Philadelphia Flyers Development Camp – Who made an impression?

Philadelphia Flyers Development Camp – Who made an impression?

it’s the locked on Flyers podcast your daily dose of Flyers news analysis and high quality content that’s talking all things development Camp yeah [Music] fun you’re locked on Flyers your daily podcast on the Philadelphia Flyers part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day hey there and thanks for making locked on Flyers your first listen every day I am Rachel Donner I’m on twitterr Miriam I’m here with Russ Cohen who’s on all your favorite social media apps at sportsology we are at locked on flyers on Instagram threads blue sky and Twitter as well today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time download the game time app create an account and use the code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase terms apply you can find us over on YouTube or on the sirusxm app or any where you listen to podcast subscribe to get our latest episode as soon as it’s available here on the locked on podcast Network your team every day Russ you and I were both at development camp for the weekend and this is our development Camp recap but to cap off development camp at the very very end after the scrimmage the Flyers announced jet luchenko ELC and uh I think you you know it it was not unexpected let’s say yeah it it was a formality that was going to happen so it happened and now everybody moves on yeah so uh of course uh the likelihood of him being on the Flyers next season is next to nothing but uh good to see the organization confidence in him to get that ELC done right away um another just couple things of note from development Camp uh m Mo Rizzo who we were really excited to see unfortunately had a high ankle sprain and so they were being very careful with him he did participate in a lot of the drills uh on and off over camp but did not participate in the scrimmage which got must have been really disappointing for him but at least he got some ice time he did you know I got him to see him for one push back drill one yeah and it was funny because some of the people missed him they’re like you sure it was him I’m like yeah it was his number and they threw him in there for a second you know that’s what it was they were just sparingly using him but at least enough to let him feel like he was a part of it so that’s fine he’ll be fine yeah and also Ty merchison uh was there at development camp but also did not participate due to injury so uh that was kind of a a bummer for him as far as like overall Camp notes I think one of the more interesting things to me me was learning more about the specificity of what the goals were of camp and Cara Mor who is a coach for the women’s team at Princeton was back for her fourth development Camp which is really cool because now she’s gotten year-to-year perspective on a lot of these players and can speak to that but she talked about the Camp’s specific goal of building skills from the basic details you know from and you could see it from really basic skating drills building up to how to use those skating drills in a more set play to then executing them in the scrimmage and like you can really see that in over the progression of a day’s activities yeah I mean watching her for for the weekend I could see what she was doing and her influence and yeah there’s no question she knows what she’s doing and she’s trying to you know impart that wisdom and and that’s good uh I did like the one thing that she said with is true that it was a less skilled group overall cuz I had said to you this is probably like the least skilled group that I had seen in three four or five years yeah I think you know that is true so in terms of you know judging this group it was really hard to do in a grand schi but you could judge them against each other for sure but in terms of the big picture it was harder to see especially you know with Rizzo out and just the nature of where the Flyers prospects are right now and mitchoff not being there I think that would have been a a huge Benchmark of but that would all that would have done was just even make it made it more tilted in a way it Wasa it was probably better that he wasn’t there honestly yeah yeah I guess um and of course like the FanFest on Saturday was fun with the autographs and um little games for the kids to play Dan Hilty was doing his thing walking the crowd shaking hands good he’s continuing to do that and you know talking to fans directly um I do want to talk specifically about what Brent Flair had to say after Camp because I think that’s a key indicator there and um you know in terms of who he was kind of focusing on in his comments right R yeah I mean you know one guy I asked him about was J.R Avon because they had pumped him up so much last year and we liked him and he certainly had a disappointing season there’s no way around it and so you could tell now that while Brent was pointing out the positives of his you could tell that there’s now A little pressure on him to produce this year at Lehigh like that that came through loud and clear and so and that’s fair I mean again it may seem unfair because he kind of didn’t come out of nowhere but he wasn’t one of their top prospects but they did sign him right wasn’t that his situation they signed him out of yeah so you know so they had a lot invested in them based on that and so you know now there’s some expectations there yeah and I asked him about um Alexis Gendron as well because that was you know a prospect that they were excited about that played for the Phantoms but they sent him back to Junior and then he got injured and so like where is he now and um I think that you know they see this upcoming year as kind of a Make It or Break It year for him like can he really be successful and carve a place for himself with the Phantoms and have a chance to improve to the point where maybe he’ll get a shot at the NHL that’s kind of where he is now but that’s kind of like whereing is gonna depend on it