In the last few weeks, the Noah Cates – Ryan Poehling – Garnet Hathaway line has arguably been the Flyers best, and quickly become a favorite of John Tortorella as a menace on the forecheck.
With the emergence of Ryan Poehling, who was promptly rewarded with a two-year contract in January, and the tooth-and-nail style of Hathaway, the strong play of Cates has been a bit unheralded in the last month.
After his return from a broken foot in January, Cates, a winger throughout his entire development as a prospect at University of Minnesota-Duluth, returned to the wing for the first extended period of time with the Orange and Black. Prior to this, other than a short stint with the Flyers at the end of 2021-22, Cates played the entire 2022-23 season in the middle.
Considering Cates’s positional flexibility, let’s examine his time at center last season, and isolate his extended look at the wing this season.
At center, a more defensive version of Cates?
In 2022-23, Cates was one of the lone bright spots of an extremely dark Flyers season. Cates, by counting stats, churned along to the tune of 13 goals and 25 assists in first line center usage. Of course, someone had to deposit points on a team without Sean Couturier, one that was running the 2022 version of Morgan Frost and Kevin Hayes as the two other main center options. What this also meant, though, was that Cates was often lined up with the best lines of the opposition – in the midst of adjusting to the center position for the first time since pre-college.
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