Flyers prospect Alexis Gendron hits 20 goals for Phantoms

Flyers prospect Alexis Gendron becomes just the third rookie to score 20 goals in a season in Lehigh Valley Phantoms history.

Last night’s game was a big one for the Phantoms. With just six games remaining in the regular season season and four points remaining to hit their magic number and clinch a playoff spot, the Phantoms were looking to make a bit of noise and move a little closer to that mark with a win over division leading Hershey. And it was a competitive game — the Phantoms had the better of the chances created through just about the whole of the game, and despite Hershey putting two goals up on them in the second period, the Phantoms did well to keep them from pulling away with this one. They pulled themselves back within one late in the third period, but despite their best efforts, couldn’t complete the comeback.

But despite the loss, one really notable milestone was reached on an individual basis. That is, with his third period goal to get the Phantoms on the board, Alexis Gendron not only stepped up once again as a hugely clutch player for his team when they needed it, but he also officially hit the 20-goal mark on the season for his troubles.

With this, Gendron moves into an illustrious spot in organization history — he’s pulled into a tie for the team lead in goals scored on the season to date, but he also becomes the first Phantoms rookie to score 20 goals in a season since Elliot Desnoyers scored 23 in 2022-23, and one of only three rookies to do it since the team relocated to Lehigh Valley 10 seasons ago.

Gendron’s game has been on something of a meteoric upward trajectory since his return to the league, for the completion of his true rookie season, after last season’s brief stint in the league. “I think I made a big step from last year,” he acknowledged post-game last night, “especially my confidence-wise. I feel like I have more confidence with the puck, making more plays a little bit, not thinking about shooting every time, making more plays, being more patient. Especially in my d-zone, I’ve been better, not cheating, a lot,” he added with a smile, “but it’s been better like I said, but I need to keep growing my game.”

He’s put a lot of notable work into his game, to move towards rounding it out at the professional level, work which has served him on the scoresheet but work which certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed by his coach either. The pureness of his scoring ability might be more immediately notable, but he’s made great strides towards becoming a more multidimensional player over these last few months. “He’s a goal scorer,” Phantoms head coach Ian Laperriere echoed. “He has that touch and he has that gift which is great. But what I like about his game is the rest of it. He’s learning and he’s getting better and he’s taking pride in being a 200-foot player. He’s improving and, he just turned 21, and he’s playing a lot of heavy hockey and meaningful hockey and we’re fighting for a playoff spot and it’s great for his career just to go through that.”

Even in the collective fight for standings position, and a place in the playoffs, the weight of this hitting this individual milestone isn’t lost on Gendron. “I’m pretty happy with that,” he said. “There’s not a lot of people that would have thought I’d score 20 goals this year I think, but I did, I believed.” And that belief has served him well, carried him to a rookie season largely unprecedented in Lehigh Valley history, and a dizzying rise up the organizational depth chart.

But, as far as Gendron sees it, the work isn’t done yet. The Phantoms have a big game on deck tonight against Springfield — who trail them in the standings by just one point — and he sees more production from himself as not just possible, but necessary. “It’s a good milestone for me,” he said of hitting that 20-goal mark, “I’m happy about that but obviously I need to score some more and we’ll see, yeah, we’ll see.” This remains a critical point in the team’s season, and it isn’t lost on him, this knowledge that the team will need to do more, and the sense that he’s going to be instrumental in that.

There’s more left in the tank for him, still. As he said, it’s not just 20 goals for him, it’s “20 so far, exactly.”