If Alex Bump’s freshman season started off slow, it reached a boiling point to end the season. The 6-foot, 193-pound winger scored twenty-three points in 21 games in the second half, including 10 of his 13 goals. For the Flyers’ fifth-round pick in 2022, the breakthrough second half shows the results of his patience with the process — a patience that has him developing into a sound prospect within the Philadelphia organization. That process starts at the coach guiding him through freshman year. “The best players in the world are the most consistent players in the world,” Western Michigan coach Pat Ferschweiler told Broad Street Hockey. “And that’s what we’re trying to talk about here and to teach these guys here. It’s an everyday thing. It’s not a ‘sometimes’ thing. You can’t turn it on and off. It’s an everyday thing.” Make no mistake, the cliche of the process isn’t a unique invention of Ferschweiler’s, but it’s a useful tool for developing prospects. When players make a jump between levels of hockey, the margin for errors gets slim, and it gets harder to see results. For a player like Bump who has a collection of tools that excite — including a quick trigger shot that was one of the most potent in the NCAA this season — it\'s important not to get caught up with the allure of the box score. For all those raw tools, the more important goal is for Bump to develop into a hockey player. Unless a player is truly elite with one skill — a shot like Alex Ovechkin, for example — it’s difficult to so much as sniff at the professional ranks without being collectively sound in a lot of areas. Even those players with elite skills have to be well-rounded. So, Bump’s task in development is getting better in many areas. He doesn’t just want to make it to the NHL. He also wants to stick once he’s up there. One step in that process is taking a bigger and bigger role for junior teams. Bump also took a larger role as the season progressed, another vote of confidence for a young prospect. “He was down our lineup a little bit just for me to get to know him and him to get to know our system,” Ferschweiler said of Bump’s early role. “And then I think it was three or four weeks into the year, there was an injury on one of our one of our top lines and we moved him up there and he stayed there ever since.” Bump’s plans included some improvisation so far, and not just what line he’s on. He originally committed to Vermont after a full year of junior hockey in the USHL. But in July, former Catamounts coach Todd Woodcroft was fired amid a sexual misconduct investigation. With the program he committed to in disarray, Bump entered the transfer portal before ever playing a game for Vermont, and he settled on Western Michigan. Results didn’t come easy. Bump struggled to make an impact early on, even if he wasn’t making egregious mistakes or missing offensive chances. On a Broncos team that replaced a lot of scoring through the transfer portal and freshman class, Bump nonetheless found himself snakebitten. Ten points in 16 games was respectable for a freshman, but he was capable of more. He was capable of taking over games from the offensive end, not chipping in a lone goal every game or two. But after winter break, whatever he did for the holidays seemed to work out. He came back with a vengeance, sparking a three-point performance the first weekend against Lindenwood, one of his five multi-point games and four three-point games of the second half. That takeover gene, that offensive output — it showed up for Bump at this point in the season. That included five points in the NCHC quarterfinals against St. Cloud State. These goals came from Bump not only having a lethal shot, but also getting to the net to maximize it. By sticking to the process, Bump has made the most of his year so far. https://twitter.com/TheNCHC/status/1761237345267761219 “It sets the tone for what long term success looks like,” Ferschweiler said. “And to not get focused on results, rather than how to get to those results is the most important part because hockey is an interesting game. You can play one of your best games and you get no points. You can play an average game and get two points. Which one’s better? I think repeating your great performance each time overall, in the long term, is going to yield you better results and more success in your career and for your team that season.” His freshman year isn’t done. He’s got an NCAA Tournament to play in, where his Broncos will face No. 1 seed Michigan State in the Maryland Heights Regional. Bump figures to be a key piece of the attack, a role his second half resurgence earned. As he continues to develop, his growth bodes well for the Flyers’ prospect pool.