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Musings and Quick Hits: Line Play, Training Camp vs. Long Haul, TIFH & More |
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Quick Hits: Aug. 29, 2019
1) Part four of the pre-camp Line Play series will run later today on the Flyers' official website. Since the premise of the series is to assemble lines based on known quantities before camp starts -- rather than speculating before even a single camp drill is run on which rookie hopeful(s) will or will not step up -- it starts to limits the choices as you move down the lineup.
When it came to choosing a default forward for a third-line spot -- in light of Tyler Pitlick's recent left wrist surgery -- I opted for Michael Raffl over Scott Laughton. I did it in order to be able to keep as deep of a group of NHL centers as possible, and also because I was running out of known quantity options.
Filling out the fourth line wing spots without pre-selecting a rookie meant that one spot defaulted to Andy Andreoff (one-way contract) and the other meant using Pitlick's name as a placeholder (since he's going to be in the likely top 12 at some point) even though it may be a stretch to predict that he will be ready to play on opening night. He can skate during his rehab but it's going to be a few weeks until he's progressed to handling and shooting pucks, much less getting into preseason game action.
Again, the purpose of this series is not to predict the eventual opening night lineup. It's to simulate a lineup based on the pre-camp roster. By its nature, that list is fluid. The kids will have opportunities to win a job, but they don't enter camp with one guaranteed.
When it comes time to make decisions regarding the prospects, it will come down to two factors: 1) Based BOTH on his demonstrated development to date and his performance in camp, how confident is the organization that the player is ready to stand up to the grind of an 82-game NHL season without a major dropoff? Would he be better off a half-season or a year from now if he spends time first in the AHL? 2) Does the roster have enough depth to justify waiting a little longer to place the youngster in the NHL or does necessity or circumstance dictate that the youngster open the season in the NHL even if he may not be fully ready?
Right now, in lieu of a rookie or an outside acquisition, the Flyers bottom six depth gets thin in a hurry without Pitlick. Now there are two open spots instead of one. It opens a spot for Andreoff or someone like Kurtis Gabriel to move into the NHL lineup. For the record, I would be quite disappointed if none of the young players in camp step up enough to win a spot and if no trade acquisition is made as an alternative.
2) This, too, bears repeating: An opening-night roster is hardly the be-all and end-all of a season for a young player, much less a career. Never get too high or too low on a young player's future based on a preseason run or his earliest games in the league.
Back in 2000, the Flyers big surprise at camp was a young Czech center named Petr Hubacek. He dazzled with fancy stickhandling, a quick shot release and smooth skating to unexpectedly win an opening night roster spot along with 2000 first-round pick Justin Williams.
Opening night was played in Philadelphia against the Vancouver Canucks, featuring the Sedin twins in their NHL debut. Lo and behold, Williams dazzled in his debut (1G, 2A) as did Hubacek (scoring a goal on his first of two scoring chances over 10:11 of ice time) in a 6-3 Flyers win. The Sedins were held quiet in about 13 minutes of ice time apiece.
Alas, one training camp and one regular season game does not make a career. Hubacek quickly leveled off and then began to struggle mightily. After six games, he was sent down to the Phantoms, and never again played in the NHL. Williams, however, was the real deal. After dealing with several significant injuries early in his NHL career, he blossomed into one of the league more reliable wingers for a decade-plus.
Last year, Mikhail Vorobyev won an NHL job out of camp based on consistently strong performances both at practice and in games. He ended up dropping off quickly once the season started, and then dealt with injuries and streakiness after being sent back to the AHL. This year, he's again among the players who will try to impress in camp.
On the flip side, if you go back to training camp 2008, most everyone (myself included) expected top prospect Claude Giroux to jump directly to the NHL roster. The Flyers' 2006 first-round pick was coming off back-to-back dominant junior seasons and a record-shattering QMJHL playoff run a few months earlier. He looked very strong for Team Canada at the World Junior Championships. All signs seemed to point to him being ready right away for the NHL.
As it turned out, Giroux had a middling-at-best training camp. Whether it was due to him dealing with some minor health issues at the time and not feeling 100 percent or feeling the pressure of expectations or simply just not being at his best during a small sampling, Giroux was not standing out as expected.
Head coach John Stevens fired the first warning shot about a week into camp by saying Giroux was doing "just OK." Not long thereafter, Giroux was cut from the roster and assigned to the AHL's Philadelphia Phantoms.
For the first month of the AHL season, Giroux fared decently but not spectacularly. He went pointless in five of his first seven games (1G, 1A) and was minus-five. Through 12 games, he had three goals and seven points, and then was minus-four in his next game. Already, the knee-jerk element of the Flyers fan base was growing restless, with a few especially impatient fans labeling Giroux a bust a mere month into his pro career.
