A Few Late-Blooming Prospects the Flyers should look to Draft or Sign Desperate times call for desperate measures

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With the Flyers being unable to draft and/or develop Giroux’s replacement during his 15-year career with the Flyers, they currently find themselves destined to be among the league’s bottom-dweller’s for at least the next five seasons if they don’t begin to get crafty and start thinking outside the box real quick. To do that, the Flyers should look to take the chance on a couple of late-blooming prospects who were passed over in their draft year but have somehow managed to pull it all together since then. Finding, claiming, and convincing these diamonds-in-the-rough type players to sign with them before the whole hockey world knows just who they are- and then try to do the same thing- could prove worth their while. Especially if these prospects develop to be even half the player in the NHL that they currently are in their respective leagues.

Stephen Halliday

Let’s start by looking at a prospect who may have been overlooked because he is currently playing in “the hockey hotbed” of Dubuque, Iowa for the Fighting Saints of the United States Hockey League (USHL). That player is 19-year-old Stephen Halliday, who is currently committed to attend and play for the Ohio State Buckeyes after this season. Halliday is a 6’4 209-pound center who has scored 30 goals and 47 assists for a league- leading 77 points over 51 games played this season. If you’re doing the math, this equates to him netting more than 1.5 points per game! Stephen is a born leader who is not only wise beyond his years but goes above and beyond when it comes to helping the younger players on his team adjust to the rigors of now playing in the USHL.

Halliday is still eligible for selection in this upcoming draft as an over-ager but, despite his numbers this season, it is uncertain if he will be selected given his age. If I had to guess though, a well-informed team that has done their homework on him would prove to benefit from taking a chance on him in, say, the 6th round. Drafting and/or choosing to sign Halliday to an entry-level deal after the draft would give the Flyers a center with great size, strength, and talent who- in a year or two- could prove to be quite the steal when he’s setting up the Flyers’ current and future wingers: Owen Tippet, Wade Allison, Elliot Desnoyers, Bobby Brink, Connor McClennon, Tyson Foerster and Samu Tuomaala.

Ryan McAllister

The next player that Philadelphia should look to sign is 20-year-old undrafted free-agent Ryan McAllister, a forward that currently plays for the Brooks Bandits of the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL). McAllister, who stands at 5’10 and weighs in at just 183 pounds, led that league this year in points- totaling an incredible 139 points overall. He did so by scoring 57 goals and 82 assists over just 60 games played! That equaled out to him scoring at a rate of an unheard-of 2.32 points per game. But, like all good players do, he has been able to step up his game come the post season where (in just four games played so far in the playoffs) he has managed to amass three goals and nine assists for 12 points for an average of three points per game scored throughout the playoffs thus far. Someone besides this writer must have been watching because Ryan is set to attend Western Michigan University next season where he will continue his quest to reaching the NHL, and what better team than the struggling Flyers to help him achieve such a goal, right?

T.J. Hughes

Since we’re talking about signing Ryan McAllister of the Bandits in the AJHL, Philadelphia might as well do themselves a favor and sign his friend/teammate T.J. Hughes as well while they’re there. And what a friendship it is indeed. Hughes is a 20-year-old undrafted prospect as well. He stands at 5’11 and 185 pounds. While McAllister may have bested him in points this season Hughes managed to lead the league in goals this year scoring over a goal per game (1.10 G.P.G.) in which he netted 66 goals and 61 assists for 127 points in just 60 games played. While his 2.12 points-per-game performance during the regular season was definitely impressive, like McAllister, Hughes has been able to turn it up a notch now that the post season has begun, scoring seven goals and four assists for eleven points in just four games played.

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As you can probably guess, it is this kind of 2.75 points-per-game playoff prowess that happened to catch the eye of a team that has recently become known for producing NHL-ready players at a near assembly line rate of production. With recent Michigan alumni such as Cam York, Kyle Connor, and Dylan Larkin are all currently playing in the NHL- along with an incredible seven players who are other NHL teams’ 1st round draft selections currently playing for the Wolverines right now- this team no doubt can spot talent: T.J. just might be one of the next great player to come out of the Big Blue. The only question is: are the Flyers smart enough to try and sign T.J. to an entry-level deal now before another team wises up and beats them to the punch?

Given the state of the Flyers, they should not shy away from any and all options that could prove to help this team moving forward. These players listed above may have not been quite up to snuff at the time they were draft eligible, but their games have grown leaps and bounds since then. If Philadelphia were to sign any (or all) of these prospects it would make for an immediate upgrade to their respective positions’ depth charts. And this would be on top of the fact that these players are not your stereotypical 18-year-old kids who would be coming into their first NHL development camp. These players are seasoned veterans in their leagues and will surely excel next season while playing in the NCAA, thereby offering a much sooner return on their investment, if the Flyers choose to sign them.