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Quick Hits: Rookie Camp Invitees, Hart, No. 31, Alumni |
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Quick Hits: August 27, 2018
1) A few weeks ago, Flyers general manager Ron Hextall confirmed reports from Canada that 20-year-old Quebec Major Junior Hockey League forward Mitchell Balmas is attending the Flyers' rookie camp in September as a tryout player. This weekend, Seattle Thunderbirds and Western Hockey League reporter Andy Eide stated on Twitter that 19-year-old Seattle goaltender Liam Hughes would also be in camp with the Flyers. It is believed, but not yet officially confirmed, that Calgary Hitmen defenseman Yegor Zamula will be another attendee.
The odds are significantly against rookie camp tryouts landing entry-level contracts. However, there are sometimes exceptions such as second-year pro defenseman Philippe Myers, who is now the Flyers' top blueline prospect who has yet to play in the NHL.
A member of last season's Memorial Cup winning Acadie Bathurst Titan, Balmas is presently in training camp with his new QMHJL team, the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. Last season, the Nova Scotia native tallied 72 points (42 goals, 30 assists) in 68 games last season. Fifteen of his goals came on the power play; 3rd in the QMJHL. If signed to an NHL entry-level or AHL contract, he is eligible to play pro hockey this season (he turned 20 in May) or to play an over-age season for Cape Breton in the Q.
The left-catching Hughes made 38 regular season appearances and five WHL Playoff starts for the Thunderbirds last season after being acquired in a trade with the Edmonton Oil Kings. The 6-foot-1, 200-pound native of Kelowna, BC, posted a 16-12-1 record, 3.15 goals against average and .909 save percentage. Last season, the Western League was the highest-scoring circuit of the three CHL leagues.
2) Although top Flyers goaltending prospect Carter Hart sported a No. 31 Flyers jersey for his photo ops at the 2018 NHLPA Showcase in Toronto, he will not wear the "unofficially retired" number with the Flyers. At camp, he will wear No. 79, as he did last year. However, Hart will wear No. 31 for the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms as he did during his brief postseason stay with the team following the WHL playoffs this spring.
Hart wore No. 70 as a member of the Everett Silvertips, for whom he won three straight WHL Goalie of the Year and last year's league MVP award as well as two CHL Goalie of the Year awards and CHL Most Valuable Player finalist honors. He wore No. 31 for Team Canada at the World Junior Championships, as well as for the Phantoms.
No Flyers goaltender has worn No. 31 since defending Vezina Trophy winner Pelle Lindbergh perished in a car crash in Nov. 1985. The number has never been officially retired but it has been a 33-year tradition for the team equipment staff not to reassign No. 31 to another goaltender, with the backing of team management.
The tradition does not apply to the Phantoms, as the team did not exist during Lindbergh's lifetime, nor did he wear No. 31 during his time with the AHL's Maine Mariners. The Swede, who had idolized Flyers goaltender Bernie Parent since childhood in Stockholm, wore No. 1 in his hero's honor. Since No. 1 was retired by the Flyers in Parent's honor, Lindbergh (who had uncomplainingly been assigned No. 35 at his first Flyers' training camp) chose the available No. 31 since it at least had a "1" in the number.
Longtime Phantoms goaltender Neil Little sported No. 31 with the club, specifically in honor of Lindbergh's memory. The idea had been suggested by Phantoms coach Bill Barber, who was a Flyers teammate of Lindbergh's in 1982-83 and 1983-84.
In the long run, unless Hart takes to wearing No. 79, which has never been worn in a regular season game by a Flyers player, he may want to claim his Everett number. The only Flyer to wear No. 70 is current Phantoms forward Danick Martel, who sported No. 70 during his four-game stint with the big club last season.
As for Hart wearing No. 31 at the Showcase, it was simply a matter of him being handed a jersey to wear and being given the number he wore at the WJC and for the Phantoms. No disrespect was meant either to Lindbergh or the tradition of no Flyers goal wearing his old number. It's also likely that Alberta native Hart, who was born nearly 13 years after Lindbergh's death, was not even aware of the significance of the sweater number he wore on his jersey for the photo shoot.
3) For sentimental reasons, I would personally prefer if the Flyers maintain the tradition of keeping Lindbergh's number out of circulation. Maintaining that tradition is a way to honor not just Pelle, but also the likes of Dave "Sudsy" Settlemyre, son Derek Settlemyre, Kevin Cady, Jim "Turk" Evers and Harry Bricker, who have all helped preserve Lindbergh's memory through the years. Sudsy, Derek (as a child), Kevin and Turk were all close with Pelle during his lifetime, and Derek and Harry are, of course, still with the team.
That said, I do not believe that Lindbergh himself would have been offended by the notion of another Flyers goalie someday wearing his old number. Pelle made his beliefs on similar matters clear in his summer of 1985 interview with Hockey Night in Canada, in which he said that being the first Swede to win the Vezina Trophy probably won't be remembered by anyone in the future until another Swede emerged and won the award (Henrik Lundqvist, as it turned out). He was totally fine with that idea, and felt it was normal with the passage of time.
Although I was too young to have personally known Lindbergh, over the years I've gotten to know many of his former teammates, some of his closest friends and members of his family. In co-writing a book about Pelle, I felt like I got to know him at a level deeper than just being a fan of his during my childhood.
Despite my admiration of Pelle as a goalie and as an impossible-to-dislike human being, I do not think the Flyers should retire his jersey officially. It is not due to the circumstances of his death. It's due to the shortness of his career.
Lindbergh only played three full seasons plus six weeks in the NHL before his passing. Yes, the pedigree was there for a Hall of Fame type of career -- a progression from WJC All-Tournament Team to 1980 Olympic standout to AHL MVP/Goalie of the Year/Rookie of the Year honors to NHL All-Rookie Team and NHL All-Star to Vezina winner and Hart Trophy finalist to getting off to an even better start the next year. But as blindingly bright as his future likely would have been, that future never happened.
Lindbergh's memory is officially recognized by the Flyers through the team award that bears his name. The Pelle Lindbergh Memorial Trophy, which commemorates Lindbergh's Vezina winning/ Hart Trophy finalist 1984-85 season following a terrible struggle in his second NHL campaign one year prior, is given annually to the Flyers most improved player.
So that's how I see it. Lindbergh's place in team history already has an official means of being recognized. The tradition of keeping his jersey number out of circulation is a credit to the team staff members with whom Pelle was just as close if not even closer than with his teammates. Thus, I am in favor of keeping that tradition going. However, if the number someday went back into circulation, whether with Hart, some future Flyers goalie from Sweden or someone else, I don't think the easy-going Lindbergh would have personally minded it. More likely, he'd have been amused that the notion of someone else wearing his number caused a fuss.
4) August 27 Flyers Alumni birthdays: Ryan Bast (1975), Mark Botell (1961), Evgeny Medvedev (1982), Adam Oates (1962).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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