The News of the Week
We had some legitimately big transaction news come down this week. With Rodrigo Abols and Anthony Richard recalled to the Flyers, Olle Lycksell was sent back down to the Phantoms, and Aleksei Kolosov will be joining him. And it’s a move that makes a lot of sense for everyone — Kolosov became the third man in the Flyers rotation and was barely playing, and the Phantoms pretty desperately finding themselves in need of added goaltending support, with Cal Petersen set to be out for at least the next six weeks.
Outside of that, we had some big news coming out of the NCAA, as the Hobey Baker nominations were announced. Cole Knuble and Alex Bump were both named to the preliminary list, and we’ll still have to see if they make it to the list of top-10 finalists, which will be announced in March, but to even get to this point is a big honor.
Three Stars
Alex Bump
Speaking of Alex Bump, he got the nod for the Hobey this week, and he made it very clear during last weekend’s pair of games why that nod was deserved. Western Michigan pulled off a big sweep of North Dakota on the weekend, and Bump came away from it with two goals in each game and an additional assist to top things off. It’s clear that he’s gotten a handle of scoring at the NCAA level, but it’s still been nice to see him rising to the occasion in big moments for his team. That’s going to go a long way down the stretch, with the NCAA tournament just a couple of months away.
Denver Barkey
Barkey may have been dethroned as the first star of the week, but that certainly doesn’t mean that he had a poor week, not by any stretch of the imagination. It was a busy week for him, with four games on the schedule, and he put up three goals and two assists between them (between three of them, to be precise, as he was held off the board in London’s game about Kitchener — their only loss of the week). There’s still a lot of season left, but the games are getting more and more meaningful as they draw nearer to the postseason, and Barkey is continuing to do everything he can to rise to the occasion.
Alex Ciernik
And finally, we’ll touch base with Alex Ciernik, who we haven’t heard from in a hot second here. It’s been a bit of an up and down season for him up to this point, but he had himself a big week, with two goals and an assist over his last three games played. This was a nice but of production on its own, but it was also meaningful for the fact that it broke a five-game points drought for him. Now, consistency has been a bit of an issue for him this season, so the bigger question is whether he’s able to build on this week, but he’s got a good foundation in place to send things in the right direction.
Honorable Mentions
The Phantoms had a thinner week of action, with just two games on the schedule for the weekend, but it was still a reasonably productive one for the prospect group. They got a nice bit of offense from the back end, with Helge Grans and Ethan Samson both picking up a goal on the weekend. Jacob Gaucher chipped in a pair of assists to get his offense going again, while Samu Tuomaala and Elliot Desnoyers each had one apiece.
Abroad, things are getting going again for Ilya Pautov, who’s once again finding a nice bit of production after hitting a bit of a cold streak. He had a goal and an assist across his two games played this week.
And then up in the CHL, Barkey wasn’t the only one rolling this week. Fellow Knight Oliver Bonk was cruising at a cool point per game pace over this week, putting up a goal and three assists. Jett Luchanko, back from his suspension, has also gotten rolling again pretty quickly — he was held off the board in his first game back, but he had a goal and an assist in his second game against Saginaw. Noah Powell is also hitting the ground running nicely as he gets into the swing of things at the OHL level. In his last three games, he has two goals and an assist.
Down in the USHL, Heikki Ruohonen is getting rolling again after a working through a bit of a reacclimation period after returning to the league from World Juniors. Across his three games played last week, he had a goal and three assists, one of his most productive stretches of the season.
And finally, to bring it back full circle to our Hobey Baker nominees, Knuble met his nomination with a very productive week as well. In Notre Dame’s two-game series with Minnesota last weekend (which they came away from with a split) Knuble had a goal and two assists, as he continues to be a real driver of their offense.