Phantoms lean on veterans for leadership

There is no shortage of leaders on the AHL's Adirondack Phantoms, as evidenced by head coach Greg Gilbert's selections of the team's captains.

Gilbert chose center Jared Ross to wear the captain's 'C,' served by four alternates: Jon Matsumoto and Sean Curry at home, and Joey Mormina and Jason Ward on the road.

Between them, the five men have 1,868 games of pro experience in the NHL, AHL, ECHL and UHL: Ward 654, Curry 491, Ross 279, Mormina 272, Matsumoto 172.

"We're spreading it around," Gilbert said. "It's creating a little bit bigger leadership group in the dressing room. Those guys, that's their dressing room, and they have to run it appropriately."

Ross succeeds Boyd Kane, who left the Flyers organization after three years to rejoin the Hershey Bears, who he captained to the 2006 Calder Cup.

"I've only known Jared to coach against him," Gilbert said, "but I did a lot of asking questions about people and their character and got some real good feedback from lot of people in the organization that know him, so that obviously helped out quite a bit in the decision making process."

Ross, 27, is in his fourth season with the Flyers/Phantoms. He led last year's AHL farm team in scoring and was named MVP of the AHL All-Star Game in Worcester. Ross did wear the 'C' for nearly a month last season when Kane was hurt.

"We definitely have a lot of older veterans here, and a lot of guys could have worn the 'C.' I'm proud to be wearing it, and I think I can do a good job with it," Ross said. "I've been around; it's my fifth year now so I feel like I have a lot of experience. I'm the type of guy that's going to lead more by example than by (being) verbal, but we still have a lot of other older guys where if I'm not doing enough I'm sure they'll have my back and help me out."