2018 WORLD JUNIOR SUMMER SHOWCASE
1) Generally speaking, the Flyers organization believes in building down the middle early in the NHL Draft. Before the team selected Boston University-bound left winger Joel Farabee with the 14th overall pick of the 2018 Draft, the last two times the Flyers chose a winger with their first pick of the Draft came back in 2006 (Claude Giroux, who was then a right winger and later switched to center and then left wing) and 2007 (left winger James van Riemsdyk).
After the Flyers chose Farabee, Flyers general manager Ron Hextall noted that the youngster had many "center-like" qualities to his game, although he is projected to remain on left wing as he moves up the ranks. By that, Hextall was referring to Farabee's 200-foot game and his ice vision.
During the Flyers recent Development Camp, Hextall referred to the deceptiveness of Farabee's hands, saying that apart from the accuracy of his shot and the precision of his passing touch, it is his ability to disguise whether he's about to shoot or pass that gives trouble to opposing goalies and defenses. Fellow Flyers prospects Morgan Frost and Jay O'Brien also possess this trait.
On the Flyers official website, there is an article that goes a little more in-depth about what sets Farabee's physical skillset and mental game apart from most prospects:
Click here. There is also a video segment on Farabee's experience on Draft night and at his first Development Camp.
2) On the
most recent edition of the "Real Deal Hockey with Bundy and Bill" podcast, Chris Therien asked Flyers general manager Ron Hextall about the status of a contract extension for Ivan Provorov. The team's No. 1 defenseman will finish his entry-level contract in 2018-19 and can become a restricted free agent on July 1, 2019.
"He's going to be a Flyer for a long time," Hextall said. "Hopefully, we can get him signed here prior to July 1 of next year, and get him going. He's a fixture for us."
Reading between the lines, it seems as if Provorov's agent, Mark Gandler, prefers to wait to negotiate the player's next contract rather than sitting down this summer to put numbers and term to an extension.The Flyers, however, are committed to making sure it gets done.
3) We also asked Hextall about the status of the Wayne Simmonds' contract negotiation and whether the soon-to-be 30-year-old power forward might go into next season unsigned beyond the final year of his current contract.
"I'm not sure where that's going to go. It's a tough one for both sides. Obviously, there's long-term deals out there and when you look at what other guys have signed for, Simmer could be there with them. For our part, we've got to think long and hard about term -- not only on Simmer but on a lot of players. So that's something we'll continue to monitor and we'll see where we go as we go along," Hextall said.
Alternate captain Simmonds is coming off an injury-riddled season in which he played through almost every issue but saw his productivity drop in the process. He still managed 24 goals, including 11 on the power play.
4) On the NBCSports Philly website, John Boruk compiled a
slideshow of what he feels are the five best trades in Flyers history. Such lists are primarily useful as offseason conversation/ debate starters, so I'll dive in.
Perhaps John wanted to have as much contemporary focus as possible, in addition to the most oft-cited trades from many other lists. If I were compiling the list, however, I would have ordered the top five quite differently and included some different trades in my top 5.
Boruk's ranking had the Mark Recchi for John LeClair, Eric Desjardins and Gilbert Dionne trade at fourth on his list. There is no way this one should have been lower than 2nd. That trade, which gave up a 1st line winger (who returned to Philly a few years later) but replaced him with a different type of 1st-line winger and, arguably even more important, brought back a 1st pair defenseman marked the end of a five-year period of missing the playoffs to re-emerge as a Stanley Cup contender for the next nine years.
The Mike Richards for Wayne Simmonds and Brayden Schenn trade with LA, while the Flyers did well from it, is best remembered in context of
being made a few minutes ahead of the trade that sent Jeff Carter to Columbus and brought back Jakub Voracek and the 2011 first-round pick that yielded Sean Couturier. These were landmark dual trades that are still impacting the Flyers' roster seven years later but, individually taken, neither trade was as positive in its impact as the Desjardins and LeClair acquisition.
I do not think the Kris Versteeg trade that brought the third-round pick the Flyers used on Shayne Gostisbehere merits anything close to a top five spot. Not when one is omitting from the list the Mark Howe acquisition from Hartford, the three-way trade with Boston and Toronto that yielded a young Rick MacLeish, the Reggie Leach deal with the Seals, and the Rod Brind'Amour acquisition from St. Louis in exchange for Ron Sutter and Murray Baron.
Now, if this was a list of best non-1st round picks the Flyers have ever made, then Ghost would certainly be up for consideration. But striking gold on a latter-round pick acquired from a trade does not merit putting the original deal on a franchise all-time best list when deals that brought back a Hall of Famer in his prime, a future 50-goal scorer at the beginning of his pro career and one of the best two-way players of his era just two season into his NHL career do not make the list.
5) Today in Flyers history: July 23 is a sad date in Flyers history. On this day in 1982, well-liked early 1970s forward Larry Mickey took his own life at age 38 at his home in Buffalo. On this day in 1999, 22-year-old defenseman Dmitri Tertyshny passed away from injuries suffered in a horrific boating accident on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»