That’s a wrap on the Flyers’ Rookie Series! The Flyers managed to split the series with a shootout loss and an overtime win, but despite some imprecision in the on-ice process and some lopsidedness in the matchup, a good group of prospects managed to rise and stand out nicely.
Five Stars
Matvei Michkov
Honestly, regardless of how well he played, Michkov was going to be the star of the show this weekend, given how much hype has been following him around, how much excitement to finally, finally, see him suit up as a Flyers. The good news, though, is that even in a one-game showing, he showed he was worth that hype.
It took the Flyers around half of the first period to get themselves going, and Michkov was also caught up in that slow start, but once everyone got going and he was sort of unleashed, there really didn’t seem to be any chance of slowing him down. He was playing on a line with Elliot Desnoyers and Jett Luchanko, who we know can both really move, but he didn’t seem to have any trouble keeping up with them, the pace was there. On the whole, he was engaged physically, and seemed equally willing to look for a flashy scoring chance at speed as he was to get into the crease, dig around for the puck, and look to make a greasy type of play.
And, for all that good work, he was rewarded with what will surely be the first of many goals scored in a Flyers uniform. At long last, we’re off.
Emil Andrae
Andrae, given the camp he had last year — which earned him a spot with the Flyers to start the season — and the positive steps forward he took with the Phantoms last season, was a player who we largely expected to stand out in this camp, and stand out he did. He was given big minutes to work with and with them, he was able to showcase the real hallmarks of his game — his strength in hitting difficult seams for transition passes, his ability to wipe out dangerous chances on the rush, and his playmaking vision on the cycle.
Now, it was also something of a pair of games of extremes for Andrae, wherein we saw him making a few really ugly mistakes with the puck (such as the turnover which led to the Rangers’ shorthanded goal on Saturday), but also some hugely positive plays on both the defensive side (wiping out a couple of would-be breakaways) and offensive side (that incredible feed to Samu Tuomaala on his overtime goal) alike. Now, both Andrae and Laperriere noted that limiting those mistakes with the puck is a work in progress, but we have to give him credit for always working to correct and bounce back. And even with the bad, he was one of the most impactful players on the ice this weekend, and his momentum heading into main camp is building nicely.
Jett Luchanko
As another newcomer to the rookie games, Luchanko did well to stand out in a mix of largely older (than him) players. Playing on a line with Michkov in that first game, the two seemed to gel pretty quickly, feeding off of each other and creating a handful of really nice looks. It was hard not to notice Luchanko’s speed, but also notable was his tenacity, his willingness to engage physically, even if he was at a size disadvantage.
He did seem to lose a bit of steam between the first game and the second, but that’s hard to fault him for — he got minutes across all situations on Friday, and was even double-shifted in the third period, and those minutes all came in what was almost surely the most physical matchup he’s ever faced. There’s still clearly some polishing needed to his game, but the skill and the offensive instincts really popped, and the execution rising to match feels like an inevitability. As far as first looks go, this was a good one.
Samu Tuomaala
Tuomaala was the overtime hero for the Flyers on Saturday, scoring a nifty little goal on that setup from Andrae, and really salvaging the weekend for the Flyers from a results standpoint, and it was a nice cherry on top of a solid pair of showings on the weekend for him. As one of the players in this group with more professional experience, the maturity and confidence in Tuomaala’s game certainly stood out. Like Luchanko, his speed set him apart from the bulk of the group, but his confidence with making plays with the puck at high speed gave him another layer as an offensive threat. That said, he too looked still a little raw at times — we’d have liked to see him a bit more confident to engage physically, and a touch more decisive with his decision making, with the head start his speed gave him — but even with that taken into consideration, he was one of their most noticeable players.
He’s hit a bit of a snag in his momentum building, as he got a little banged up over the weekend and has missed the last two days of on-ice sessions — officially he’s day-to-day though — but whenever he makes his way back to action, he remains in a pretty good spot.
Hunter McDonald
It wasn’t a perfect pair of games for Hunter McDonald, but as someone who has been, shall we say, more hesitant to sing his praises than members of the Flyers’ front office staff, I did come away from this weekend’s games pretty pleased and pretty intrigued by the work McDonald put in.
He held up well physically, which certainly feels like an accomplishment against a Rangers squad that was, above all, Big, but the more negative flip side to that is that he did get called for a couple of penalties between the two games, and seems to still be working to find the line between what is just playing hard, and what’s excessive. He seemed confident as well as a puck carrier, as a maneuverer in the neutral zone, which seemed a nice step forward from when we saw him last. All in all — and this is something Ian Laperriere spoke on after Saturday’s game as well — it seems like McDonald is still working on finding the elements of his game outside of the physical, but there are real steps being taken, which was encouraging to see.
Honorable mentions
Alexis Gendron
We’ve talked a bit already about the Flyers finding their success in this series in large part from the speed they were able to bring, and Gendron was another player feeding that. He also got himself on the board with a goal in the first game, but overall just seemed to be buzzing — he was skating well, impactful in transition, and was one of their more noticeable generator of chances.
And this was encouraging to see — last season was a weird one for him, wherein he made his debut with the Phantoms, somewhat inexplicably found himself in Laperriere’s doghouse and struggling to get regular minutes, and then loaned back to the QMJHL to finish the season as a result, so it was nice to see him coming into this came with his confidence ostensibly undiminished, and ready to make an impact and head into main camp on a high note.
Carson Bjarnason
And finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t touch on the goaltender who got the lion’s share of the workload this weekend. Bjarnason was leaned on heavily this weekend — getting the full game on Friday and the first two periods on Saturday — and while the results might not fully capture this, he did about as well in his performance as we might have hoped. He was controlled in his movements, quick in any recoveries he did have to make, and overall did well to keep run of the mill chances from getting overly dangerous and complicated, and to clean up after a few errors in coverage were made.
Because we did see him get hung out to dry a couple of times, and that’s simply outside of his control, and while he was able to negate some of those opportunities, he couldn’t erase them all, and that’s hard to fault him for. On the whole though, for a goaltender still pretty early in his development, he took a difficult situation and made the most of it, and it will be interesting to see how he builds on it.