yeah he has to score if he doesn’t score he’s not making it it’s that simple there’s nothing else in his game that’s going to make him valuable to the team unfortunately yeah so I think that um you know where Brent Flair is is a very interesting point in terms of how they’re evaluating these players right well I think it’s how they’re evaluating him um some of these players have to start really popping and many of them aren’t uh you know I the one thing I would disagree that he said he said Alex bump looks like an NHL player I think maybe body typewise but I saw him still getting muscled out of the crease at a position I didn’t see enough offensive push from him uh he’s got to have a better year in college I mean 16 goals is pretty good but he he’s got to do better uh because right now he’s looking like a fourth liner or nothing and so he’s gonna have to start showing some of those characteristics yeah I think so um and I also think you know he said that there are two Russian goalies playing over there uh which was a little telling maybe about the Alexa kosov situation but we’ll see I mean it’s telling in the sense that they really don’t have much contact with them the last contact wasn’t great and they really don’t know what he’s GNA do like that’s all true yep yeah absolutely um I think you know we’re gonna dig into the recent draf like from this year a lot over the next week or two and and bring what they did into camp but I I think you know for me the two and maybe two and a half that popped the most um of course jet luchenko with his speed and I think that was the key part of his game that you were able to see a lot in Camp but I would also say Noah Powell and hakey ruon yeah they definitely all did well I mean Jack had jet had one really great chance that he was off to like the right side of the post it just didn’t go in that was fine um yeah he wasn’t like a superstar the offensive zone in the scrimmage he wasn’t but again it’s the end of the year like Brent said it’s like a summer game it is a little more amped up than that but there wasn’t much physicality in it and but there was a lot of like active sticks guys playing defense it was very defensive for a while so you know he did he did have his moments with that where you know it took him a little bit to to get past it um I you know that the one thing and it was hard to not see this we’re all behind jet luchenko we think he could be a good player there’s not one person in that in that Media Group that wasn’t well aware that helenius and and boam were left on the board like there’s no other way it’s the elephant in the room we all were talking about it um most thought that that would have been one of their picks nobody’s going to like hold it against jet lenko but I kind of Wonder now uh how many of the fans are feeling that way too after all the analysis that they heard leading up to the draft so this is this is a pick now that the team that he really has to come through probably even better than someone that I thought he was because I thought he was an early second and other people had him maybe in the 20s so he’s going to have to really produce at some point based on where they took him it may seem unfair but that’s what’s going to get attached to him yeah I I I think that’s a fair point um and I will say you know you mentioned the active sticks and the defensive play I would definitely say the defensemen in there were focused on their defensive play almost entirely they were the active sticks were absolutely there they were getting back quickly they were they were being defensively responsible I would say Spencer Gil in particular was doing that and I would say that you know when it you know going back to those drills like I saw him doing exact things that they were doing in the defensive group drills earlier in the day um which I thought was like it was very noticeable to me so he was at least following like the the guidelines that he had been given in terms of how to play and and how to use his stick and how to go cross ice and and all of that stuff so that was really interesting to see uh for me but the forwards were definitely forwarding for the most part right right no Gil look good um you know hun McDonald joked about his poking goal but he you know he looked good he he’s at a point now only because of where he is physically that for guys in this Camp obviously he’s going to push him around uh I do think because we talked about Hunter on this show and what he did in Lehi and I do think the legend of Hunter McDonald what he did in Lehi this year is a little more overblown than what we reported when we were actually watching him you have to you have to admit that that seems to have grown now yeah I think so they are definitely all in on him but uh we are gonna talk about him a little bit more and some of the returnees to camp and some of the people that are like year two for instance uh and see what the differences are we’re going to do that coming up next passion drive and patience the formula for winning 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tuned for that uh that’ll drop on Monday morning so looking at the Camp returnees I think you know Oliver BN and Denver Barky were the two that people were most focused on right yeah I I think they were and Barky did what Barky does you know he was skating well had good setups you could see he needs to get stronger when he’s against some of the bigger defenseman but for the most part he’s really effective getting to the net Bonk didn’t have a chance to do anything I mean that team was so bad uh and Carson bjon did not have a chance to do anything either so if we’re not talking about him it’s just because the odd were stacked against him in that game so he had some good saves I just want people to know that yeah and I think you know it’s important to note if you weren’t there or weren’t aware of the The rosters they split them into team Brier and team Jones in that scrimmage and uh you know team Jones was by far the higher skilled team