North American Prospect October Review

Forwards:

Brendan Ranford is the standout prospect this month. He has got off to a blazing start in the month of October. He is currently tied for 6th in the WHL for points and is 3rd in goals. He also leads the Kamloops Blazers in goals and points. He is currently on pace to finish with 99 points which would be a 34 point increase from his career high of 65 points last year.

October is a month Phantoms forwards would like to forget. They’ve been one of the most offensively inept teams in the AHL. Andrew Rowe leads the way in goals with 4. Jonathan Kalinkski and Eric Wellwood are the next best scoring threats with 3. Zac Rinaldo is the only other forward with more than 1 goal. The QMJHL trio of Dave Labrecque, Tye McGinn, and Michael Chaput all had solid months. Labrecque finished at a point per game clip with McGinn and Chaput scoring at nearly a point per game pace.

Defenseman:

Joonas Lehtivuori has been one of the Phantoms biggest offensive in the early going, but seems to be struggling with his defensive game a bit as he sports a team worst -10. Like Lehtivuori, Erik Gustafsson has also been another one of the Phantoms biggest scoring threats. Gustafsson and Lehtivuori are tied for 2nd in scoring for the Phantoms with the departure of Patrick Maroon. Tyler Hostetter has had a fantastic October in terms of his offensive production. He is currently on pace to eclipse his career high in points by 14 points. Unfortunately he also sports a team worst -12. Ricard Blidstrand had a tough month defensively playing on one of the worst teams in the WHL. He is tied for a team worst -12.

Goalies:

October wasn’t a very kind month for most of our goalies. Johan Backlund and Brian Stewart are stuck on the AHL’s worst Phantoms and have been getting shelled most nights. October was a fairly mixed month for Adam Morrison. He was given the chance to start half of Saskatoon’s games due to injuries that have plagued their starter. He gave up more than three goals three different times, but he let in 1 or fewer goals twice including a shutout. Nic Riopel has been given the opportunity to start every game for Greenville so far and has largely played well. He has let in 2 or fewer goals in 3 of his 5 starts. His stats are skewed by one poor start where he let in 7 goals on 33 shots. Riopel was named the ECHL goalie of the week for his performace for the week of 10/25 – 10/31.