Photo Credit: Zack Hill
Chuck Fletcher and Brent Flahr provided details on rookie camp and training camp, but also provided some clarity on injuries for the youth yesterday to include Zayde Wisdom, Wade Allison, and Elliot Desnoyers. In addition, the Flyers to include their staff, players, and trainers are almost fully vaccinated. They will be by the start of the NHL season, per Chuck Fletcher. What a great job by the Flyers, “We’ll be fully vaccinated for the start of the season, for sure,” Fletcher said. “I believe we are basically there right now. We’ve had a great response from staff and players. We’re looking forward to having a hopefully much more normal season than last year. The response has been great from everybody.”
“First of all, Wisdom is here,” Flahr said. “He’s present and will take part in the meetings and continue his rehab. Realistically, he’ll be out until December. As far as Laczynski, he’ll be here taking part and he’ll meet with the doctors I believe on the 17th to be fully cleared for contact and potentially play in the games against Rangers. Allison’s been fine since the day after development camp. That was just a minor tweak that we’re just being careful with. Desnoyers is meeting with the doctors on the 17th as well. We’ll get a determination of where he’s at physically as well, but he will be taking part in some of the on-ice drills. We’ll be cautious with some of the physical involvement. Sushko will be out for rookie camp. He’ll meet with the doctors later in.”
Rookie Camp will begin on Thursday September 16 and last through September 19. This will also include two rookie game against the New York Rangers prospects. The good thing is that main training camp will have fans on the 23rd when it opens, while rookie camp will not, “I can’t wait to see the fans here on the 23rd,” Fletcher said. “Just even having some energy in our building, in our practice rink, it’s huge. We’re only in this game because of the fans. They support us. They foot the bill, so to speak, and we all make a living off it. Last year was a tough year. I’ve said it several times.”
Fletcher continued, “Once we allowed some fans back in the building, there was some energy. There’s no question having fans in there adds a whole different element. Like many of you folks, I’ve been watching the college football and the NFL over the last couple weekends and seeing those scenes from Virginia Tech from the opening game. Seeing Michigan and the folks there a few nights ago. It’s just crazy what a different atmosphere it can be when you have a full house and people in their pulling for you. I know our players are extremely excited about getting back and hopefully having a mostly normal season. It appears it’s going to be mostly normal. We’re all excited to get back to that.”
The Flyets added more leadership, and Bertrand to this group. Fletcher believes they need this direction, especially when things go South a bit during a game, “I think we have more veteran leadership than back to last off-season,” said Fletcher. “This falls on me, as I mentioned before. Matt Niskanen retired. We let Nate Thompson go, or we didn’t re-sign Nate Thompson or Tyler Pitlick. We lost some players that are kind of low maintenance, high character veteran players and we replaced them with some younger players. Last year, when things started to go awry and we lost our way a little bit, we didn’t have what I thought was maybe enough veteran leadership, enough players that could maybe help the younger players get through that situation.”
The Flyers General Manager continues, “You throw the pandemic on top of it and the protocols. It was just a lot of situations none of us had been through. I thought we were maybe a little bit too young to get through it. This year, when you look at our group, I think we’re more of a veteran team than what we were last year. I think we have players that have had a lot of different experiences in this league. I think we’re a deeper team. I think our defense in particular has been upgraded. Time will tell. Summer is great and the offseason is great. You make your moves, and you try to improve yourself on paper. Now, camp starts before we get into the games, but the games will start soon enough. We’ll find out if we made the appropriate moves.”
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Lastly, Flahr gave shout-outs on some prospects that were drafted last year and in 2021, “I think everybody, even the recently drafted players, were as advertised,” Fletcher said. “I think Brian Zanetti, a young Swiss defenseman. He’s going to Peterborough in the OHL this year. For a kid that came over, I don’t know how many times he’s even been to North America, to come in get acclimated to play, to fit in, and just keeps getting better every day. He’s a really interesting guy. All of our kids from this past year have come in here and shown well for themselves. We’ll get into the games here and see how they fare against older players. Yeah, so far, so good. A kid that’s been hurt, but he’s been around here all summer is Elliott Desnoyers. Just a real impressive kid who’s one of those kids you talk to and he’ll sit and talk hockey all day long. He’s down there talking to the veteran guys. He’s learning every day. His work ethic and determination are off the charts. I think when he’s 100%, when he leaves here, he’s going to have a tremendous season. Hopefully he gets to take part in some games or at least playing against the veterans and real hockey here as well.”
