Just as the injury bug is striking the Flyers again and again, so too has it been doing some damage to their affiliate down with the Phantoms.
The Phantoms are working with a lineup which has already been a bit depleted due to call-ups to the NHL — missing all of Carl Grundstrom, Denver Barkey, and now Adam Ginning — and it’s just getting thinner. This weekend saw them on the road for a pair of games in Springfield and Providence, and quickly down two of their top players.
Alex Bump took an initial upper-body injury back on December 19, when he took a bit of an awkward looking hit on his first shift of the game and came off to the bench working his shoulder, before exiting the game completely. This injury would keep him out for the next two weeks and change, but it looked like he had avoided the worst case scenario with that injury, when he was able to get back into the lineup for the Phantoms last Saturday in Belleville. This was a game in which he seemed to hold up well — both in his ability to get back up to speed quickly but also, of course, physically — but it was not a surprise to see that he was being held out of the lineup the following afternoon as the team presumably aimed to take his return slowly and ease him back into action. That said, it became clear that there was something more serious continuing to ail Bump when he was not available to play in either of this weekend’s games, stretching his absence now to three games.
No Alex Bump for the Phantoms again today — the 3rd game he’s missed with the UBI after returning last week. Not sure exactly what the situation is, but I keep thinking how, even though he finished the game, I did not Love the look of this hit (the 3rd on that shift) at the time pic.twitter.com/PjTlnuuywf
— Madeline Campbell (@madelinecampbll) January 11, 2026
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And while there aren’t any official updates on Bump’s status at the moment — and surely won’t be until the team returns back to Allentown — a shift early in that game in Belleville stands out. In it, Bump took a couple of hard knocks while being defended on the rush at the beginning of the shift, and then finished that long shift by taking another hard shoulder-to-shoulder hit into the boards before he labored off for a change.
These contacts weren’t serious enough to have him pulled from the game, of course, and it’s uncertain whether they’re related, but a couple of hard hits to the upper body as he’s recovering from an upper-body injury can’t help but raise the alarm bells.
This was a big loss for the Phantoms, and it wouldn’t be the only one that they would have to work around this weekend. Saturday’s game in Springfield also saw Ty Murchison take something of a flukey looking injury. After delivering a hard but clean hit in open ice early in the third period and being to challenged to fight in response to it, Murchison was wrestled down to the ice and stayed down for a bit, before coming off supporting his left arm. He did not return that evening, and was not available for this afternoon’s game in Providence.
The Phantoms have been operating for much of this season with a wealth of depth — at times, even too much depth — and it’s helped them keep things rolling well enough up to this point, as they’ve been tested, but if either of these injuries are to be the longer-term variety, they’re absences that will certainly be felt in a big way.