With a number of the Flyers’ players still out on the league’s COVID protocol list, a slew of Philadelphia’s American Hockey League affiliate- the Lehigh Valley Phantoms- were called upon to fill the vacancies in the Flyers’ lineup against the New York Rangers in their last outing.
Connor Bunnaman, Andy Andreoff, David Kaše, Sam Morin, and Maksim Sushko all made the cut for this emergency call up but none of the above-mentioned players were able to contribute on the score sheet in the 3-2 overtime loss to the Rangers.
Most of these call ups were the senior players in the team’s system; Might the Flyers have been better off calling upon one of the newest members to the organization? That player being the Flyers 2020 4th round pick Zayde Wisdom, who the team signed right away to an entry-level contract after moving up in the draft to be able to select him.
While Zayde may be just 18-years-old he has shown in just the handful of games played thus far that he is more than capable of playing with the maturity level of a veteran and makes sure to never take a shift off. Wisdom has made known that he is going to be aggressive while on the fore check. Not just a one zone player, Zayde has also let it be known (by his play) that he can be defensively responsible as well- always making sure to get involved in his own zone by back checking with great intensity. The most impressive part to his game though might just be that he is more than willing to complete every checking opportunity that comes his way- something that few Flyers’ players seem to care to do on a regular basis.
This hard work ethic was instilled in Wisdom as a child and has driven him to try and improve upon his game ever since. Successively refining his game over the past two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) while playing for the Kingston Frontenacs, Zayde has been bringing this energy for some time now, even though Philly fans may be just becoming more aware of the newcomer.
Now graced with this knowledge, it’s easy to see why Wisdom has made such a smooth transition from the junior level to the pros, where still very early into his rookie season he already finds himself 2nd on the team in points. This season he has scored two goals and one assist, for three points in just three games played thus far for the Phantoms.
This is why, for these reasons mentioned, I would urge the Flyers’ management to look past his inexperience as a pro and give Wisdom a shot with the big club this weekend at Lake Tahoe seeing that the Flyers will still be minus a lot of regulars due to COVID. Given Zayde’s restless pursuit of his dreams of making the NHL he is sure not to disappoint!
