After losing a handful of forwards at the NHL trade deadline, the Philadelphia Flyers organization suffered another loss at the position through injury.
On Saturday night, Lehigh Valley Phantoms communications director Bob Rotruck shared that Flyers forward prospect Devin Kaplan had undergone surgery to address an upper-body injury, sidelining him for seven to 10 weeks.
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Kaplan, 22, had produced five goals, eight assists, and 13 points in 49 games for the Phantoms in his first year playing pro this season.
The former third-round pick also made his NHL debut for the Flyers last season, playing 12:12 in a 5-4 loss to the Buffalo Sabres in Game 82.
Kaplan hasn’t played for the Phantoms since a 5-4 shootout loss to the Hartford Wolf Pack on Feb. 28; he scored in the game and recorded 12 penalty minutes for roughing and abuse of officials penalties.
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The injury is bad news for the Phantoms, who just lost Alex Bump to an NHL call-up, have been without Denver Barkey for quite some time now, and saw Alexis Gendron get traded to Boston at the NHL trade deadline.
Aside from Karsen Dorwart, and perhaps Phil Tomasino, the Phantoms are now completely devoid of young forward talent coming up through the NHL pipeline.
They’ll get some reinforcements from the Flyers at the end of their season when Bump and Denver Barkey return, but until then, surviving is looking like an increasingly difficult task for Lehigh Valley.
The Phantoms are currently 24-25-6 on the season, sitting sixth in the Atlantic Division with 54 points. A meager three-point buffer separates them from the Springfield Thunderbirds and missing the postseason, so they’ll have to hold onto their playoff spot without Kaplan.
