Well it turns out today has been quite a busy news day for us Flyers’ writers! First, we receive the injury clarification on Nolan Patrick, and now we have this news coming from Dave Isaac:
Per AV, Morgan Frost heading to the AHL.
— Dave Isaac (@davegisaac) September 26, 2019
We also recieved this tweet from NBCSN Philadelphia’s Jordan Hall, which took a different tone:
Alain Vigneault said he’s not 100 percent sure but believes Morgan Frost is headed to Phantoms.
— Jordan Hall (@JHallNBCS) September 26, 2019
And this from Bill Meltzer:
AV: “I believe [Frost] was told today that he’s being sent down, not 100% sure. He has a few more days here to rehab, and we’re leaving for Europe tomorrow.”
— Bill Meltzer (@billmeltzer) September 26, 2019
The fact that you have members of the media conveying mixed messages about the confidence in statement is strange to say the least. At the bare minimum level, the fact that Vigneault said he believes Frost will start the year in the AHL is telling. Whether this news is confirmed or simply speculation, Frost starting off with the Phantoms would still mean an awful lot to how this team shapes up.
While initially I would call this move surprising given Patrick’s week-to-week status, it isn’t unthinkable that the Flyers would be cautious with Frost when he himself is also injured. Additionally, while Frost has certainly not been bad in camp, it was fairly obvious that Joel Farabee performed better (as I touched on in a previous article). Despite this though, I’m almost confident that the injury has had at least some part in all this.
Frost’s potential/apparent demotion leaves the bottom six open to a bit of a re-shuffle. With Patrick out, the Flyers could simply bump up Scott Laughton to 3C and put Connor Bunnaman at 4C if they plan to keep him around. That seems like the most logical solution, though the idea of putting Giroux back at center, and then having Giroux, Couturier, Hayes, and Laughton at center is also another way of moving things around. Whatever happens, hopefully that doesn’t prompt the Flyers to slot Chris Stewart in there.
Frost is likely to be a clear cut top player in Lehigh Valley, and will join Isaac Ratcliffe and German Rubtsov as the players at the top of the call-up depth chart.
