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Strength and physicality were Bump's key points of emphasis to work on over the summer after he got knocked around once the Phantoms progressed past the first round in the Calder Cup playoffs. If the 21-year-old winger can keep strong on the puck, and up his offensive production while he's at it, something will inevitably open up for him up with the Flyers. • Denver Barkey, and fellow London Knight Oliver Bonk (more on him below), were notably turning pro with the Phantoms this season after holding fans' attention down in juniors ever since they were drafted by the Flyers in the summer of 2023. Barkey also collected a goal in the weekend road trip to Cleveland after crashing in on a rush and jamming a puck past former Flyers goaltender Ivan Fedotov. It was Barkey's first goal as a pro. Injury and illness have set the 20-year-old back at various points throughout the past couple of years, but when he's gotten on the ice and stayed on it, he's been an offensive force who just might prove one of the early steals of the 2023 draft class as a third-round pick. • Karsen Dorwart appears to have the finishing touch on a line with Bump and Devin Kaplan. The 23-year-old is at three goals on the season to lead the Phantoms in scoring in the early going, which included this re-direct against Hershey on Bump's shot and assist: • Devin Kaplan is in a similar boat on the wing, as another late-season college signing out of Boston University last year. The 21-year-old has racked up two goals and two assists through his six games with the Phantoms so far. • Zayde Wisdom has had a long journey through the Flyers' development pipeline, and might still have a long path ahead of him as a former 2020 fourth-round pick from the previous Chuck Fletcher-managed era. The forward prospect was lost for a long time, but finally found a light last season when he piled up 13 goals and 32 points, which were by far his best for his minor-league career. This season, he jumped out with two goals against Hershey last Friday, including the game-winner within the final minute of the third period. • Oliver Bonk was set to take off with the Phantoms alongside Barkey, but then he disappeared from training camp with an upper-body injury that went from day-to-day to week-to-week and now to unclear. That nature of the injury itself isn't clear either outside of its typical hockey designation, but Brière did comment on it earlier in the week while speaking about Jett Luchanko's re-assignment back to Guelph in the OHL. "As far as Oliver, we didn't know how serious it was at first," Brière said. "We kept him out of rookie camp, then it lingered. We kept him out of main camp thinking that it would get better, and just, it's been a slow process with his upper-body injury. But it's going well now. We're just hoping that there's no setbacks. We're trying to give him the time and proper space between skates for him to feel good enough to come back and play. It's a little tougher on the timeline with him. We're kinda waiting on the progression and making sure there's no setback on him." It's not an entirely ominous outlook on Bonk, but not exactly a 100-percent optimistic one either. Bonk was the Flyers' later first-round pick out of London in the 2023 draft, and came with the projection of being a strong two-way defenseman who would, at minimum, eventually slot into the Flyers' top four on the blue line. Now at age 20, Bonk went on to impress as a heavy point-producing defenseman down in juniors with the Knights over the next two seasons, and looked to take that next step into the pro game with the Phantoms, while the Flyers were just a phone call away for that first look. But the idea seems on indefinite hold now. MORE: The Flyers show promise, fight in re-ignited Pens rivalry • Helge Grans is a big right-handed defenseman who could, in theory, add some bulk to the Flyers' blue line so long as Rasmus Ristolainen is out (Brière also mentioned Ristolainen is looking at another 4-6 weeks with his re-injured triceps). The 23-year-old didn't put enough of a dent in training camp, though, so he went back to Lehigh Valley, but so far, so good over in Allentown from the looks of it. Grans has two goals and two assists so far, which includes this game-tying clapper from the Phantoms' shootout loss to Hershey last Saturday: Last season, the left-handed shot notched four goals and 14 assists in his first full minor-league season. So far this year, the 23-year-old only has one helper, but is skating at plus-2 as a more physical stay-at-home defensive presence. • Carson Bjarnason showed up to dev camp in the summer with his Flyers-painted mask. The 20-year-old former second-round pick from 2023 is getting settled in as a minor-league pro up in Allentown now, posting a .910 save percentage through his first three starts. He's 1-1-1 as of Wednesday. • Aleksei Kolosov is performing, too. Whatever the rumored issues were regarding his status between the NHL, AHL, and his native Belarus and KHL, those seem to all be in the past now as the Flyers have commended the 23-year-old netminder's shifted attitude. Kolosov has started four games so far, and has a .920 save percentage with a 3-1-0 record heading toward Wednesday night. In the bigger picture, the Flyers' goaltending vision for this season, with Bjarnason and Kolosov getting minutes and developing down below while Dan Vladar and Sam Ersson handle things at the top, all seems to be going according to plan. SIGN UP HERE to receive the PhillyVoice Sports newsletter Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick Follow Nick on Bluesky: @itssnick Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
