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Flyers 2015 Training Camp Preview |
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FLYERS 2015 TRAINING CAMP PREVIEW
With rookie camp finished and after a battery of on-ice and off-ice tests, the 2015-16 Philadelphia Flyers will finally hit the ice on Friday at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, NJ, for their first formal practice with new head coach Dave Hakstol at the helm. The full complement of veterans have been training together informally all week but Friday's dual session will be the first time the coaching staff will be with them. On Thursday, there were player meetings and video sessions in preparation for the official on-ice start of camp.
At the outset of camp, the Flyers will have 61 players on the preseason roster: 35 forwards, 21 defensemen and five goaltenders. Friday's practice sessions will be divided into two groups. Group A will hit the ice at 9:45 a.m. EDT with Group B slated to start at 1:00 p.m. EDT. There is no word on which players will be assigned to which group.
During the two days of on-ice work during rookie camp, Hakstol mostly put the young players through a series of high-tempo and competitive one-on-one and small-group drills. With the focus now shifting to full camp with the NHL players combined with players slated for the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms and junior-league eligible prospects, Hakstol and holdover assistant coaches Ian Laperriere (forwards, penalty kill), Gord Murphy (defensemen) and Joe Mullen plus new goaltending coach Kim Dillabaugh will start to get the team ready to compete as a group.
“We have to get a lot accomplished in a few days,” Hakstol said to CSN Philadelphia. “Forget about systems for a second. It’s a game of passion and read and react. A game of pace. Those are baseline things we try to accomplish along with execution. You add baseline systems; the foundation work to get them in place. That’s probably going to fill the first three days. I don’t want to try to do too much too soon.”
A big part of the reason why general manager Ron Hextall hired Hakstol is the reputation he built during a decade-long tenure the University of North Dakota for holding players accountable to his system. What is Hakstol's system? It is one heavily emphasizes back pressure, puck possession and a belief that gritty goals rather than pretty goals are the key to consistent scoring.
"When you talk about scoring, you've got to go to the hard areas," Hakstol said prior to the start of camp. "We've got enough ability where we're gonna score some pretty goals, but if you want to score on a consistent basis, I think you've got to get to the hard areas consistently."
Hextall relayed a similar message; one that will be repeated frequently throughout camp and whenever the club -- as happens sometimes to all teams -- finds itself in need of a spark.
"We need to get to the net more. Whether it’s the smallest guy on the team or the biggest guy. A lot of goals are scored around the paint and we need to get to the net more. With things that I can view from his system, yeah, I think we will be better. That’s what we’re banking on, but I think it somewhat comes down to the individuals," said Hextall.
Nowadays in the NHL, most coaches employ somewhat similar systems with their own tweaks and nuances. Structure and puck possession are king and intensive skating to execute forechecking and back-pressure strategies is the key to successful execution. Hakstol's messages will be familiar-sounding ones but the reason he was hired is that, at the college level at least, he got buy-in from his players.
For instance, many NHL clubs in recent years have employed a "swarm" strategy of outnumbering opponents around the puck when it goes into the defensive zone. It has be executed quickly to work. The New York Rangers have often done it to the Flyers, with considerable effectiveness. The Flyers aim to become a team with the sort of quickness it takes to regain puck possession and then immediately push play in a northerly direction. Hakstol's UND teams were generally good at this tactic, and Hextall believes the new coach can do the same at the NHL level.
During the coaching tenure of Craig Berube, the objectives were similar. Much of the team's inconsistently could be directly tied to how much they stayed on-system. When the Flyers collectively kept their feet moving and provided strong puck support, they showed an ability to beat even the top teams in the NHL. The problem was that the Flyers got into prolonged funks, especially in the first few months of the regular season, where they stopped skating and found themselves defending -- with considerable difficulty clearing the zone -- rather than attacking.
Hakstol is not a miracle worker. As with Berube, he can only work with the personnel he's been given. However, Hextall's hope is that the new coach can more successfully push the club to avoid digging itself another hole over the first six-to-nine weeks of the season and get right to the business of building on some of the positive things the team accomplished -- comeback ability when needed, strong second-half records, etc. -- during the previous regime.
FORWARDS
There will probably not be many NHL lineup spots up for grabs in training camp at any position. Rather the battles will mostly be for ice time and to find combinations with chemistry.That is especially true with the Flyers forwards.
