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Quick Hits: July 29, 2024
1) USA Hockey won its first two games on Sunday on the opening day of the 2024 World Junior Summer Showcase at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Michigan. In the early game, USA White rallied from behind to defeat Finland, 3-2. In the later game, USA Blue defeated Sweden in a 7-2 blowout.
Three Flyers Prospects participated in Sunday's games: Noah Powell (USA Blue), Jack Berglund (Sweden) and Heikki Ruohonen (Finland).
Powell earned a secondary assist on a first-period Brandon Svoboda goal that gave USA Blue a 2-0 lead. He was later called for a roughing penalty in the second period. Flyers' 2014 second round pick Berglund tallied a late third period power play goal for the Junior Crowns.
Ruohonen, who scored goals against Switzerland and Czechia in Finland's pre-WJSS "friendlies", was directly involved in four scoring chances for the Finns against USA White. Ruohonen also figured in both goals for Finland as he earned the lone assist on two goals by linemate Joona Saaralainen.
All four squads are back in action on Monday. This time, USA Blue will play Finland (1:00 p.m. EDT) and USA White will oppose Sweden (4:00 p.m. EDT). The games will be streamed live on USAHockeyTV.com (paid subscription required).
2) Flyers Daily: In a jam-packed (50-plus minute) Mondays with Meltzer edition of Flyers Daily, Jason Myretetus and I cover a variety of topics. In the first segment, we provide updates on the Alexei Kolosov situation.
The bottom line: Although Kolosov has NOT given assurances that he is definitely reporting for training camp in September, the opposite is also true. The player has never told the Flyers that he is not planning to come nor has either Kolosov or the Dinamo Minsk organization asked the Flyers for permission to break the second year of his entry-level NHL contract. The organization is adamant that Kolosov never told the Flyers has was not planning to return to Lehigh Valley after his three-plus week stint near the end of the 2023-24 season.
With the KHL's 2024-25 regular season just over one month away (the season starts on Sept. 3 with Dinamo playing opener on Sept 5) and a new Projected starting goalie on the roster -- 29-year-old former Spartak goalie Andrey Kareyev -- time is starting run short if Kolsov actually intends to jump his ELC illegally or do it legally by asking the Flyers to release him from his contract by mutual agreement or to request a loan once again to Dinamo.
In the second segment of this week's Mondays with Meltzer, Jason and I deconstruct Travis Konecny's eight-year extension. Was Timo Meier's current deal with New Jersey, which is nearly identical to TK's plus the two players are the same age and have identical career point-per-game averages (0.71), the right basis for Philly to use? What are risks to the de facto nine-year commitment? What are the benefits?
In the final portion of this week's MWM edition, Jason and I respond to various listener questions in an "Ask Billy" segment. We didn't get to as many questions as we'd planned because the episode was already running long, but Jason and I will respond to as many additional questions as possible on Twitter/X.
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