Anthony Richard, Michael Carcone, Matthew Phillips among AHL All-Stars still patiently awaiting NHL calls

Mike Gould
Mike Gould
Anthony Richard, Michael Carcone, Matthew Phillips among AHL All-Stars still patiently awaiting NHL calls
Credit: Vitor Munhoz / Arena du Rocket Inc.

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LAVAL, QC. – Montreal knows Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard. It’s also very familiar with Henri Richard, the ‘Pocket Rocket.’

Well, these days, Laval Rocket forward and Trois-Rivières product Anthony Richard is becoming the ‘Rocket Rocket.’

The 26-year-old forward scored goals and won hearts this past weekend at the 2023 AHL All-Star Classic in Laval, QC, competing for Team North in both the skills competition and the 3-on-3 tournament.

Richard clearly had a blast showing off his talents in front of his home fans. The 5’10”, 186-pound center has been a force with the otherwise middling Rocket all season long, scoring 22 goals and 42 points in 38 AHL games — and, along the way, earning his first cup of coffee with the Montreal Canadiens.

Before this season, Richard had spent the better part of a decade in the Nashville Predators organization without finding much of a foothold as a prospect. Naturally, he feels right at home in Laval. And with only 17 Orange Metro line stops separating Place Bell (home of the Rocket) and Centre Bell (the Canadiens’ cathedral), the NHL doesn’t feel so far away anymore.

“I knew coming to Laval was a good fit for me, just the fact that every game you play in front of your family, there’s always someone watching,” Richard said Monday. “It was the right decision. After this event, my main goal is just to go back to Montreal and finish the season there. If it doesn’t happen, I’ll stay here and make the [Rocket] go to the playoffs.

“I know that the building here is crazy in the playoffs, so, either way, it’s going to be a great end to the season.”

Place Bell was jam-packed for both the skills competition on Sunday and the game the following evening. Richard and Alex Belzile, the two Rocket players in attendance, received massive ovations whenever they were shown on the Jumbotron or their names were announced over the loudspeakers.

The goal horn only went off when Richard and Belzile scored in the All-Star Game.

Richard was but one representative from a particularly intriguing crop of players in attendance at the weekend’s festivities in Laval.

While there were the highly touted youngsters just breaking into professional hockey (Jesper Wallstedt, Thomas Bordeleau, and Dustin Wolf, to name a few) and the wily vets who have been around the block (T.J. Tynan, Riley Nash, etc), Richard doesn’t really fit into either of those categories.

Richard is 26. He has just nine NHL games to his name. While he’s too old to be truly considered a “prospect,” by no means is he a known quantity in the NHL. He’s a bit of a late bloomer … and, because of his age, a pending unrestricted free agent.

Michael Carcone is another one of these players. The Tucson Roadrunners star currently leads the entire AHL in scoring, which you might not have seen coming if you followed the Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, or Vancouver Canucks in the late 2010s.

The Canucks signed Carcone as an undrafted free agent out of the OHL in 2016. From there, the 5’9″, 170-pound winger settled in as a middle-six guy with the Canucks’ AHL affiliate in Utica before being traded to the Maple Leafs for Josh Leivo; less than a year later, he was included in the seven-piece Nikita Zaitsev/Cody Ceci blockbuster with the Senators.

After all that, Carcone signed with the Arizona Coyotes as a UFA in 2020 and has consistently taken steps forward in the AHL ever since. With the Roadrunners in 2020–21: 25 points in 35 games. 2021–22: 41 points in 48 games, extended NHL call-up. 2022–23 (to date): 62 points in 39 games, more NHL looks.

That’s the type of upward trajectory that gets you noticed.

“If you ask me, I’m ready,” Carcone said Monday. “I’m ready to move on to the next level here. We’ve had those tough conversations internally. Obviously, I’m comfortable where I am and the goal is to stay in Arizona. We’ll see what happens.

“As of right now, I want to be a Coyote.”

That’s the dichotomy with players on the NHL bubble: they’ve thrived in their respective AHL systems to reach a certain point, but they might end up needing to leave the environments in which they’ve become so comfortable to find that elusive NHL opportunity. Like Richard, Carcone is a 26-year-old pending UFA.

Carcone has appeared in 30 NHL games with the Coyotes over the last two seasons, scoring six goals. With the Coyotes having recently assigned top prospect Dylan Guenther back to the Western Hockey League, there’s a solid chance Carcone returns to the NHL for the stretch drive.

The same can’t confidently be said for Matthew Phillips, the AHL’s leading goal-scorer and, like Carcone, a member of the champion Team Pacific at the All-Star Game on Monday. Phillips, 24, has been a major driving force behind the Calgary Wranglers’ considerable success all season long, piling up 24 goals and 48 points in 38 games.

Amid considerable fan pressure, the Calgary Flames recalled Phillips from the Wranglers in December. But after averaging 9:02 of ice time in two games, Phillips sat in the press box as a healthy scratch for two weeks before being sent back to the AHL.

Unlike Carcone and Richard, Phillips has been in the Flames organization since the day he was drafted in 2016. But it just doesn’t look like there’ll be a fit for him (and his 5’8″, 160-pound frame) under current Flames head coach Darryl Sutter.

Phillips is another pending UFA who has very little left to prove in the AHL. He led the Stockton Heat (Calgary’s previous affiliate) in scoring last season before helping the club reach the Western Conference Final. And he’s two years younger than both Carcone and Richard.

But Phillips is from Calgary. He wears an ‘A’ with the Wranglers and is a fan favorite in the city. If he sticks around in the organization, he could eventually succeed Brett Sutter as Wranglers captain — but would he be willing to do that at the cost of a potential NHL opportunity elsewhere?

All those questions will be answered in the summer. Phillips did his part for Team Pacific over the weekend, competing in multiple events at the skills competition and scoring four points during the 3-on-3 tournament.

As a member of the winning team, Phillips took home a $500 cash prize.

“All the top players in the [AHL] are here,” Phillips said Sunday. “Plenty of guys graduate from here and go on to play in the NHL. It’s a cool thing and I’m pretty honored to be a part of it.”

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