How about a bit of news for your Sunday? The Flyers have announced that they’ve signed 2023 third-round pick Denver Barkey to an Entry Level Contract.
The contract begins for the 2024-25 season.
Barkey, a 5’9 forward, is in his third season with the London Knights of the OHL, and if you’ve been keeping up with our prospect reports this season, you’ll know it has been a very successful season for him, to date. In his 56 games played so far, he has scored 31 goals and amassed 87 points total, tops on his team and good for third in points across the whole of the OHL.
It wasn’t likely that we were going to see Barkey make any kind of professional debut this season, be it at the AHL or NHL level — that London team is stacked, and very well primed for a long run at the Memorial Cup, which would take them past the end of the NHL and AHL regular seasons. And while he’s likely still a long shot to make the Flyers roster on a full time basis for next season, if all goes well come training camp, a nine-game tryout to begin the season does feel very much inside the realm of possibility.
But, if nothing else, this was a well deserved acknowledgement of the excellent work he’s done this season. And we’ll see what comes next when we get a little further down the road.