Up front, two-thirds of the top line will be the star duo of team captain Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek. These were the two players for whom Hakstol traveled to meet face-to-face in the offseason -- even taking a one-day trip to the Czech Republic specifically to meet with Voracek -- and it is these two who are the keys to team-wide buy-in and accountability to the often-intense new coach's system. If Giroux and Voracek believe, the supporting cast will also fall in line.
Coming off a strong but injury-interrupted second NHL season, two-way forward Michael Raffl will occupy the left wing spot at five-on-one on the top line with Giroux and Voracek. This is not set in stone but the coach has said the initial plan is to give the job to Raffl, because he was arguably the most effective complementary third piece on that line last year.
The 2015-16 season will mark a crucial season for both Sean Couturier and Brayden Schenn. Both players will enter their fifth NHL season, and the organization wants both players to assert themselves. Couturier has thus far been a strong defensive player but sporadic offensively, while Schenn needs greater consistency in developing a power forward's mentality. Couturier has a new six-year contract extension beyond the final season of his current deal. Schenn has not been signed to an extension and is eligible for restricted free agency next July.
In Schenn's case, one of the decisions that Hakstol needs to make is what position he will play as well as determining linemates. Last year, Schenn mostly played wing but switched from left wing to right wing late in the season. He actually showed his best chemistry -- in both a first-half left wing stint and late-season right wing assignment -- on Couturier's line rather than a stretch of a couple months on the Giroux line. Hakstol also has the option of moving Schenn back to center; his original position.
Likewise, Hakstol must determine where and with whom he will play newcomer Sam Gagner. A natural center, Gagner can also play either wing. At the time of his acquisition from Arizona, general manager Hextall indicated that coach Hakstol was leaning toward starting Gagner on right wing initially but the plan could easily change.
Mobile power forward Wayne Simmonds has been very effective the last few years as the net-front scoring presence on the Flyers' top power play unit. At five-on-five, the right winger has moved around the lineup with various centers but has never truly found consistent offensive chemistry.
Ideally, Simmonds' scoring opportunities at five-on-five would increase with a skilled playmaker on his line. However, it should also be noted that a large percentage of full-strength goals around the NHL nowadays are not scored off picturesque setups but rather via deflections of shots from up high, directly off defensive turnovers or broken plays where the puck finds someone in prime shooting position. This is how the majority of Simmonds' five-on-five goals get scored. Last year, Simmonds briefly played his off-wing (for the first time in his career) to get him on the top line with Giroux and Voracek, but he was clearly uncomfortable on left wing despite commendable effort to adjust. That experiment ended rather quickly.
Simmonds missed the final seven games of the 2014-15 season with a broken foot. He is now said to be fully healthy. Likewise, Matt Read (high ankle sprain last season), R.J. Umberger (hip and abdominal surgeries) and fourth-line forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (shoulder surgery after last season) have all declared themselves healthy.
Read and Umberger are coming off highly disappointing campaigns last year. The Flyers expect the speedy Read to bounce back to his 20-goal form while continuing to be a penalty killing mainstay and for Umberger, now skating considerably better after suffering last season from hip, groin, abdominal and lower-back issues, to be a much more effective two-way role player than he was last year.
Hakstol faces the same dilemma with Vincent Lecavalier that Berube had after taking over for Peter Laviolette. The coach has to determine if the former Tampa Bay Lightning icon can fit into his system and where to play him. Under Berube, after being tried in seven different top-nine roles (at different junctures, he played everywhere but first-line center and third-line left wing) and then as a late-season fourth-line center during his injury-marred first season, Lecavalier wound up being a fourth-line right winger and frequent healthy scratch last year. The Flyers were once again unable to unable to find a trade for the 35-year-old Lecavalier this offseason, so now it falls to the player and his new coach to discover solutions that Berube and Lecavalier were unable to find together.
Last season, after missing training camp and the first half of the regular season with a torn pectoral muscle, Ryan White provided a spark to the bottom six of the lineup. He even unexpectedly chipped in an NHL career-best six goals and 12 points in 34 games. The team re-signed him to a new contract for the upcoming season. The feisty role player will find a regular spot in Hakstol's lineup if he carries over his play from last season.
Bellemare, 30, carved a niche for himself last season as a tenacious forechecker and backchecker who brought speed and moxie to the lower end of the lineup. During his long career in Europe, he frequently showed a deft scoring touch but that element was not really a significant part of his game last year in his assigned role. He is likely to remain in a similar role under Hakstol as camp opens.
Another fourth-line forward, Chris VandeVelde, is one of three players in training camp who played for Hakstol at the University of North Dakota. The other two players in camp with UND connections to Hakstol are off-season signing Chris Porter and first-year pro hopeful Michael Parks.
