It’s that time of the offseason. The Philadelphia Flyers’ roster is fairly set, barring some wild blockbuster Danny Briere has in his back pocket while everyone else is at the cottage, we have started our annual Top 25 Under 25 series.
The ballots are still being combed through and counted and we’re still doing some behind-the-scenes work, so let’s take today to reflect on what players are no longer eligible to be on the list, for various reasons.
Trevor Zegras aged out
Starting off with the biggest player out of the bunch — Trevor Zegras is no longer eligible to be on our ranking. While he made just a brief appearance in just one summer ranking, and he earned the No. 4 spot on the list, he has quickly aged out from being eligible as he turned 25 years old in the middle of last season.
After the season that he had, scoring 26 goals and 67 points in 81 games for his first season in Philadelphia and that he now feels much more locked-in as an actual centerman, there is no doubt that Zegras would have finished top five in this year’s vote if he were eligible. But now, he has to sit on the sidelines and look as the younger players in the organization take up his spot.
And while he would never really be in contention to be on this ranking, Jacob Gaucher was one other player who is still in the Flyers organization but has aged out of being eligible for the list.
Emil Andrae and Bobby Brink were traded
Getting older isn’t the only way that a player can “graduate” from the Top 25 Under 25 Flyers list. They can also be traded.
Emil Andrae and Bobby Brink are two young players, but were part of trades in the past few months that have sent them elsewhere in the NHL. Maybe if a Toronto Maple Leafs or Minnesota Wild blog does a ranking of their top 25 players under the age of 25 years old, then they can be on it — well, Brink turned 25 earlier this year so maybe not him actually. But sadly, two players who regularly appeared in the first half of this ranking ever since they were second-round selections in their respective drafts, have already had their final ranking.
A year ago, Brink was considered the ninth-best young player in the Flyers organization and Andrae earned the No. 12 spot.
If we’re also mentioning trades in this section, other young players were dealt out since we last did a ranking. Massimo Rizzo and Alexis Gendron were traded to the Boston Bruins at the deadline last season and the former was traded again to the Nashville Predators, and then to the New York Rangers, who then did not send him a qualifying offer. Woof. Gendron also did not receive a qualifying offer from the Bruins. Roman Schmidt was also traded but we do not really care.
A bunch of other guys left
While we saw some players get older and some get traded, some players who rarely spent any time on the Top 25 Under 25 ranking are also no longer eligible for the ranking. Most of them, are just simply not with the Flyers anymore.
This offseason, the Flyers spent a good portion of energy clearing up their organizational depth down in the AHL so that incoming young prospects like Jett Luchanko, Cole Knuble, Spencer Gill, Jack Berglund (if he doesn’t go back to Sweden), and maybe even someone like Noah Powell, can get the opportunities that they need without some older players clogging up the depth chart.
To do this, they did not extend qualifying offers to players like Karsen Dorwart, Artem Guryev, Christian Kyrou, Tucker Robertson, Brett Harrison, and Philip Tomasino. No one that really would have been a massive impact on the NHL team no matter what. Maybe the most questionable of the bunch is Kyrou, but considering he’s a small, offensive defensemen, the Flyers don’t want more of that in the NHL and if he’s on the Phantoms’ right side, he would be beneath Oliver Bonk in the depth chart and the team probably wants Spencer Gill to be playing a big enough role to develop him further.
Additionally, Owen McLaughlin and Santeri Sulku had their signing rights with the Flyers expire after drafting them extremely late in their respective years. Two players who just did not do enough to warrant an entry-level contract.
Just by looking at the players that are no longer a part of the Flyers organization, there has been a whole lot of turnover. It’s exciting — with all the mystery behind what some prospects will do with larger roles given that 20somethings who won’t ever get more than a cup of coffee in the NHL, aren’t blocking their path.
Either way, there’s a whole lot of dudes who left the ballot.
