With the Philadelphia Flyers regular season having come to an end, the club announced that they have loaned forwards Bobby Brink and Olle Lycksell and defensemen Ronnie Attard and Adam Ginning back to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms as they prepare for their playoff push with just three games remaining in the AHL season.
The AHL playoffs are very different compared to the NHL, with 23 teams qualifying and all four divisions not carrying an equal amount of teams. The Phantoms are in the Atlantic Division which has 8 teams, the Central and North Divisions each have 7 teams, and the Pacific Division has 10.
The top-5 teams in the Central and North qualify for the postseason as well as the top-7 in the Pacific and the top-6 in Atlantic, where the Phantoms are currently sitting in the 6th and final spot. They have 69 points in 69 games with a 30-30-6-3 record and are trying to fend off the 7th placed Springfield Thunderbirds, who have 65 points with just 2 games remaining. Barring a collapse, the Phantoms should secure their second consecutive playoff berth after having missed in the previous four seasons.
All four players who were sent down have played their part for the Phantoms this season with Ginning appearing in 56 games, Attard in 46 games, Lycksell in 36 games, and Brink in just 11. Ginning recorded 2 goals and 13 points, Attard accumulated 10 goals and 25 points, Lycksell is currently 4th on the team with 39 points, and Brink was at a point-per-game pace during his brief demotion.
Brink made the Flyers’ Opening Night roster outright after a very strong training camp and while he had pockets of successful stretches, he found himself in the doghouse a few times; either as a scratch, demoted down the lineup, or sent back to the Phantoms. He had 18 points in his first 38 games before being sent down with a +7 rating and 14:25 ATOI. After being recalled he appeared sporadically in 19 games and scored 4 goals and 5 points with just 12:32 ATOI.
Between December and April, Lycksell appeared in 18 games for the parent club with 1 goal and 5 points while skating 9:57 ATOI. Attard was called up after the Flyers lost Rasmus Ristolainen, Jamie Drysdale, and Nick Seeler to injury while also trading Sean Walker to Colorado.
He appeared in 12 games this season with 2 assists, a plus-1 rating, and 15;23 ATOI. Attard also contributed 12 shots on goal, 22 hits, and 14 blocked shots with 5 takeaways to 2 giveaways. Meanwhile his defensive partner in Ginning appeared in 9 games, scored his first career goal, saw 14:09 ATOI, blocked 9 shots, and finished 18 checks.
Attard and Ginning join a defensive corps that includes Emil Andrae, Victor Mete, Helge Grans, Ethan Samson, Louie Belpedio, and the recently-signed Hunter McDonald. Brink and Lycksell will help the offense and will be joining the likes of team-points-leader in Cooper Marody, Samu Tuomaala, and Tanner Laczynski.
If the postseason started today, the sixth-seeded Phantoms would face the third-seeded Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins – the minor league affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins. The first two rounds are a best-of-5 series while the Conference Finals and Calder Cup Finals are a best-of-7 series.
The Phantoms finish their regular season with three games in as many days from the 19th to the 21st of April against the Bridgeport Islanders, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, and the Charlotte Checkers.
