Much has been made — and increasingly of late — about the battles unfolding among the players on the Flyers’ roster bubble through training camp, particularly up front, as a handful of forwards are still vying for the last two (at most) available spots. And through these first four games of the preseason, both Nikita Grebenkin and Rodrigo Abols have made it clear that established themselves at the front of this pack, both with the flash and maturity of games that they’ve brought, but the secondary piece this leaves in its wake is also well coming into focus — Alex Bump is playing himself out of a spot with the Flyers to start the season.
What holds fresh in the mind is the mistake he made at the very end of the first period in Saturday’s game against the Bruins, in which a misplay with the puck behind his own net in the last second of the period ended up in the back of the net, and a bit of air let out of the building.
Beech playing to the buzzer 🏖️ pic.twitter.com/xOeNEytBG6
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) September 27, 2025
It was a pretty brutal mistake, there’s no way around it, and it’s a mistake that one can only imagine would have him so swiftly and completely buried if last year’s coaching staff was still at the helm. But this year, things are different, and it’s a situation that’s so far been approached with a lot more generosity.
“That’s such a shitty bounce,” Sam Ersson said after the game. “Like it’s not his fault and it’s weird in so many ways, and it’s preseason, so it’s kind of lucky that stuff happens now and not during the regular season.”
The consensus from his teammates was that the play was a fluke, and there’s no sense lingering on it, and instead helped to lift him up, and keep it moving. His head coach’s approach, all in all, was much the same.
“Nothing [needs to be said or done], you get him back out there or whatever.” Rick Tocchet added in his press conference. “And you know, he’s been playing a lot, so he’s… listen, everybody’s made mistakes like that. So you just move on from it, it’s not a big deal.”
This play, in the eyes of the new coaching group, won’t be the final nail in the coffin, the singular thing which sinks his hopes of having an NHL job on the horizon, but it also remains that Bump’s struggles, are much more than this one flashy mistake, one play in isolation.
The hope, it would seem, was that with one good summer in the gym, Bump would be able to build up enough strength to help him hang better against professional level defenders, and while there was some success found in this area — he acknowledged heading into camp that he did feel stronger — any raw added strength or weight hasn’t been enough to move the needle all the way to where it needs to be.
Bump’s game is at its best when he can step in as something of a possession player — while not quite to the level of a one-man transition machine, but someone who can take a little extra time with the push to find the most promising play and create more space for more chances — with his slipperiness making him most noticeable and most effective, but it hasn’t been working as well for him through this preseason run. In many ways, the Bump of this preseason looks much the same as the Bump that we saw by the end of last year’s postseason with the Phantoms — a player who is able to create some scattered flashes of offense and promising looking chances, but also one who is being too often pushed off of pucks, being closed up on too quickly when he’s trying to barrel down the center of the ice, finding his game stifled. And with this foundational piece of his game failing to rise to its needed level, the rest of his offensive game is being held back, in turn; a compounding effect which seems to be fueling a bit of exasperation.
In a more dire situation when the team needs any and all bodies it can get to fill out their NHL roster, there might be a case to be made that these adjustments and acclimations can be made on the fly at the highest level, but the Flyers are in a privileged position of not having to force that issue, not this time around. That the camp battles are not just a formality for the players most needed to fill in, but true battles for a few open spots, means that the Flyers are able to keep with them the players who have the most momentum, and might take a more patient approach with the players, like Bump, who clearly still need to do some learning and polishing in their games at the professional level.
Bump is still a player with a lot of value in the organization, and he’s not going to be at the risk of being boxed out of an NHL job entirely if he doesn’t grab it right out of camp. Hanging at the professional level isn’t just about brute strength, just as much of it is positioning and learning how teams are going to look to defend you, and it’s a process to get to the point of being wholly comfortable with that. It takes time and reps, and if Bump starts the season with the Phantoms — between the all but guaranteed top minutes in all situations in games along with the extra targeted time with the development staff in their practice settings — that’s exactly what he’ll have at his disposal, in spades.
It will be a disappointment for some if he fails to make that final cut — almost surely Bump included — but the ability to take the more patient, future focused approach with him will all but certainly help to build him into a better, more complete player. The NHL job will be there when he’s ready for it.
