On a summer morning in July, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms introduced John Snowden as their new head coach. Things felt different that day in the humid Pennsylvania air as an optimistic bright young coach was replacing an older and outdated one. In many ways, a new era was underway in Philadelphia and by default, Allentown.
Ian Laperriere was out and Snowden was in. A prominent message from his introductory presser was “this is where the rebuild for the Flyers is going to start” as Snowden confidently stated.
In the American Hockey League, there are three types of teams. The one hyper focused on winning, with development of the prospects being a beneficiary of the culture and environment. Then there are the teams who focus on development but if the team is having a great season, they’ll make a push for the Calder Cup. Then there are the teams mainly focused on development with the NHL team caring minimally about how the AHL team does.
The Phantoms sit on the outside of the playoff picture and in seventh place in the Atlantic Division with three games left in the season. With this in mind, it’s hard to say that the team cares about winning, at least this season. That said, one thing is clear, their plan worked and they developed multiple key players to turn the Flyers into a playoff team.
The Youth Movement From The Phantoms
Alex Bump, Denver Barkey, and Emil Andrae entered the season as top prospects for the Flyers but all three struggled to make the NHL out of camp. The question was whether any of the three would and when they would be ready to make an impact at the NHL level. All three did plus even depth skaters made their mark even if they weren’t prospects, players like Carl Grundestrom and Garrett Wilson who helped out the bottom six.
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The prospects weren’t stars in the NHL, at least not this season. Barkey led the above-mentioned trio in points with only 17 and Andrae was the leader in ice time with 15:14 per game. Yet, the Flyers don’t make the playoffs and secure the third seed in the Metropolitan Division without them. Barkey added a motor that made the rest of the forwards better while Bump added a scoring touch with five goals in 17 games and Andrae was a steady defensive presence for a team that was previously let down by their blue line.
It’s a credit to the development plan the Flyers had in place which not only turned the prospects into NHLers, but it also catered to each player specifically. Barkey needed to take the hits and prove he can handle the size and physicality before going to the NHL. Bump needed the games, something college hockey never provided and the grind of a full season in the AHL did. Others simply needed to learn how to play in the AHL before they moved to the NHL.
Moreover, the system the Phantoms ran mirrored the Flyers system, so prospects stepped right in and fit right in. It’s reflective how Snowden and Rick Tocchet operated all season from their demeanor behind the bench to their details in practice. “He’s got a gameplan and wants us to execute it but he’s really good at telling us what our jobs are on the ice and all these situations,” Barkey noted after an October practice when asked about his early impressions of Snowden.
Snowden Stuck to Tocchet’s Gameplan, Even at the Cost of Wins
December became a defining point in the Phantoms season. The team saw Barkey get called up to the Flyers and lost a motor they never replaced and the losses followed. The Flyers and the Phantoms play the same way, with detailed puck movement in the offensive zone and a desire to get to the interior while playing with structure in the defensive zone to protect the net front.
The problem the AHL team had was that they changed from a roster built on skill to a roster built on checking and playing a physical game. Usually, a physical team will change its identity and play with a chip and chase style and crash the net in the offensive zone. The Phantoms kept playing the same way, even without the skill in the lineup to do so.
When this happens to most teams, they pivot and change their style to keep winning games. The Phantoms didn’t. “I don't think we change what we do. It's the next man up. That's what this business is like. The expectation when you take a job in the minor leagues is that you're going to lose players to call-ups, you're going to lose players to injuries, that's going to happen.” Snowden mentioned after a 2-1 shootout win where the offense struggled but the forechecking stood out.
The Phantoms stuck to the plan, and it cost them. They went from third place in the Atlantic Division after two months of play to a middling team, to be out of the playoffs by April. “We’re just finding ways to lose games right now rather than earlier in the season, we were finding ways to win games,” Snowden mentioned in a conversation with The Hockey News as the team was spiraling down in the standings at the cost of player development. It was the price they had to pay knowing their play was still benefitting the NHL team and their playoff push.
The Missteps on the Way
It’s important to note that the Phantoms didn’t have an ideal route with their prospect development and encountered many issues. Bump missed multiple weeks with an upper-body injury that he suffered in a Dec .19 game, aggravated in a Jan. 3 game that kept him out of the lineup until Feb. 14. It’s easy to look back at that timeline and wonder whether the Phantoms should have been dealt with differently.
Oliver Bonk, the top defense prospect in the system, missed the first two months with an injury and was thrown into the fire when he returned. The Flyers wanted to see what the two-way defenseman could do so he played the point at the power play in his first games in the AHL. He looked lost and it took him nine games to acclimate to the league and finally get on the scoreboard. In hindsight, the Phantoms could have eased him into the lineup by playing him on a depth pair and moving him up over time.
On top of that, the Phantoms failed to establish a winning culture and instead, the opposite happened. In the final three months of the season, the Phantoms won nine games. A losing environment like that often prevents prospects from taking steps forward and instead, they take steps back.
That said, it comes with the territory. The goal the Flyers had for their AHL team was to provide them with prospects who can help with a playoff push. They did that and the Phantoms have another wave of prospects on the way, ready to kick off the ground running with Bonk and David Jiricek joining the team for the final game of the season and presumably for the start of next season to round out the young core.
The Flyers Success is Confirmation For Lehigh Valley
The Flyers punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup Playoffs with their 3-2 shootout win on Monday night and are building something special. They have a rebuild that is ready to take off, even without a clear-cut top-line center or a number one defenseman. Not only are they a good tea right now, but they also have young players on the roster and more on the way.
For the Phantoms, the season the Flyers had confirmed what they are doing works. “We've done a really good job at identifying how we want to use our development process and how we can implement it throughout the season.” Snowden noted. The systems they ran got their players ready for the NHL and more importantly, instilled winning habits, even when their play didn’t translate to wins.
The Phantoms will probably miss the playoffs, although a win on Wednesday night over Springfield gives them a chance to sneak in. It will be easy to look back at this season as a failure or a disappointment. In the big picture, this season is far from that. “We've shown this year and in one short year that we've been able to get to the players in a way where we can advance them and push them to where they need to be,” Snowden added.
Snowden, the coaching staff, and the development team turned a group of prospects into NHL contributors. It’s a preview of things to come and what might be in store in the upcoming seasons as well with more prospects on the way and the Flyers only getting better from here.