Reading Royals Review

TMLfans.ca guest columnist Barry Schickling returns with one of his regular updates on the Leafs prospects playing for the Reading Royals of the ECHL.

The Royals Review

(Dec. 29-Jan. 10)
READING, Pa. – It’s fairly common for minor-league teams at the “AA” level to struggle this time of year, particularly as a result of injuries, recalls and player loans. At one point early this month the Reading Royals, ECHL affiliate of the Maple Leafs and Marlies, had 14 such affected players. Reading even had to play with a less than full 16-skater roster for a few games in the last couple weeks. But when the Marlies returned left wing Ben Gordon (who had been on a tryout contract) and defenceman Joey Ryan to Pennsylvania, the Royals snapped back to life and earned a convincing 7-3 win over Florida on Jan. 9 and bumped their East Division lead back to five points over Elmira. Reading has reached the mid-point of its schedule with a 20-13-1-2 mark.

Here’s a look at what the Toronto-contracted players have been up to over the past two weeks (with this season’s ECHL statistics).

Ben Gordon – After his seven-game stint with the Marlies, during which he scored twice and added three assists, Gordon returned to Reading still flying high. The International Falls, Minn. native who was ECHL Player of the Month in December (the first Royal to ever earn that honour), contributed four assists in a win against Florida on Jan. 10 and leads the team in goals, assists, points, shots and plus-minus despite having played in only 29 of the team’s 36 games. He’s fourth in the ECHL in scoring, has a point in six straight ECHL games and has multiple points in 17 games for Reading this season. (29GP-16G – 28A –+12 – 29 PIM) (Under contract to Reading.)

Joey Ryan – The second-year pro defenceman played five games with the Marlies prior to returning to Reading. In his first game back with the Royals he played a conservative, steady game, good for a +2 rating. Almost all his ice time in that game came in even-strength situations. (26GP-2G – 5A – -2 – 39 PIM)

Eric Werner – Now second on the team in plus/minus, the fifth-year pro defenceman is the class of the Royals’ blue line. He’s been a plus in eight of his last 10 games, leads the team’s defencemen in assists and has four-multi-point games this season. He quarterbacks the first power-play unit and sees lots of ice time in all situations. (32GP-3G – 12A – +11 – 23 PIM)

Blast from the past: One of the players who suited up for Florida in its game at Reading on Jan. 10 was former Toronto and St. John’s Maple Leaf Paul Healey. The Edmonton native, a former Prince Albert (OHL) star, played 65 games with the Leafs and 75 games with the Baby Leafs from 2001-03. Now 34, he played in Sweden, Finland and Austria the last three seasons. The 1993 eighth-round draft choice of Philadelphia has four goals and three assists in 10 games with the Everblades this season.