One he get settled in, both on and off the ice, Giroux started to show what he was really capable of doing. Giroux rattled off a seven-game point streak and started to play with much more flair and creativity. By December, he produced a run of 15 points in nine games (eight goals, seven assists) with at least one point in eight of them. He was also +14 in that stretch.
By now, Giroux was ready for his NHL callup. In all, he played 33 games for the Phantoms that season and finished with 34 points (17 goals, 17 assists) despite his slow start. Moving up to the NHL, he had nine goals and 27 points in 42 games; largely on third-line right wing.
Giroux remained on the third line for the Flyers in 2009-10, but eventually shifted from right wing to center. He posted 16 goals and 47 points in the regular season, and (along with Danny Briere) scored a huge shootout goal against the Rangers with a playoff spot at stake on the final day of the season. Giroux's true arrival to NHL stardom, came during the 2010 playoffs, as racked up 10 goals and 21 points in 23 games including an overtime goal against Chicago in the Stanley Cup Final.
The reason for recounting these stories is simple. There are two very important lessons to be learned:
* Don't read too much, good or bad, into the preseason and early regular season. If Morgan Frost or Joel Farabee don't dominate right away in camp or the regular season -- whether in the NHL or AHL -- it's nothing to panic over. Conversely, if another player steps up as a camp surprise in a positive way -- I'll use second-year pro Connor Bunnaman this year as a theoretical example, just as Carsen Twarynski was last September -- don't assume the player has necessarily taken a big jump and is ready to help the NHL team.
* Keep in mind that young players, especially first-year pros, face off-ice adjustments that are just as significant as the on-ice ones. Just because you don't see it or hear about it very often, doesn't mean these adjustments are not significant. There's no billet family anymore. There's no longer the "big fish in a small pond" treatment. Everything is brand new. The pace of life on the ice at practice and off the ice suddenly gets much faster, not to mention to pace of play on game nights. It quite often takes time to adjust. Whether that takes a few weeks (ala Carter Hart or Claude Giroux), a few months (Oskar Lindblom) or a year or more (Travis Sanheim and others) depends on the individual.
3) Believe it or not, it has been eight years since the last time the Flyers have had two or more full-time centers achieve 50 or more points in the same season. Back in 2010-11, Giroux (76 points), Danny Briere (68 points) and Mike Richards (66 points) accomplished the feat. Note: This excludes Flyers forwards who regularly switched back and forth from center to wing -- Brayden Schenn, for example, or Jeff Carter in certain seasons -- and includes only players who centered their own line for more than 75 percent of a season.
This season, the duo of Sean Couturier (76 points last season) and Kevin Hayes (54 points last season between the Rangers and Jets) will vie to end that dubious run. If Nolan Patrick (31 points last year) can start to come into his own and get even into the mid-40s point-wise, that will be a deep 1-2-3 punch down the middle.
4) Hayes has posted 110 even-strength points over the last three regular seasons; comparable production to the likes of Nazem Kadri (111), Jordan Eberle (111), Elias Lindholm (111), Ryan O'Reilly (115) and Patrice Bergeron (117) over the same span. Players with slightly less even strength production over the same span include Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (108), Mats Zuccarello (106), Ryan Dzingel (105) and Vincent Trocheck (105).
5) On Wednesday, Phantoms/Flyers goaltender Alex Lyon, Flyers defense hopeful Samuel Morin, Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau and Hockey Hall of Fame inductees Bernie Parent and Rod Gilbert treated fans to a skate-around along with a meet-and-greet session at the newly built PNY Sports Arena in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
I have not seen the new facility but have heard it's very nice. Back when I used to live in West Chester for a couple years in the early 2000s and was out on the ice with much greater frequency than I have been in recent years, I used to go regularly to Ice Line. Previously, when living in Havertown, the Skatium was where I went. Those were fun times.
6) Today in Flyers History: On Aug. 29, 1983, the Flyers signed veteran tough guy defenseman Randy Holt as a free agent. He would go on to dress in 26 games (zero points, 74 penalty minutes) for Bob McCammon's team in 1983-84.
7) Aug. 29 Flyers Alumni birthdays: Mike Murray (1966), Doug Sulliman (1959), Tim Tookey (1960).
8) The annual WCRE Celebrity Game, featuring members of the Flyers Alumni, will be held on Sept. 14 at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. A half-dozen Flyers Alumni will be participating, including Flyers Hall of Famers Brian Propp and John LeClair. Other participants include Todd Fedoruk, Riley Cote, Doug Crossman and Andre Faust. Proceeds benefit various charities and non-profit organizations, including the Flyers Alumni Association. For more information, click here.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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