Last year, VandeVelde quietly put together a solid two-way season that finally enabled him to graduate from AHL-NHL swingman to an NHL regular role player under Berube. VandeVelde's past ties to Hakstol do not automatically assure him of a roster spot or maintaining his starting job from last season. However, he probably holds the inside track and would have to be outplayed to miss out.
Left winger Porter, 31, signed a one-year, two-way contract in August. The 6-foot-1, 210-pound Porter dressed in 24 games last season for the St. Louis Blues. He is a dark horse fourth-line candidate to make the Flyers' opening night roster in the event of a preseason injury to a bottom-six starter. Otherwise, he's likely to play for the Phantoms (after clearing waivers) and be available for callup.
Parks, 23, graduated UND earlier this year. Drafted by the Flyers in the fifth round of the 2010 draft, he is reportedly under AHL contract (not an NHL entry-level deal) for the 2015-16 season, although no formal announcement by the Phantoms has been made to date in that regard. At the pro level, Parks would project as a no-frills, north-south role player although he (like Porter and VandeVelde before him) was a decent offensive producer in college. He could see time this season with the Phantoms and/or the ECHL's Reading Royals.
More importantly to the organization, 2012 first-round pick Scott Laughton will look to put together a strong enough camp to push for a third-line center spot on the big club. Last year, he had a so-so NHL camp but got off to a tremendous start to his AHL rookie season. He got called up to the NHL and, for a time, seemed like he was on the brink of staking down a regular job (despite modest scoring totals) with decent speed and solid two-way upside.
However, Laughton struggled after sustaining a concussion and the doldrums continued after he was sent back to the AHL before closing out the tail end of the season with an encouraging final three weeks. Entering camp this September, Laughton is on the NHL roster bubble but, as a waiver exempt player caught in a numbers game, he'd need a very strong camp to open the season with the Flyers.
Fellow second-year pro Taylor Leier has recovered from shoulder problems (both shoulders) and a wrist injury, which severely hampered him in the second half of his rookie season with the Phantoms. Although he is not currently considered NHL-ready, the Flyers envision Leier blossoming into essentially a somewhat feistier version of Read in the future. As with many of the Flyers' current forward prospects, Leier is a bit undersized but he is speedy and smart with a strong competitive drive.
Third-year pro Nick Cousins enjoyed a breakthrough AHL campaign in 2014-15 and closed out NHL season with 11 games (zero points but he did score a nice shootout goal) on the big club when it was riddled with late-season injuries. He was adequate in his NHL trial. With Cousins, moving his feet rather than going into "glide mode" is the key to his success along with walking the discipline tightrope. The self-confident Cousins remains a call-up candidate for 2014-15 but could be a distant dark horse to push for an NHL job sooner with a big camp. The number game works against him. He has one year of waiver exemption left to be assigned to the AHL.
Fellow third-year pro Petr Straka actually played his best games of 2014-15 during a three-game NHL callup (his first NHL experience) to the Flyers. With the Phantoms, he had a productive first half of last season but an abysmal second half and wound up deep in former coach Terry Murray's doghouse to the point that he became more or less a sparingly used shootout specialist. Right now, Straka's main objective is to get back in the organization's good graces, make a solid impression on new Phantoms coach Scott Gordon and work his way into NHL recall consideration again before the expiration of his entry-level contract.
In the long run, the Flyers are excited by the top-six forward potential of 2015 first-round pick Travis Konecny; a "little big man" who plays with a high skill level as well as moxie. He will get his first NHL training camp experience this September before being returned to the OHL's Ottawa 67's. Likewise, the organization is encouraged by the development of speedy 2014 second-round pick Nicolas Aube-Kubel. Neither is likely to make the NHL right away nor are they age-eligible for the Phantoms this year.
For the short term, Hextall made numerous off-season signings geared toward bolstering the Phantoms' lineup with some proven veterans and simultaneously providing the big team with some callup candidates with previous NHL experience: Tim Brent, Chris Conner, Aaron Palushaj, Colin McDonald and Porter all meet this description.
Pint-sized Danick Martel is a Phantoms-bound rookie worth watching. Signed to an entry-level contract as a free agent, Martel impressed offensively in a late-season amateur tryout (ATO) cup of coffee in Allentown before the official start of his two-way contract for the 2015-16 season. He is one of the fastest skaters at camp.
