The American Hockey League released the rosters on Wednesday for its upcoming all-star game and skills competition, and there's a very familiar name for Barrie Colts fans.
Forward Tyson Foerster, who played with the local Ontario Hockey League team from 2018 to 2020, as well as 13 games in the 2021-22 season, has been selected to the AHL's Atlantic Division team for all-star festivities Feb. 5-6 in Laval, Que.
The 20-year-old Alliston native has nine goals and 12 assists in 32 games this year with the Lehigh Valley (Pa.) Phantoms, the AHL affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Flyers selected Foerster in the first round (23rd overall) of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft.
Foerster had 10 goals and 13 assists for 23 points in 64 games during his rookie season with the Colts in 2018-19 before busting out the following year with 36 goals and 44 assists for 80 points in 62 games. The big winger came back to Barrie for a playoff run in 2021-22, which included six goals and five assists for 11 points in 13 games to close out the season, before adding one goal and three assists in six playoff games.
For the upcoming AHL all-star game, each of the AHL’s four divisions will be represented by 12 players. Rosters were determined by committees of AHL coaches, and all 32 AHL teams are represented by at least one all-star.
The 2023 rosters feature 37 first-time AHL all-stars and nine rookies, as well as nine former first-round NHL draft choices and six second-round picks. In addition, 14 of the all-stars named have also played in the National Hockey League already this season.
For Foerster, who also played 'AAA' hockey locally with the Barrie Jr. Colts, it will be his first AHL all-star game.
The AHL event begins Sunday, Feb. 5 with the skills competition, followed by the AHL All-Star Challenge on Monday, Feb. 6, when the four teams will participate in a 3-on-3, round-robin tournament featuring six games of 10 minutes each. The two teams with the best records at the end of the round-robin will face off for the championship in a six-minute, 3-on-3 game.
Also taking part in the all-star event will be former Colts defenceman Brian Lashoff, 32, who played in Barrie over the course of three seasons from 2006 to 2009.
Lashoff, a member of the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Griffins, will captain the Central Division's all-star team.
After going undrafted, Lashoff's professional career has included 136 regular-season and eight post-season games in the NHL, all with the Detroit Red Wings, where he has picked up two goals and 13 assists over parts of seven seasons.
Lashoff, who hails from Albany, N.Y,. also played for the United States at the 2010 IIHF World Junior Championship, where he picked up two assists.
