Photo Credit: Jordan Hall/NBCsportsphilly
Flyers’ General Manager Danny Briere traded a solid defenseman in Ivan Provorov for picks, Helge Grans, and Sean Walker. So just who is prospect Helge Grans?
Grans is a right-handed defenseman that is just 21-years-old and stands at 6’4, while weighing 205 pounds. He’s a sizable defenseman that likes to move the puck. He does not shy away from the offensive side of the puck. However, he makes bad pinches at times, and tries to do too much. He is still very raw, and that was made evident at developmental camp. Grans pinched at the wrong time, and he wasn’t the fastest skater to catch up and get back in the play. Unfortunately, he just looked a bit slow at developmental camp, and made the wrong decisions to inadvertently always find himself behind the play.
That was then, and this is now. Grans looks like in a different wire during the rookie series on Saturday, while being paired with Emil Andrae. The two looked cohesive, and Grans made the right plays. He was seeing stifling his opponents, and would transition up the ice nicely. He looked confident and poised, maybe all it took was one camp to get to know his teammates. It’s not easy being traded, so good for him for sticking with it.
This young puck moving defenseman is very gifted offensively. He reminds me of a player that Danny Briere was alluding to earlier in his press conferences in May when he said that the Flyers would like to add young reclamation projects, like Owen Tippett for instance.
The prospect in Grans moves the puck reasonably well and is a solid defender. He uses his long stick effectively, and skates well given his size. Grans has the ability to log big minutes, but he needs to learn how to pick his spots better. As stated above, he tries to be so good offensively, Grans makes bad pinches which leads to odd man rushes the other way. He’s still young, so Grans is untapped with all this potential.
“No, unfortunately, I haven’t seen him play,” Flyers’ General Manager Daniel Briere said after the trade. “I had to rely on our scouts for him. I’m excited. He was a second-round pick, an early second-round pick, by the Kings.”
Grans was drafted 35th overall at the 2020 draft by the Los Angeles Kings. It seems likely he will be heading to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in the Fall, where he will be reuniting with a former teammate in Emil Andrae. Both players played for the Swedish National Junior Team at one time.
Believe it or not, Grans is exactly the prospect the Flyers were talking about with obtaining youth reclamation projects, “We don’t want to make those mistakes. We want those young guys to turn into, like Sharp and Williams, very good players down the road,” Keith Jones said. “Maybe Morgan Frost is one of those guys. We’ve got to be sure before we commit, but that’s the type of thing that we were hoping for. Owen Tippett could be one of those guys. I think Florida’s going to regret it. He’s got the package. Now, we’ve just got to cultivate it and bring him to the next level.”
