Photo Courtesy of Yong Kim, The Philadelphia Inquirer
With Training Camp beginning Wednesday for the Philadelphia Flyers it’s an interesting time for the organization. Despite their disappointing performances the last few seasons a slight sense of optimism still surrounds the team.
For instance, the Flyers have a wealth of players on the verge of making the jump to the NHL on a full time basis. Such potential upside amongst this group of players brings forth the thought that some could make an impact and breakout.
These players with the potential to play in the NHL full-time in the near future would include:
Morgan Frost
Owen Tippett
Wade Allison
Tanner Laczynski
Isaac Ratcliffe
Tyson Foerster
Cam York
Ronnie Attard
Noah Cates
Bobby Brink
Obviously younger players such as the above cannot always be counted on to meet their draft day expectations. Case in point would be certain Flyers draftees in the past 5 seasons that did not pan out.Â
Even though prior prospects did not reach their full potentials, that does not correlate to the current Flyers players above having the same fate. Consequently, this season will be crucial for some of the aforementioned players.
The Flyers are looking to see if players like Allison, Laczynski, Frost, Ratcliffe, and Tippett have the ability to become effective full time NHL contributors and even more. If they cannot meet said expectations there’s a strong possibility select players listed above may not be afforded the same opportunities to become regular lineup fixtures for the Flyers moving forward. Which would likely be attributed to the franchise’s crop of younger prospects potentially vying for those same NHL roster spots in the foreseeable future. Such prospects would include Tyson Foerster, Bobby Brink, Cutter Gauthier, Elliot Desnoyers, Zayde Wisdom, and Cam York.
Drafting Philosophy
When examining the Chuck Fletcher and Brent Flahr regime’s drafting tendencies their philosophy has drifted from Hextall’s method of looking for high floor type prospects (ex. players that have a solid foundation of skill in most areas of their game but don’t have one specific attribute that could be considered elite or stands out amongst the rest). Instead they have targeted “high ceiling, low floor” prospects on a more consistent basis.Â
Essentially, pivoting the Flyers drafting approach to select prospects with some elite/great skills. Despite the fact other areas of their game may not be as promising. Ideally, the progression of a player’s weaknesses in their game or improving their great skills to an elite level is then the primary focal point through the player development process. In an eventual hope the prospect becomes a high level NHL contributor. The Flyers organization typically tries to outline a natural path of progression for each of their prospects’ style of play that can also tailor to their unique skills.
However, this specific drafting and development methodology is not foolproof by any means necessary. These prospects’ elite skills at lower levels are not guaranteed to evolve into elite skills at the NHL level. Without this type of skill present the deficiencies in these prospects’ games become too large to overcome. Or the deficiencies in their games do not take any steps forward at the NHL level, resulting in a slim chance for a prospect to become an NHL regular.
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Although there is risk involved, the strategy has allowed the Flyers to accumulate a promising prospect pool in the past few seasons. Primarily through drafting skilled players versus selecting players that have a great opportunity to make the NHL as bottom line contributors. (ex. bottom 6/bottom pair players). Doing so tends to increase a team’s chances of one of their prospects developing into high end contributors at the NHL level. Especially if there are elite skills present in these high ceiling/low floor type of prospect selections.
Particularly, this set of drafting tactics has proven to be successful for other NHL organizations as of late. For example, the Carolina Hurricanes, Colorado Avalanche, Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs have all had success using a similar Drafting technique. Prioritizing specific high end attributes of prospects usually provides a greater likelihood that some elite skills carry over to the NHL level for these prospects.
Final Thoughts
Overall, it’s hard to determine exactly where the Philadelphia Flyers are headed in relation to the short and long term outlook of the franchise. One certainty appears to be that a variety of question marks about the team and specifically some of the younger players should be answered shortly. Not to mention, that these answers will exhibit the early returns surrounding the Fletcher/Flahr regime’s draft success and methodology regarding prospects.
While the team slowly begins to filter in some unproven options on the bottom two lines and in more prominent scoring roles. There’s a possibility doing so translates in a positive manner on the ice. For the Flyers sake one of their younger players/prospects emerging as a dependable contributor would be a best case scenario for them this season. Nonetheless, one prediction that is almost a foregone conclusion is that the Philadelphia Flyers will be a tougher and more structured team to play against with John Tortorella at the helm.
