall, PA), F Brett Supinski (Collegeville, PA) and F Trevor Yates.
Don't put much stock into these lines/pairings, outside of perhaps some combinations that will be used in Wednesday's preseason game:
Isaac Ratcliffe - Cal O'Reilly - David Kase Greg Carey - Kyle Criscuolo - Maksim Sushko Mathew Strome - Gerry Fitzgerald - Pascal Laberge Trevor Gooch - Steven Swavely - Brett Supinski Nick Master - Trevor Yates
T.J. Brennan - Tyler Wotherspoon James de Haas - Rob Michel David Drake - Reece Willcox Josh Couturier, Erick Knodel and Jeremy Beaudry
Alex Lyon, Felix Sandstrom and Kirill Ustimenko
