BSH prospect report: Big week for Boston

Dec 7, 2022 - 5:00 PM

We’ll kick things off with the news of the week. First up, World Junior camps are just around the corner, and the Flyers have a couple of prospects who we already know will be attending their nations’. Unsurprisingly, Cutter Gauthier was invited to the United States’ camp, and a little more surprisingly, Ethan Samson was invited to Canada’s. Gauthier should be pretty close to a lock for the American team, and while Samson has a bit more of an outside chance of making the Canadian team, it does speak to the season he’s had that he was able to work his way onto Hockey Canada’s radar for this one.

And for a bit more Gauthier-related news, he was also named Hockey East’s Rookie of the Month for November. It’s been a big week for him!

What’s up with the Phantoms?

We’ll come back to Gauthier in a moment (sorry for the spoiler), but let’s check in with the Phantoms first. All in all, it was a less successful week than the last we talked about for them. They kicked things off with a tough loss to the Bears on Wednesday—and the curse of them playing badly while showcased on national tv lives on—and then headed down to Charlotte for a pair of games on the weekend. They split that one, picking up a 3-2 win on Friday, but then going on to dropping Saturday’s by a score of 6-4.

But, if nothing else, that does make for a good bit of scoring for us to highlight here. Elliot Desnoyers led the charge for them, putting up two goals and nine shots on goal on the week, as he continues to drive offense well, despite having his minutes a bit more limited.

We also saw an eventful week out of Tyson Foerster. On the one hand, he picked up a goal and an assist in the Saturday loss, which helped to propel him into the team lead in points (with 14 in his first 19 games played). We also saw him tagged for two minor penalties on Wednesday, one for holding and another for boarding. And we’ve talked at times already this season about how Foerster is working to bring a bit more of a physical edge to his game, and at times he’s quite successful in doing so, but it’s clear he’s still working on clearly locating the line, so as not to step over it. It’s a work in progress, he’ll get there.

And for the odds and ends: Olle Lycksell had a stellar goal on Wednesday, continuing his strong stretch of play, and Ronnie Attard put up two assists on the week, one in each game in Charlotte, and four shots on goal on his assist-less game on Wednesday.

And on the goaltending side, it was a somewhat middling week for Samuel Ersson, as far as the raw results go. He started in all three games that week, and ended it with a .903 save percentage. That said, he was also very busy in those three games, as he faced a total of 103 across those three games, and no fewer than 30 in a single outing.

To the eye, he wasn’t really playing all that poorly, he just had a fine enough stretch and a couple of games when the support from the skaters was, shall we say, not at an all time high.

The prospect world tour

As our headline suggests, there was more going on this week for the Flyers’ prospects playing in Boston than one being named to his national team’s selection camp roster and given an award by his conference (if you’ll believe it). Cutter Gauthier also had a nice week on the ice for Boston College as well. He picked up a goal and nine assists in BC’s pair of games against Providence on the weekend, as the offense continues to click for him.

It was also a productive week for the Flyers’ pair of prospects over at Boston University, lest we forget. Jay O’Brien chipped in a goal and two assists, and Devin Kaplan also had a goal and one assist in BU’s sweep over New Hampshire. It’s been a good start to the season for their team, and while these two haven’t brought the same kinds of flashy performances that we’ve seen from Gauthier, we shouldn’t see them getting too lost in the shuffle. There’s a lot going well out here!

And we’ll move abroad for a moment before we close this thing out, and check in, one again, with Emil Andrae. His success on the season rolls on! He went pointless in his first game of the week, but responded very well in his second, putting up a whopping four assists, factoring into four of the six goals scored by his HV71 squad on the night. Not too shabby.