The time has finally come. The Philadelphia Flyers are all going to step on the ice together this week as training camp kicks off Thursday. Young prospects will try to make the team, veteran will try to warm up for the season, and others will just be skating around with the group. But what sometimes makes the sport of ice hockey easier is gaining some mass — and some Flyers certainly did that over the offseason.
The Flyers announced the full training camp roster and schedule Tuesday morning and of course with it, we get the new measurements for each attendee. While we don’t expect any height differences — unless someone experiences a growth spurt at 25 years old — a big deal is the weight a player can gain to really live with the physicality through an entire NHL season.
And there were some massive gainers on the Flyers’ training camp roster. Let’s break it down — comparing the player’s weight from last year’s training camp to this year.
Flyers who gained some mass
Spencer Gill — +25 pounds
The young blueliner put in some work over the last 12 months. Gill, the 2024 second-round pick, was a slight 189 pounds for his 6-foot-4 frame but now as he just turned 19 years old, he is now at a comfortable 213 pounds and that should go very far in all aspects of his game. Strength and power, baby.
Adam Ginning — +14 pounds
Ginning may not have a game played for the Flyers by the end of this season but he’s certainly gearing up to be one of the more reliable depth defenders for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Samu Tuomaala — +11 pounds
Tuomaala will need to change the type of player he is to make the Flyers. The speedy winger was either going to be a scorer or bring nothing to the table, but maybe gaining 11 pounds over the last year will get him to be a nasty, grinding bottom-six scoring threat instead. We already saw him drop the gloves in a rookie game.
Oliver Bonk — +11 pounds
Bonk filled out his frame and we all saw that over rookie camp last weekend. He was always willing to play with physicality for the London Knights, but as he makes his jump to professional hockey, gaining some pounds was necessary.
Bobby Brink — +10 pounds
We don’t even know where Brink could fit 10 pounds on his frame. We kid, we kid. Brink has established himself as a very good third-line winger that can produce some offense, so him building even more mass is only a good thing for his projectability.
Nick Seeler — +10 pounds
Did Nick Seeler really need to gain muscle? The tough guy on the Flyers blue line was able to somehow go from 197 pounds, all the way to 207 — maybe it’s just to add some more padding on his body for when he’s blocking dozens of shots every night.
Noah Cates — +7 pounds
Cates is going to grind and grind and grind in the corners all season long so an additional several pounds is going to treat him well. Some good stuff.
Jamie Drysdale — +5 pounds
Jamie Drysdale isn’t the tallest defender but he was already pretty sturdy on his feet, now that he sits at 190 pounds with his 5-foot-11 frame — that’s a pretty comfortable size for a regular NHLer to play an entire season. Let’s hope that means something.
Jett Luchanko — +2 pounds
Luchanko put all those two pounds into his legs so he’s even faster to retrieve pucks and help out his linemates. But in all seriousness, the 2024 first-rounder is now, like Drysdale, a comfortable 190 pounds at 6-foot tall. That’s more than enough and we didn’t need Luchanko to gain dozens of pounds, or else he could lose that mobility.
Matvei Michkov — +1 pound
That’s right. After a terrific rookie season, Matvei Michkov could have chilled out and just maintained his mass because he knew it worked. But no, he gained one single pound. Just think of how much puck protection he can do, or how much more muscle that is in his wrists so he can get the Michigan off faster and actually score one.
Dang, some Flyers actually lost weight
It wasn’t all players who put on some muscle or just maintained the same weight. A couple of guys actually lost some weight comparing their poundage from last year to this year.
Massimo Rizzo — -3 pounds
The depth prospect forward was already slight to begin with, but now he is standing at 5-foot-11 and 185 pounds with not being that fleet of foot either. Maybe, he could’ve used to gain a little bit more to carve out a future bottom-six role for himself. Unfortunately, that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen,
Christian Dvorak — -2 pounds
Maybe it was shedding all of that Montreal smoked meat or giving up poutine for a few months, but the veteran centerman who signed with the Flyers this summer is down a couple pounds and now sits at 190 on his 6-foot-1 frame. Since he has already proven to be a quality NHL regular, maybe this shed was just to get around the ice quicker than he has in past seasons.
