For Flyers prospect Alex Bump, ‘nothing can be too good’

Flyers development camp is well underway, and while the questions of NHL future roles and readiness remain very much open, looming over all, the emphasis of this camp is on learning and absorbing. And there are few taking this in to the degree of Alex Bump.

When asked during the second day of camp this week what he’s targeting, what he’d like to improve on here, he was direct, “I’d say everything. Nothing can be too good.”

And this is something of a refreshing take, coming from a player like Bump who, by all accounts is coming off of little short of a stellar last season.

It began in something of a strange way — after a coaching change at his initially committed college Vermont, Bump had the option to transfer and — without the urging by alumni Keith Jones, but certainly with the support of, he said — he landed on Western Michigan. And this was something of a whirlwind experience, but Bump acknowledged that it ended up being for the best. And the results tell a similar story: Bump finished the season with 14 goals and 36 points in 38 games played, coming in fourth in points scored on his team as a freshman, which was certainly an impressive accomplishment, coming so close to that point per game mark so immediately in his college career.

But, that said, Bump still feels that there was some more production left on the table. Of his 14 goals scored, he said:

Yeah I’ll take it. But I think with the amount of chances I got last year, I think I probably should have been in the 20 range. I had a lot of shots, I think I led the team in shots, which is good, but my shooting percentage is not very good, so I think I should’ve been higher, but I’ll take 14.

So, despite an ostensibly strong beginning to his college career, Bump isn’t content to rest on his laurels — he know he has more potential and production at his disposal, and he’s eager to work towards tapping into that. And that extends to his workouts across the whole of the summer — this time he aims to work on his skating to just “get my stride better, make it longer, more explosive, just try to get out the gate faster… those first three quick steps, I think are huge at the next level” — and continues at camps like these where he gets more face to face and direct work time with the management group and development staff.

Bump is set to return to Western Michigan for at least one more season, where we’ll see how he fares in his goal to take the next step forward in his development, but we know he’s in good hands. “The coaching staff there knows what they’re doing,” Bump said. With a head coach who “coached at Detroit for a couple years, he knows what it takes to play in the NHL.”

The goal is still in sight, and Bump is ready to keep at the work to get there.

Talking Points