Quick Hits: Sept. 3, 2019
1) Rookie Camp on-ice schedule: There will be on-ice practices at 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Sept. 7, 8, 10. September 9 is an off-day. On Sept. 11, the Flyers Rookies will take on the Islanders Rookies at 7:00 at PPL Center in Allentown. There will be a morning skate at the Skate Zone in Voorhees from 10:00 – 11:00 AM. Broadcast information for the Rookies Game is forthcoming.
2) The Flyers released their Rookie Camp roster this afternoon. With an exceptionally high number of their drafted prospects unavailable due either to NCAA or Swedish league commitments, there are seven unaffiliated camp invitees this year to fill out the roster. Phil Myers earned an entry-level contract off a Rookie Camp tryout in 2015 as did Egor Zamula (WHL's Calgary Hitmen) last year.
Among this year's invitees, one of the more interesting players to keep an eye one at camp is Brandon Wheat Kings (WHL) left winger Ben McCartney. Bypassed in the 2019 NHL Draft, McCartney participated in the Flyers Development Camp in July and earned an invite to the September camp. He posted 21 goals and 41 points woth 72 penalty minutes in 67 games for the Wheat Kings last year. Three of his goals came while shorthanded. McCartney turned 18 on July 12.
3) During the 2017-18 season, Flyers 2017 first-round pick Morgan Frost finished first in the OHL Coaches' Poll (Western Conference) in several categories, including "Smartest Player." Last season, he finished second in that category. At the 2018-19 World Junior Championships, Frost was switched to wing from his natural center position and didn't skip a beat.
I note this because I am not one of people who is concerned about whether Frost (who will almost certainly have to play wing in order to expedite his ETA on the Flyers' roster) can make a smooth transition to playing a different position. He's got the hockey sense as well as the puck skills to play any forward position and to adjust rapidly.
I'm also not that concerned about Frost's play away from the puck. While his plus-minus ratings for the Soo Greyhounds -- a CHL-best +70 for a dominant team in 2017-18 and +33 in 58 games last season on a lesser Hounds team -- was more reflective of the extensive puck possession edge that his team enjoyed than a statement on defensive prowess, Frost was not a defensive liability. The stakes are higher and the assignments more difficult in the NHL but there is a foundation off which to build.
As a matter of fact, if Frost goes down to the Phantoms to start this season, I hope that Scott Gordon eventually works Frost into the penalty killing rotation even if it doesn't happen right off the bat. Watching Frost on the PK for the Greyhounds was often fun, not because he was a defensive dynamo but because he was a constant threat to jump on an errant puck and go off on a shorthanded breakaway or lead a 2-on-1. (Side note: Anyone who wonders if Frost winning the 2016-17 Top Prospects Showcase's fastest skater competitions without and without the puck was a fluke should watch some of Frost's PK highlights when he sniffed out a potential counterattack). Frost led the OHL with 11 shorthanded points last season and had a combined eight shorthanded goals and 15 shorthanded points in two seasons.
Hopefully someday in the not-too-distant future, both Frost and Joel Farabee could develop into players who can contribute on either side of special teams. Again, that might not happen right off the bat, especially in the NHL, but the potential is there. It has been awhile since the Flyers had a bonafide shorthanded scoring threat, and both Farabee and Frost have the upside to do that.
With Frost, the player's ETA for the Flyers -- whether it's for opening night, mid-season, the stretch drive or a year from now -- is all going to be about adjusting to the pace of play and dealing with NHL-caliber tight checking. It's NOT about the speed. That's there. It's about keeping his feet moving, and being heavier on pucks so as to not have to over-rely on his slick stickhandling to elude checkers (Frost was a two-time OHL Coach's Poll best stickhandler winner). Once Frost adapts to the pro pace, he's going to be a good NHL offensive player and probably also well-rounded enough to have value even on the nights where he's not producing points.
Speaking of points, it was a shame that Frost hit a mini-slump (by his OHL standars) late last season. He had 103 points through 52 games with a real shot at averaging two points per game for the season. Unfortunately, he had "only" six points over the next six games and then had to sit out the rest of the regular season on a stick-related suspension. The suspension also cost him the OHL scoring championship.
4) As noted in the
August 29 Quick Hits blog, Claude Giroux struggled in training camp with the Flyers in Sept. 2008, and was a surprise roster cut. He also scuffled through his first month in the AHL before things started to click for him.
Farabee is in his first-ever NHL (or NHL Rookie) Camp due to his NCAA commitments last year. Frost is in his third Rookie Camp but only his second main camp, because he was sent back to the Soo at the end of Rookie Camp in 2017. Even last year, Frost was kept around the Flyers main camp for less than a week and only appeared in one preseason game before he was returned to his OHL team. Isaac Ratcliffe is pretty much in the same boat entering this year's camp.
