The 2025-26 trade deadline is today. It may or may not have impact for the AHL roster here with the Phantoms. We’ll try to time your pre-game column today with the fallout–and update if necessary.
Mid-Week Madness
An unusual Tuesday night affair up in Utica, NY saw an uninspired Phantoms team lose 4-1. They were able to achieve the defensive-failure hat trick by giving up goals short handed, power play, and empty net. A Tomasino boarding penalty in the second period led to an apparent melee and Anthony Richard abused some officials late to cap things off. Just not a great showing for the Hamilton Street Heroes.
Weekend With Carrick
Trevor Carrick and his Charlotte Checkers are in town for a double-dip. They are solidly in third place in the division behind Providence (easy schedule) and Wilkes-Barre (smoke and mirrors) and ahead of Hershey (down year). There are some familiar names on the team, mostly AHL veterans of this team or another: The aforementioned Carrick along with Pinho and veteran goalie Domingue.
Somewhat surprisingly, Charlotte’s power play is not highly ranked at all–even behind the ever-struggling Phantoms. Their PK unit is top 5, though, and perhaps why they’ve played the best hockey in the division at times this season.
Charlotte is 2-0 versus the Phantoms this season with the Lehigh Valley showing a point at 0-1-1. I’ve been told that my hate for this franchise has gone too far, what with the special treatment (extra home playoff games), affiliation chaos (can’t get along with local NHL team, had to go to Florida to find a partner) and travel difficulty (rescheduled games in Allentown and Hershey when they couldn’t adjust travel to meet their obligations). So no hate today. We’re not a great hockey team right now and I’d just like to get a point or two this weekend.
Records and Standings
Record: 24-24-2-3
Standings:. Fifth place, by one point, as Bridgeport has been faltering
If The Season Ended Today (spoiler: it doesn’t):. Playoffs 1-1-1 with Hershey in the first round.
Home: 12-12-1-2
Away: 12-12-1-1
Recent: 3-6-0-1 in last 10 games
Overtime: 4-2
Shootout: 4-3
Friday: 5-9
Saturday: 14-4-0-3
Sunday: 3-5-1
[Sunday 3/3: 0-2-1]
Monday:.0-1-1
Tuesday: 0-1
Wednesday: 3-4
October: 5-3-0-1
November: 5-3-1-1
December: 5-5-1
January: 5-6
February: 2-6-0-1
March: 1-1
White “Road” Jerseys: 9-5-1-1
Black with Orange “Alternate” Jerseys: 6-7-1-1
Orange “Home” Jerseys: 6-6
“Black-Out” Jerseys: 0-2-0-1
“Faux-Back” Keystone Black: 2-2
Charcoal Gray “Forgotten Preseason”: 1-1
“Orange Out” 2026: 0-1
Post-Game Fan Event Game: 2-1
Roster Update
Defender Swaps: Ginning is in Philadelphia, Schmidt was traded, and Vincent Sévigny, Ben Meehan, and Artem Guryev are up from Reading. Sevvy is #55, Meehan is #7, and Guryev is #57 if you need to update your scorecard.
Boris and Natasha: Mostly Boris. Welcome Boris Katchouk. The long-time Syracuse forward from Canada who had a nice season for Wilkes-Barre last year has been unspectacular in stints with Iowa and Syracuse this season. He’s the return for Schmidt. Tomasino’s out there starting brawls, Richard is berating officials. We need all the help we can get. He’ll be wearing #61 and his nickname has to be “Koo Koo” right? Or maybe ‘Walrus?’
Captain Contract: Garrett Wilson signed an NHL deal yesterday, of the two-way variety, and was immediately put on waivers to be re-assigned to the Phantoms. It’s just for the remainder of this season. Why bother? With the trade deadline looming, he could be needed for some depth in Philadelphia and they wanted to make sure he was locked up prior to executing those trades.
Trade! Phantoms send F Massimo Rizzo and F Alexis Gendron to the Bruins for defenseman Jackson Edward and forward Brett Harrison. Edward and Harrison will join the Phantoms.
Phantoms Media:
Edward, 22, is a 6’2″ defenseman from Newmarket, Ontario who has played in nine games with the Providence Bruins this season recording zero points. He has also played in 21 games with the Maine Mariners of the ECHL this season notching seven assists. In his two-year pro career, the London Knightgs product has played in 40 games with Providence scoring 1-6-7 and also 28 games with Maine scoring 1-8-9. Edward won an OHL Championship in 2023-24 with London where he was teammates with Denver Barkey, Oliver Bonk and Sawyer Boulton.
Harrison, 22, is a lefty-shooting center from London, Ontario who has scored 8-9-17 with Providence this season in 40 games played. He has played in 140 career AHL games with Providence over three seasons scoring 19-29-48. Harrison was a third-round selection of the Bruins out of the Oshawa Generals and Windsor Spitfires of the OHL.
Trade 2! Flyers send F Bobby Brink to the Wild for big D-man David Jiricek, a former 6th overall pick. Jiricek has been loaned to the Phantoms, but it’s not clear if he’ll play here or head to Philly after the deadline as a sort of paper move.
(This space will be updated as the trade deadline passes)
GAME DAY!
First Friday dollar dogs! Let’s go!
Game Time: 7:05PM Event; 7:17PM Hockey
Doors: 6:00PM all doors. Season Ticket Entrances open at 5:45PM
Promotions: Dollar Dog Night, $1 hot dogs until the first intermission. America 250 weekend: PA 250 warm-ups, obligatory patriotism. It’s an ‘Orange Out’ game as well!
Tickets: Widely available, some deals to be had on the secondary markets.
Parking: No news to report. $10 at the close decks, $5 at the outside decks, pre-purchase for the arena deck.
MEDIA KIT:
OFFICIALS:
Referees: Nolan Bloyer (#95), Mike Dietrich (#15) Linesperson: Robert Peterkin (#51), John Rey (#16)
What To Watch
- It was Bjarny Tuesday in Utica, so we’re looking for Koly – Bjarny – Koly this weekend, barring anything unusual with the roster
- Watch that Linesperson Rey, #16. I think he’s one of the ones famous for the pump-fake puck drops. Notice how smooth that game was last Sunday when they just got the pucks down and we could watch hockey?
- [Insert your own joke about Charlotte’s travel plans, here]
- Watch to see if any of the newer guys get in the game tonight.
- There was supposed to be something special about the dollar dogs tonight. I never heard what it was, but watch out for some wrinkle or contest or something.
- No more post-games at Chickie’s. They were supposed to do something different, but never did, to my knowledge.
- Check out the new store if you haven’t already. The PA 250 merch is kinda cool. I’m tempted.
- Watch our PK to see if they can be successful against a very average, or below, power play.
- We’ll try to update above, but watch the transactions for both real trades as well as paper moves for playoff help from the Flyers–if any.
Up Next
Right back here tomorrow for a repeat of tonight’s game for Saturday Night Hockey Live. Then, Sunday in Bridgeport and a reverse next weekend where they’ll be away Friday and Saturday before a Sunday matinee at the PPL Center with Wilkes-Barre
See you at the arena,
@Kram207