Staff file photo / Brian Yauger Phantoms forward Adam Benak attempts a shot during the shootout in a March contest against Dubuque this past season.

In the months following the November ruling that opened up NCAA hockey to Canadian Hockey League players by striking down eligibility restrictions, the junior hockey landscape has been in a state of flux.

Before the change, if Canadian players were looking to play for NCAA programs when they were done with junior hockey, they likely went the USHL route.

The rule change affected USHL teams soon after, including in Youngstown. Both Eric Frossard and Zach Morin left the Phantoms program for CHL teams.

While it’s made things more difficult for USHL programs to attract and maintain players, the Phantoms aren’t scared off by the new landscape of junior hockey. They’re confident in their ability to bring players in and keep them.

And who can blame them?

Outside of the US National Team Development Program, the Phantoms trail just one junior hockey program, the London Knights (OHL), in producing NHL Draft picks since 2021.

Over the last three seasons alone, they’ve produced 14 NHL Draft selections.

After the 2025 NHL Draft, the Phantoms added four to that number, including Sascha Boumedienne (Winnipeg Jets, first round), Charlie Cerrato (Carolina Hurricanes, second round), Adam Benak (Minnesota Wild, fourth round), and Ryan Rucinski (Buffalo Sabres, seventh round).

The Phantoms’ organization has been vocal in talking about their goal in making Youngstown the top place in the world to play junior hockey. Finding top talent and preparing them for the next level is the best way to achieve that.

“I think we’ve really built a reputation in Youngstown that people feel comfortable sending their players to us,” Phantoms co-GM Jason Deskins said. “We’ve developed a ton of NHL picks. I think after this draft, we might end up being number one in North America for the last four drafts for a number of players getting drafted in the NHL. I think there’s a lot of trust in what we do. I think there’s a lot of agents and advisors and colleges that would like their players to play in Youngstown and feel comfortable with that.

“I think we dealt with it probably less than maybe others, and I don’t anticipate there being a whole lot of movement from our returning players, or even our (USHL) draft picks to the CHL, I feel we’re in a pretty good spot.”

With the junior hockey landscape in such an unstable state, the Phantoms are expanding their footprint. While the majority of the roster is stateside, the team has made a concerted effort to put down roots in Europe, namely Czechia.

In the most recent USHL Draft, the Phantoms selected eight players from Czechia. In total, 20 Czech players were selected.

For lack of a better word, Czech players check a lot of boxes in what the Phantoms want in a player.

“We knew that we wanted to go after some particular kids, and then working with some different agents that we have relationships with, we felt very confident in the type of play we were gonna get,” Deskins said. “I think we’ve had a lot of success with Czech kids. They’re just built like Phantoms, to be honest. They’re all extremely hard workers and very humble kids that are great teammates, so we’ve had a lot of success with those types of kids in the past, and we just felt very comfortable going down that road here for the future.

Two of those picks have already been confirmed by the team to be playing in Youngstown this fall. Over the past two weeks, the Phantoms have been announcing the arrival or return of players to the team. So far, they’ve announced that goaltender Tobias Trejbal and forward Adam Zidlicky will both be in Youngstown this season, as well as the return of forward Jakub Hes.

The Phantoms are set to further increase their footprint overseas this summer, hosting the USHL’s first-ever European camp at the Buly Arena in Kravare, Czechia.

Ward, Deskins, and skills coach Karl Linden are set to be joined by Phantoms’ alums Daniel Jencko and Martin Misiak, who both hail from neighboring Slovakia.

“I think that’s something that is a little bit different,” Ward said. “We have never done it. It’s a chance to get all of our European players together. We’re big on culture and building our program through our locker room, and I think the more you can get the guys together, the better. And the other thing it does is it allows us to educate people about Youngstown and the Phantoms, and answer questions and really expose our brand to the European market. We’ll have all of our European players there, we’ll have some of our draft picks there, and then some free agents that will be really interesting. We’re really excited to do something a little bit different. Adam Jonak, who is our assistant GM and director of European scouting, has kind of spearheaded putting that together. He’s doing a great job and I’m just super excited to kind of get over there and meet people and see what we have.”

With how quickly the landscape has changed since the November ruling, it was a priority to be on the forefront of a new direction.

“For us, we look at things a little differently,” Ward said. “I think the landscape’s changing, but the one thing that’s not changing is you know how we develop our players, how we do things, and I believe that, players, no matter what league you’re in, the content and curriculum and the process that a team has is the most important thing. I feel like our staff is phenomenal and I feel like we have a really good process in place.

“We’re second in the entire world, as far as producing NHL Draft picks over the last three seasons and to me, that speaks volumes about Youngstown, about our management, about our ownership and what resources that they provide to the players. For us getting that foothold in Europe and obviously continuing to build what we’ve done here in North America, we feel real confident here going into the future.”

Camp starts on July 14.