Photo Credit: David Maialetti/Philadelphia Inquirer
With the Flyers’ Development Camp now over and many of Philadelphia’s NHL veterans starting to filter into the teams’ practice facility in Voorhees, New Jersey mere days before their scheduled report date for next season, there are two now aging Flyers prospects who will need to have a great camp this year or they will be in danger of being surpassed on the depth chart once again. While they both seem to be off to a great start after a strong showing last week during the team’s developmental camp, it is but a small accomplishment seeing that they should now be considered big fish on a small pond since they are 22-years-old and have gone through this multiple years now since being drafted way back in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft.
These two players in question are the Flyers’ 2017 1st round pick Morgan Frost and the team’s 2017 2nd round selection Isaac Ratcliffe, and both were highly touted offensive forces coming out of Juniors- more specifically the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). With Frost scoring multiple 100-point seasons while playing for the Soo Greyhounds and Ratcliffe having a 50-goal season for the Guelph Storm, most would have thought they’d be integral parts of the Flyers’ offense by now. Unfortunately, with both suffering extensive injuries and or unforeseen illnesses that seemed to hinder their progression to date, they have only left Flyers’ management and most fans wanting more from them.
Coming into this year I think both have felt the pressure to make the next step in their development. After Joel Farabee (a player selected a year after them in the 1st round of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft) was just rewarded with his first major contract, they may finally be hungry enough to be willing to put in the type of work needed to make that happen. This contract- six years and $30 million- pays Joel an average annual value (or salary) of $5 million dollars a season for the duration of the contract after becoming the team’s leading goal scorer last season netting 20 goals, in this just his 2nd season playing in the NHL.
But it will not come easy: Not only has the team aired on the side of caution by signing proven veterans like Derick Brassard and Nate Thompson to fill out the remaining spots in their lineup this year but the team has continued to draft well since both Frost and Ratcliffe were selected back in 2017 and as a result both are in danger of seeing their chance at a big payday going to someone else once again. While Frost looked like a sponge recently taking in everything, he could under the tutelage of former Flyers great Danny Briere (who Morgan’s game has many similarities to) during development camp.
He had to be slightly apprehensive when standing in line for the next drill after seeing just what the young center Tyson Foerster (who again was drafted after him this time in 2020’s 1st round by the Flyers) was capable of. Foerster, who is still just 19-years-old, made the most out of his unexpected American Hockey League debut last season seeing that the dreaded COVID virus shut down his league (the OHL) so he could not return. Foerster was able to score ten goals and seven assists for 17 points in just 24 games played last season in just his first year turning pro playing for the teams affiliate the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Now, while these two players’ games are vastly different, the fact still remains that both Foerster’s NHL frame of 6’2 and 194 pounds and his deadly accurate shot which he is able to propel at a rate very few players even on the current Flyers roster can from the top of the faceoff circle on a powerplay. This makes Frost’s likelihood to receive a call up next season that much more unlikely (if an injury were to occur) if he does not come into the Flyers’ main camp like a man possessed.
As for Isaac Ratcliffe, he has all the intangibles a player could ever dream of when trying to compete for a spot on an NHL roster. Standing at 6’6 and weighing in at 201 pounds while at the same time previously possessing an arsenal of offensive moves, to date he has not been able to carry that over to the professional level. Last season he looked like a shell of his former self, only scoring two goals in 22 games played with the Phantoms and just six the year before in Lehigh Valley when he played in 53 games. Rest assured- Isaac has left more than one of his coaches lying awake at night pondering just how they can get this gigantic talent back on track; Those sleepless nights may no longer be necessary because Ratcliffe himself is convinced that, like no other year before, he is stronger and now ready to make the jump to the NHL. However, while that renewed sense of confidence is reassuring, he’d better back it up since the Flyers’ newly signed 2020 5th round draft pick and fellow left winger Elliot Desnoyers is set try and stop that from ever happening. Playing like a man on fire last season for the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) after being traded there by the Moncton Wildcats in the off-season, Elliot was able to post a very impressive 1.32 point-per-game average last season by scoring 21 goals and 28 assists for 49 points in 37 games played. Additionally, Desnoyers is also a selfless player who is not afraid to skate it out and get back into his own zone in order to help out, as evident by his +12 and +13 plus/minus averages of the last two seasons. Playing with this type of effort night in and night out is exactly why this 19-year-old was offered a contract so soon after being drafted and why players like Ratcliffe better give it his all once camp is set to ensue.
While some writers (especially this one) over the years have been highly skeptical and clearly hypercritical of these two aging golden prospects over the years, I for one know no one else in the tri-state area who hopes they prove me wrong. But to do so, like no training camp before, Frost and Ratcliffe will have to prove themselves. Thanks to the teams’ general manager Chuck Fletcher, they are no longer the only star prospects in the Flyers’ system at their respective positions. After all, a little healthy competition and the threat of being passed up once again by players that were drafted after them should only fuel these players’ internal fires and might just be enough to have them turning some heads once again. For if they don’t, they are in danger of losing not only their spot at the top of the pedestal but will then potentially be the next underperforming player/players to be shipped out via a trade. Remember Fletcher wasn’t even the guy who drafted them now four years ago and therefore has no need to hold onto them any longer since he isn’t the one that needed to validate their selection in the first place. Time will tell just who will come out victorious in the coming weeks, but one thing is for certain- this upcoming camp (like none in recent memory) will see players absolutely battling it out all the way up to the final roster cuts are made.
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