Prospect Profile - James de Haas
The Phantoms have experienced a whirlwind of injuries on call ups on defense over the last few weeks. So many roster moves have occurred that have changed the landscape on the blue line, that the first of the moves has been easily forgotten.
After all, rookie blue liner James de Haas's name was probably very unfamilar to Phantoms fans prior to his first AHL call up back on November 1st. After all the roster changes on defense over the course of November, however, de Haas's reliable play has led him to become a staple of the newly patched-together defense core in a short time.
"Yeah, it's been pretty crazy these past few weeks with injuries and obviously guys getting called up and stuff so i'm just trying to do my best to help out the guys who have been called up and move into less of a new-guy role," de Haas told Inside AHL Hockey after last Friday's 7-2 win over Hershey. "I've played enough games now to know how everything works here, and how we want to play so just keep doing that and show them I can play here."
It has been a sharp learning curve for de Haas at the AHL level, but a combination of kicking off his AHL career playing three games in three nights the first weekend of November and sitting out a pair of games to watch and learn from the stands has helped ease him into regular playing time on defense as the calendar switched to December.
"I think when I was first called up, I played that first weekend right away. Kind of just thrown right into the fire so I had to adjust a lot quicker," de Haas recalled of his AHL debut.
"Then I went back down to Reading for a game, and when I came back up the second time I had a week - a road trip to Belleville and Laval there - where I didn't play those two games. It gave me an opportunity to not only practice with all the guys but sit back and watch how we want to play, and all the video sessions and talking with the coaches and guys both on and off the ice helped me a lot. Now that I have learned all the systems and everything I feel more comfortable."
de Haas's increased comfort level showed in the team's final game of a six-game road swing late last month, as he tallied a big time shorthanded goal for his first career tally while also adding an assist.
"He's a big body and he's shown that when he gets his looks he can make solid offensive plays," Gordon said of de Haas's game. We're in quite a tough situation here on defense with Myers, Lamarche, Sam & Willcox being out. We are fortunate the Flyers have given us some depth where we can get James in there and make some contributions.
What the future holds for de Haas with the Phantoms remains to be seen.
Radko Gudas will be finishing up a suspension before too long, which Gordon said on Saturday might suggest that the Phantoms get one of their guys back (namely Mark Alt) back from Philadelphia.
Gorodn also hinted that two defensemen are nearing a return, but that the other two will probably be out of action until after Christmas.
For now, de Haas is simply trying to make the most of his chances.