It's all about the big picture, and the long haul. Don't freak out if the highly touted kids are not dominant in camp. If one wins a spot, great. If they are in the AHL to start, that's OK, too. The proof will be in their rate of progression at the pro level, not what happens in September. The events of the next few weeks will be their respective starting places as pros, not their career-long destinies.
It is always tricky to forecast how junior or European league production will translate to the pros -- I am not a huge fan of the equivalency charts, because it is really as much a case-by-case projection as a league-to-league conversion. It remains to be seen how good Frost will be as a pro. Even so, here's a pretty neat stat.
The progression that Frost had in the OHL after his draft year was eerily similar to Claude Giroux's in the QMJHL. In Giroux's draft-plus-one year of 2006-07, he posted 112 points. In Frost's D+1 year of 2017-18, he had 112 points. In Giroux's D+2, he had 106 points in 55 games (1.93 points per game). In Frost's D+2, he had 109 points in 58 games (1.88 points per game). Additionally, both Giroux and Frost were bypassed by Hockey Canada for WJC consideration in their D+1 year but both made it at 19.
It is asking too much of a 20-year-old Frost to expect him to have an NHL career like Giroux's. I'm not suggesting or implying that he will. But I am saying that he is one of the best offensive prospects in the pipeline in quite some time.
5) If Justin Williams, who announced yesterday that he is "taking a break from the NHL" although he is undecided yet as to whether to retire, elects not to return to play, there will be no active NHL players left from the Flyers teams of the pre-2004 lockout era. Patrick Sharp, who retired in 2018, and Williams were the final two still in the league.
Drafted by the Flyers with the 28th pick of the first round of the 2000 NHL Draft, right winger Justin Williams was born October 4, 1981 in Cobourg, Ontario. Williams went straight to the NHL, joining the Flyers for the 2000-01 season.
In his three-plus seasons with the Flyers, Williams showed considerable promise as a two-way player with a knack for scoring important goals. Unfortunately, injury problems set him back.
Williams made an immediate splash with the Flyers. In his first NHL game, he scored a goal and added two assists to steal the spotlight from the debuting Daniel and Henrik Sedin in a 6-3 Flyers opening-night victory over the Vancouver Canucks on October 5, 2000. Williams went on to record points in each of his first three games in the league.
In 63 games in 2000-01, the rookie posted 12 goals and 25 points. A fractured third metacarpal on his left hand kept him out of action for a month and slowed his production in the second half.
Williams weaved some more opening-night magic in his second NHL season. Celebrating his 20th birthday, Williams scored two goals in a 5-2 opening night home win over the Florida Panthers. He went on to score 17 goals and 40 points while playing an average 14:27 of ice time for Bill Barber's club. The young forward won the Pelle Lindbergh Award as the Flyers most improved player in recognition of his continued growth at both ends of the ice.
With new head coach Ken Hitchcock at the helm for the 2002-03 season, Williams got off to a torrid start with 13 points in the first 12 games (three goals, nine assists). A series of injuries, including a shoulder injury that cost him five games and a serious left knee injury that forced him to miss 36 games, more or less ruined his regular season. Williams finished with 24 points (eight goals, 16 assists) and averaged 15:34 of ice time in 41 games.
Healthier in the playoffs, Williams chipped in six points in 12 games including a three-point effort (one goal, two assists) in Philly's series-clinching Game Seven win over the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.
Williams played 47 games for the Flyers during the 2003-04 season, posting 26 points (six goals, 20 assists). In need of help on the blueline, the Flyers traded Williams to the Carolina Hurricanes on January 20, 2004, in exchange for hard-nosed defenseman Danny Markov.
In the short-term, the deal worked out fine for the Flyers. They were deep enough up front to withstand the loss of Williams -- with whom head coach Ken Hitchcock was at times impatient and given to benching for mistakes -- and Markov was a warrior on defense. It would have been hard to imagine the Flyers, with an already injury-riddled defense, getting to within a single game (a 2-1 Game 7 loss in the Eastern Conference Final) of a trip to Stanley Cup Final without the play of Markov and late-season acquisition Vladimir Malakhov.
In the long-term, of course, the deal was lopsided against Philly. Markov did not return to the Flyers following the 2004-05 lockout, and Williams deservedly gained a reputation as one of the league's best leaders and playoff performers for well over a decade.
For his Flyers career, Williams posted 43 goals, 72 assists and 115 penalty minutes in 226 regular season games. In 17 playoff games, he produced six points (all in 2003). Although he went on to a lengthy and distinguished NHL career in other cities, Williams continued to make his off-season home in New Jersey.
6) Sept. 3 Flyers Alumni birthdays: Gerry Meehan (1946), Matt Konan (1991).
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