DEFENSEMEN
Assuming everyone stays healthy, there are four locks and one near-lock for opening night starting spots on the NHL roster: Mark Streit, Nick Schultz, Michael Del Zotto, and newcomer Evgeni Medvedev are all slated for regular jobs. Andrew MacDonald, despite an injury-marred and overall disappointing 2014-15 season, would have to play himself out of a job in camp not to have a starting lineup spot when the season opens.
That leaves a pair of righthanded shooting defensive defensemen -- Luke Schenn and Radko Gudas -- battling for one starting job. It is possible that impending unrestricted free agent Schenn could be traded (freeing up $3.6 million of cap space and alleviating some of the overcrowding) by opening night. Both he and Gudas are coming off respective season-ending surgeries last year but both are now said to be fully recovered.
Brandon Manning likely slots as a reserve defenseman on the roster. The only question is whether the team carries seven or eight defenseman. If they elect to go with seven and there are not trades made higher on the depth chart, Manning may be waived and assigned to the AHL (assuming he clears) to start the year.
For the most part, the Flyers current blueline is a collection of players with specialized skills. Streit and Del Zotto are both mostly offensive-minded players. Schultz plays a shutdown role and a simple game, although he skates well. MacDonald, when he's played well, keeps things fairly simple and uses his mobility with safe first-pass options. MacDonald is a containment-style defender, which means he'll concede some room and shot attempts in the hopes of forcing mostly routine and potentially blockable shots.
Medvedev, 33, is an unknown quantity. In the KHL, he's been a star two-way defender but this is his first NHL experience. A lot of adjustments are necessary. To his credit, the player has already shown that he's willing to work hard to prepare himself for camp both on-ice and off-ice. How it translates to game action remains to be seen. It is safe to say that in terms of mobility an breakout passing, he is an upgrade to the lineup.
In the long run, the Flyers defense is going to need across-the-board upgrades in terms of mobile, two-way defensemen who can get the puck up the forwards quickly, read-and-react efficiently, join the attack when the opportunity presents itself but still defend effectively, too.
In years to come, the organization hopes that its top blueline prospects -- especially the "big three" of Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim and Samuel Morin -- eventually form the backbone of a dynamic defense. Likewise, the long-term development goal is for smallish offensive defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere evolving into a complete player and the physically talented but laid back Robert Hägg to push himself to raise the consistency of his competitiveness level in all facets and become a quietly efficient and NHL-ready two-way player.
For now, it seems more likely that Provorov and Sanheim will spend another year in the Western Hockey League, Gostisbehere and Hägg will start their second pro seasons in the American Hockey League with the Phantoms and Morin will be a Phantoms rookie.
The organization also signed veteran Davis Drewiske for AHL leadership and NHL callup depth. Mark Alt, coming off an injury-filled second pro season, is a dark horse for an eventual bottom pairing or seventh defenseman NHL spot and is also callup candidate. The organization also likes Swiss import rookie Christian Marti as a dark horse prospect. Marti is a no-frills defensive defenseman with some physical presence to his game and a big frame (6-foot-3, 214 pounds) as well as deceptive mobility.
GOALTENDERS
Coming off an injury-marred but otherwise stellar (from an individual play standpoint) 2014-15 season, Steve Mason remains the team's undisputed number one goalie. The team upgraded its second spot on the depth chart with the offseason signing of talented Michal Neuvirth. The now-departed Ray Emery, currently on tryout with the Tampa Bay Lightning, had a mediocre 2014-15 season.
The main issue to be figured out is one that will play out over the regular season and cannot be resolved in training camp: assuming Mason stays healthy and maintains a similar level of performance to what has been his fairly consistent track record ever since his 2013 late-season arrival in Philadelphia, how much of the workload will he carry and how much will be assigned to Neuvirth. These decisions will be made according to their respective performances, Mason's health status and the team's place in the standings.
For third-string depth, Hextall signed veteran Jason LaBarbera to replace Rob Zepp as the Phantoms' starter and the Flyers' primary recall option in case of an injury to Mason or his backup. LaBarbera played for the Kings organization while Hextall was there, so the two men already know each other pretty well. LaBarbera has more NHL experience than Zepp, although Zepp was arguably the better goalie of the two over the last couple years. Both are well-liked, solid citizens in the dressing room and off the ice.
Second-year pro Anthony Stolarz will look to expedite his development cycle over the next season. He enters the season as LaBarbera's backup but could earn more playing team as the season progresses.
Martin Ouellet returns to the minor league fold this season as a starting-caliber ECHL goaltender and a callup candidate to the Phantoms in the event either LaBarbera or Stolarz get injured or one is on NHL recall.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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