Another hockey season is officially upon us, but we’re back with the same old prospect report. Stick with us throughout the season as we provide updates on all of the news and top performances from the Flyers’ prospects all over the globe.
The News of the Week
With the season just kicking off, there isn’t too much in the way of news to report on. The main thing we have here is just a couple of injury updates — though Jett Luchanko was held out from rookie camp as a precaution, he’s back on the ice and a full participant in the training camp skates, though Oliver Bonk (who developed some kind of upper-body situation at some point) and Karsen Dorwart (who took a big hit in practice yesterday) are both out officially on a day-to-day basis.
The Flyers also made their first cut early this year, announcing this afternoon that they’re sending Nathan Quinn and Austin Moline back to their junior teams.
Three Stars
Max Westergard
His season’s only just begun, but it’s been a slightly whiplashy one for Westergard. He began he season up with Linkoping of the SHL and was able to get in for one game for them as their extra forward, but only played 2:22 across the whole of it, and was of course held off the board in that debut. After that, he was sent down to Frolunda with the U20 Nationell and was able to show a lot more at that level, playing a much larger role and immediately chipping in a goal and two assists (having him factoring in on three of the team’s four goals scored on the night). It might have been interesting to see how he might be able to continue to build on his momentum down with that team, but after that one appearance, he was pulled back up to join his SHL team, and while his role did expand slightly (this time, he played a whopping 3:57) his offensive game wasn’t really given the time and space to come alive.
Now, it’s still very early in the season, and the teams are still trying to figure out their lineups and how to best optimize their players, but the hope above all is that Westergard will at least be able to find some stability in his place and role before too long.
Nikita Grebenkin
Back stateside, though, things are only just beginning to get rolling, and the only game action we’ve seen unfold so far came in last weekend’s rookie series. And while the games aren’t yet as meaningful as those in the regular season, and the results themselves were a bit of a mixed bag, there was still a lot to like in the showings up and down the lineup.
One of the biggest standouts of the weekend, without a doubt, was Grebenkin. Through that pair of games, he brought a game which was, on the whole very well rounded. His energy was immediately noticeable, he stepped up for them in big ways in creating plays in transition, holding up well physically as the defenses tightened up on him, and he brought a nice bit of pop in his offense, with two assists coming off of hardworking plays, and one quite flashy goal to win the Friday game in overtime. He’s come in like a man on a mission, and he’s gotten himself into a very favorable position as main camp goes on.
Alexis Gendron
Gendron, too, found a way to really pop in both of the game settings. His work was more in the vein of what we’ve come to expect from him — using his speed to both create rush chances and also disrupt at the other end of the ice, while flexing his finishing ability more than setting up chances — but the work was still good. He stepped up with a goal in each of the games, helping to wake up an offense that was a little up and down on a collective level. And, what’s more, he saw his role expanded as he got a good look on the penalty kill in those games, and while there’s still some fine tuning left to go into his positioning, his speed opened up space for him to be disruptive as a forechecker.
He’s still pretty comfortably on the outside looking in on a spot with the Flyers, but he’s making a positive first impression here, and with two days now paired with Jett Luchanko in the practice skates, it looks like he’s going to get a good opportunity to continue to show his skillset as we continue on.
Honorable Mentions
Elsewhere in that rookie camp mix, there’s been a lot to like from a broader contingent of the group, as well. Ethan Samson — though he did have a few rough plays with the puck in there as well — brought a nice pop of offense, and chipped in a goal and an assist on the weekend. Jacob Gaucher also picked up a goal in the first game, a stellar finishing effort on Devin Kaplan’s even more stellar possession clinic put on to set it up (Kaplan was awarded an assist on the play, which would end up being his only point of the weekend. And then Denver Barkey, though he only got in for one game (he was given a night off for the second game to rotate another player in, and he was given that nod likely because he’s shown the coaching staff all he needed to in just one game — his energy was on a whole other level, his impacts on the rush really noticeable, and he also put up a goal and an assist to tie it all together.
Back abroad, Ilya Pautov has already seen close to double the number of games as anyone else in this mix, and he’s off to a pretty solid start to his season. Things began for him up with Krasnaya Armiya Moskva of the MHL, wherein he played five games and got off to a pretty good jump, putting up a pair of goals and an assist over that span. But earlier this week, though, he was assigned to Zvezda Moskva in the VHL, where he made his debut on Wednesday and chipped in an assist in their 2-0 win.
Along with that, Jack Berglund has kicked off his SHL season, having played two games so far with Färjestad, while Alex Ciernik made his Liiga debut with Pelicans and he’s gotten in for three games with them so far, while Santeri Sulku debuted in the league with KooKoo (but he’s only gotten the one game so far), but each of this trio has so far been held without a point. It’s still early goings, though, and we’ll se how they fare as they work themselves all the way back up to speed, shaking off the rust from the summer.
And, to close things out, on the goaltending side, this season is off to a bit of a weird start for Yegor Zavragin. In his jump up to join SKA St. Petersburg, he’s found himself in a three-goalie rotation, and it’s made for a bit of a complicated situation — the youngest of the trio (the other two being 21 and 22, we should add), he’s had to wait the longest to get any playing time, and after sitting for all four of their first four games of the season, he was loaned down to their VHL squad to knock a bit of rust off. His one game played with them, his first bit of action on the season, was a very positive one, as he came away with stops on 27 of the 28 shots he faced and managed to keep things locked down well enough to help the team secure a win in overtime. As we speak, though, he’s been promoted again and he’s getting in for his first KHL start of the season at long last, but we’ll check back in and see how that went in next week’s installment.
