How Has The Pandemic Affected AHL's Phantoms?

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - The Lehigh Valley Phantoms haven't played in nearly six months, last playing at PPL Center on March 11th in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

From the perspective of Phantoms' co-owner Jim Brooks, it's been an extended offseason to say the least.

"But, what really makes it totally different is the uncertainty, not knowing what's in hold for the future," Brooks told InsideAHLHockey.com last week.

The uncertainty has definitely played a role for the holding pattern among teams willingness to sign players for the upcoming season.

According to Andrew Zadamowski from SB Nation's Habs Eye On The Prize blog,  AHL teams signed 184 players to standard AHL player contracts between May 1st and July 30th in the summer of 2019. In the same time frame in 2020? Just 27 players inked to AHL contracts.

"We don't have clarity. When you head into an offseason normally you know what you're planning for and the time frame you need to get things accomplished," Brooks explained, though the Phantoms have signed forwards Ralph Cuddemi and Brennan Saulnier to AHL contracts for the 2020-21 season on August 6th in an attempt to begin building depth in the organization for the upcoming year.

Cuddemi and Saulnier, in addition to two forwards from last year's team - Max Willman and Cal O'Reilly - make up the four total players the Phantoms have inked to AHL contracts for the upcoming season.

While some of the Philadelphia Flyers' prospects - David Kase, German Rubtsov, Linus Sandin and Maksim Sushko - have been loaned overseas to various professional leagues starting up this fall, that's not an option for everyone while they wait for the AHL and NHL to resume this winter.

"We all want and need the same thing - and that's to get back to playing," Brooks said of his talks with the Flyers about the future. "We're in the business of developing players and to do that you have to play games. We all agree we have to get back to playing, we have to get our prospects and depth players back to playing. Everyone is on the same page there."

Brooks says he sees the Phantoms' relationship with the Flyers as the model to follow for AHL clubs and their respective NHL affiliates. They're in constant contact, speaking at least once a week throughout this whole process and "most times more than that".

"Our communication is fantastic with the Flyers," Brooks told InsideAHLHockey.com, adding, "We wish everyone had as good of a relationship as we do. And that's both on the AHL and NHL side of things. We always try to do a little extra for our guys here, and Philly always does a little extra for their guys here."

While both sides agree they need to get the AHL back to playing and continuing the development of prospects and future NHL'ers, the challenge of getting back to play remains on the forefront.

Another important challenge for these AHL teams will be having the staff to pull off a return to play, which has seen some teams around the league furloughing and laying off employees of their off-ice and front office departments.

"It's no surprise that a lot of businesses out there are trying to reduce their costs and overhead," Brooks said. "Unfortunately, that's the time we live in."

At the time of our interview, Brooks indicated that the Phantoms hadn't laid off any of their full-time or part-time staff and were instead taking a wait and see approach. He also added that there were no guarantees moving forward in these difficult times. The plan, as Brooks explained it, is to make their moves with the idea of keeping the Phantoms' strong for the future.

"Every single one of our employees means a lot to us, and we love them all like family," Brooks said. "We try to do everything we can for them, but at the same time there's certain times in business when you have to make tough calls just to keep strong for the future."

As an independently owned team, the elephant in the room needed to be asked. If and when the AHL gives the green light to resume play next season, is there any guarantee the Phantoms would be a part of it?

That all depends, according to Brooks.

"Rob and my intention is that we are going to play. We haven't wavered from that," Brooks told InsideAHLHockey.com. "I can't speak for all 31 teams, but I know from our perspective we want to play."

Brooks explained that the Return To Play task force has taken the mindset of creating a situation where all 31 teams can play. That's their goal, no matter how daunting the challenge.

"We want fans to be able to enjoy our games too, and get to see their favorite players, maybe future favorite players - and future Flyers," Brooks said, adding, "Hopefully we can do that with them here in person. And we're trying to do everything we can to make sure that they have the best chance to do that."