Flyers prospect Massimo Rizzo makes professional debut with Phantoms

The Phantoms have been increasingly shorthanded of late, but tonight’s matchup in Providence saw them get at least one bit of reinforcement added into the mix — at long last, Massimo Rizzo returned from injury to make his professional debut.

It’s been a long time coming, that’s for certain. Rizzo joined the Phantoms after the close of his college season last year, and was around down the stretch of the regular season and into the playoffs, but never actually got in for any games, as he worked his way back to full health from a an ankle sprain that he’d been battling for the back half of the season. He finally got back into game action during the Phantoms preseason — and showed some good flash therein — but after feeling something off and getting checked out after the three game exhibition series, it was determined that he would have to undergo surgery for an appendectomy, and just like that, he was sidelined for another month an a half.

It’s the first step after a long layoff, and the Phantoms were very much easing Rizzo back into things. All in all, really, it was a pretty low-event game for him — he skated on the fourth line and didn’t get any meaningful special teams time, so his minutes were really limited. The Phantoms were also shut out in this game, and struggled across the board to get a whole lot going in the way of good and dangerous chances, but even in that, Rizzo came away without even a shot on goal.

If he wasn’t much of a factor in his first game back with the team, it’s hard to be too upset about it. He only just started skating again over the last couple of weeks, and it’s going to be a little while still before he gets himself all the way back up to game speed. It’s good to see him back out there though, and he seems eager to get going again — in an interview with Phantoms broadcaster Bob Rotruck from earlier this week, Rizzo joked that he feels a bit lighter and quicker on his feet without his appendix weighing him down. There are opportunities aplenty for movement up in the lineup, to make an impression on a team that is finally looking like they’re starting to put it together, and the door is wide open for Rizzo to take advantage of that. There’s no need to rush him, it will all come together for him in time, but the door remains open.