Photo Credit: Lehigh Valley Phantoms
After a stellar to say the least start for Pat Nagle with our ECHL affiliate Reading Royals, he gets rewarded with the call up to the Phantoms. Nagle has been a star on the Royals early this season leading them to the nice 5-1-2 record in 9 tilts. All of which he has been a part of including game one when he replaced Kirill Ustimenko. The aforementioned Ustimenko is also a reason why Nagle got the call early this season, on top of his stellar play. Ustimenko is still working his way back from injury and as we have seen with Sandstrom and others in the past that can take some time.
Nagle is 5th all-time in ECHL wins and first all-time as an active ECHL Goalie. So safe to say he is one of the ECHL’s best and has also had some nice stints in the AHL in his past. One example is in 20 games with the Grand Rapids Griffins where he had a .920SV% in 2019-20. Nagle plays a very calm poised game in the net, where it almost looks cause of his positioning that he almost is lacking max effort. That is farthest from the truth. As Kirk Macdonald, the Royals coach told me he was out there working on his passing after a passing mishap in a previous game against the Admirals. How many goalies do you know who would be showing up early to work on passing? Well, that’s Nagle. He has a brilliant work ethic and does take pressure off the defense with his puck-playing abilities.
On the season this year, Pat Nagle has a 2.64 GAA with a .926SV% in Reading. So he clearly earned his call up to the AHL. No matter how long it lasts with Samuel Ersson coming back hopefully soon, it still does not diminish how important having a good veteran as part of your depth can be. Now Ustimenko for the time being while Nagle is up can get the playing time he needs in Reading to come back from his injury. Then Nagle who has experienced this before can step in and be a good goalie for the Phantoms if called upon while up. Overall very well earned by Nagle and nicely done by Phantoms to recognize his early-season success and give him the call.
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