While the Philadelphia Flyers are scratching and clawing game-by-game to try and solidify an unexpected spot in the playoffs, the team’s top prospects are dazzling around the world.
Most notably, Matvei Michkov’s first KHL season since being drafted by the Flyers at seventh overall in the 2023 NHL Draft, is done and over with and he did the typical stuff he is known to do. Just score some insane goals and lead a team’s entire offense.
But one name that we did not expect to be talking too much about this season is fellow 2023 draftee, former third-round pick and London Knights top-line winger, Denver Barkey. They 18-year-old was drafted with a profile that fitted the Flyers almost perfectly — an annoying pest on the ice that can lead a team in scoring with an attitude. He might not be the biggest guy in the world, but he certainly plays with the confidence like one.
Well, brief scouting profile aside, on Friday night, the teenager from Newmarket, Ont. scored his 100th point for one of the OHL’s top teams. First, he managed to score his 34th goal of his season that was a pure beauty. Taking a fluttering rebound under his control and just launching one past the opposing netminder.
And then, the very next period, Barkey earned an assist on Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Easton Cowan’s power-play tally (that ended up winning the game for London) to make it an even 100 points in his first season since being drafted.
This helper makes it a total of 66 on the season to go with his 34 goals, to complete the milestone.
Barkey is now the first Flyers prospect to score 100 points in the OHL since Morgan Frost did it for two seasons in a row — all the way back in 2018 and 2019. And even before that, Nick Cousins is the only one to do it (when he was much older, to be fair) in this millennium. Top players like Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, and Travis Konecny, who all developed in the OHL, never reached the 100-point mark.
Earlier this month, Barkey signed his three-year, entry-level deal with the Flyers that starts in the 2024-25 season. Considering he has achieved such a rare feat for a Flyers prospect, it opens up some possibilities as to where he could be playing in the future. In the short-term, whenever Barkey’s season finishes with the Knights — which won’t be for a while unless London uncharacteristically loses in the first round of the playoffs — he could continue playing on an amateur try-out for the Flyers scouts to get a true look at him with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. But, that most likely won’t happen.
For next season, Barkey is most likely returning to the OHL with more of an effort to round out his development. He could be seen as not ready physically for the NHL, but depending on how he performs at training camp next fall, we could be see Barkey get a nine-game tryout before he heads back to London. Or, just maybe he gains dozens of pounds of muscle this summer and he is ready to play in the NHL as an 18 year old.
What could have been seen as a solid draft pick to project for a few years down the road, has turned into one of the Flyers’ best prospects and now he gets to join the collect few who have earned 100 points in the OHL.
