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Quick Hits: Hogberg, Euro Prospect Updates, Today in Flyers History |
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Quick Hits: September 4, 2022
1) Prospect Update: The Swedish Hockey League regular season gets underway on Sept. 17. Teams are currently playing exhibition games. On Thursday, HV71 Jönköping defeated Leksands IF by a 4-2 score. Flyers defense prospect Emil Andrae, a tournament all-star and the captain of Team Sweden at the recent IIHF World Junior Championship, scored what proved to be the winning goal for HV71. The goal, assisted by former Lehigh Valley Phantoms forward Andy Miele, came at 8:48 of the second period.
The Liiga regular season in Finland starts on Sept. 13. Flyers 2021 second round pick Samu Tuomaala has dressed in two preseason games. He has not yet recorded a point.
2) Phantoms/Flyers defenseman Linus Högberg celebrates his 24th birthday today. A restricted free agent this summer, the Swedish blueliner signed a one-year, two-way contract extension on August 26.
Högberg faces an uphill climb to earn an opening-night NHL roster spot in the top six of the Flyers' defense corps or as the team's No. 7 biueliner. He is still waivers exempt as he enters his third pro season in North America. He is clearly behind likely NHL roster defenseman Cam York and also likely behind Ronnie Attard and third-year Phantoms defenseman Egor Zamula on the organizational depth chart.
A largely no-frills blueliner who is usually a reliable positional defender and still has some puck-moving upside, Högberg appeared in 58 games for the Phantoms in his second North American pro season (0g, 8a). He also dressed in five late season NHL games for the Flyers (two assists, eight blocks, three credited takeaways, four charged giveaways) and generally held his own despite unfavorable underlying puck-possession numbers (42.1 percent on-ice Corsi rating).
I thought Högberg played better by the old-fashioned "eye test" than he did by the numbers. He spent a lot of time in his own end of the ice but there were only a couple instances where he could be fairly identified as a culprit.
3) September 4 Flyers Alumni birthday: John Vanbiesbrouck (1963).
4) Today in Flyers History: On Sept. 4, 1979, a long-forgotten but interesting mini-saga in Flyers history came to an end when the organization traded forward Dennis Sobchuk to the Detroit Red Wings for a 1981 fourth-round pick (Dave Michayluk).
Five years earlier, Sobchuk had been one of the most dominant players to come down the pike in Canadian junior hockey. Boasting a combination of good size (6-foot-2) and good hands, he tore apart the Western league for 123 points at age 17, 147 points at 18 and 146 points at 19. Under the NHL Draft rules of the time, players could not be drafted until they were 20.
The fledgling World Hockey Association, looking to gain any competitive advantage it could get in its uphill (and ultimately failed) battle to compete with the NHL, tried to get the jump on the NHL by signing top underage players who were not yet eligible to be drafted by National Hockey League teams. The most notable examples from an historical standpoint were Wayne Gretzky, Mark Howe (who was joined by his father, Gordie Howe and brother Marty Howe on the Houston Aeros), and Mark Messier. However, the first underager to sign in the WHA was Sobchuk, who signed with the Phoenix Roadrunners.
If not for his unavailability, Sobchuk would have been an NHL first-round pick when he finally became eligible for the NHL Draft in 1974. Instead, he slid down to the fifth round. The defending Stanley Cup champion Flyers rolled the dice on being able to pry Sobchuk away from the WHA and selected him with the 89th overall pick.
Flyers general manager Keith Allen had an excellent track record of getting the players he wanted, and for preventing WHA teams from signing away Philadelphia players. The one guy he couldn't get was Sobchuk, whose WHA career began with seasons of 32, 32, and 44 goals along with 77, 72 and 96 points for Phoenix and the Cincinnati Stingers. For several years, Allen and the Flyers tried unsuccessfully to bring Sobchuk to Philadelphia.
Sobchuk's career path leveled off after an injury, however. After a couple of ineffective seasons, the Flyers' interest cooled off on him. Nevertheless, after the NHL merged with the WHA, the Flyers exercised their draft rights to the player in the 1979 Reclaim Draft. By now, the intent was not to keep the player but to get something back for him.
After reclaiming him, the Flyers left Sobchuk exposed to the 1979 Expansion Draft, but added him to the protected list after Bernie Johnson was taken off the roster. The Flyers then subsequently traded Sobchuk to Detroit. He went on to play 35 NHL games for the Red Wings and Quebec Nordiques, posting five goals and 11 points.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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