it show it showed on the scoreboard and I think they tried to balance it out by having Carson beis be the goenda but at a certain point like it was it wasn’t going to happen wasn’t going to happen um the team Jones had two really stacked forward lines and there was just there was just no way it was like a lot of the camp invitees on uh Team Brier as well so um and I I did notice that uh Team Jones was shooting in the offensive zone in the first and third more toward where the executives were standing and not where the media was standing right um in the rink so I think that was very noticeable as well but yeah but I have good Vision like I we were able to see but um I did want to mention um Devin Kaplan too because it just came to mind he was not aggressive enough in the offensive zone matter fact he actually he backed off on a few plays and again he had you know he had a decent season but this is another guy that’s sort of like most likely fourth line or bust and so like some of these guys that that have that have to really start showing that because there’s only so many of those players you could have now maybe he’ll really pick it up and become a third liner but I don’t see it yeah and so he was one of you know him and Bon were some of the few like higher end prospects that were on team Brier Cole Canal was on that team and like I said beis was in net but there wasn’t really anybody else of note on that team in particular so it it was really hard Jack Bergland was on that team he was the one recent drafty and he did what he could but he was he’s a young guy like I I yeah I liked what he did the way he got into the offensive zone and protected the puck and but you know after a while they just swarmed them like there was nothing he could do yeah yeah so looking at the um you know top line of that team Jones it was lenko and Powell you know which was really good to see them together and bump was the third person on that line and I I just I think he did fine but it was luchenko and pal that stood out on that line yeah they were the drivers I I just didn’t see enough out a bump to do anything with that and even with the pace I don’t I felt like bump wasn’t keeping up with the pace uh at times so yeah I just feel like he he’s got work to do he’s got real work to do and I do think those two guys uh were real good bright spots especially Powell and Powell just needs to have a better release on his shot because you know even Brent talked about it you know how he’s after you watch that game you know how he scored his goals in the USHL he got in close he’s he’s a physical guy he’s got some good moves but he also could get to the net there’s going to be a time where he’s going to have to shoot from the outside and score and that’s that’s got to pick up a little bit so yeah that’s that’s something he can work on in Ohio State yeah yeah and I think that you know as far as the other returnees I want to hear what you have to say officially on Alex sick because he was a a source of conversation yeah a bunch of people I’m an honest guy and and two years ago I felt like there was a little more there now I understand he had injuries and he had concussion whatever but he also went through like the world junior and only had a point in three games too so this isn’t just this camp that I’m talking about Alex cernick and and I’ve also spoken to people that saw him more than me my whole thing with him is he’s not finishing he he looks you know for for Brent to say he’s got Elite skills great uh he skates the puck around yeah he could be tricky and everything else but at the end of the day he’s got to score and when it was five on five he couldn’t score matter of fact I don’t even think he had a shot on that and others were wen’t sure he may have had one but he had no real good scoring chances the minute it went to three on three he scored that’s that’s a tell that is a tell that he needs more space on the ice now maybe that’s going to change over time but he’s one of the returning guys so I I had to grade him differently and right now this year I need to see him start finishing because he’s a little bit of a smaller guy and just being tricky with the puck isn’t going to get you into the NHL yeah I think so um I do think that you know like I said Denver Barky stood out because he was just trying to do his thing and he was zipping down the ice and I think he had a lot of awareness in terms of the passing that was happening as well it wasn’t he was the best pass there yeah like he just was not selfish at all no which I thought was um a really good thing and then you know I don’t know as far as the other attorneys just trying to think about you know who was standing out there like I don’t know it’s uh I’m looking at my list now I mean yeah it’s it’s really hard I thought Avon looked fine I thought Avon looked fine and I really did think Ethan Samson looked fine I thought he was fine too I I feel like Ethan Samson is never going to stand out like at at as this great defenseman or great offensive defenseman either way but I feel like if he does his job you’ll see him making some smart clears and doing some things and moving the puck and I felt like he did that so I felt like those guys you know did that well it just it wasn’t enough to write a report on that’s all because and sometimes that’s the way it is like Bon did well I didn’t write anything about Bon because it’s like he really didn’t get a chance to show anything right and I would say of the other defenseman Carter Southern did not really stand out to me either way good or bad right um you know and obviously he was a fifth rounder but you know he plays Portland and he had a pretty successful season so I might have expected to see him pop a little bit more but I I didn’t see that in particular now again obviously eyes were more focused on the newer draft picks because that’s the nature of the beast but it is important to track these other guys year to year and see how they’re doing it is and I do and I’ve always done that and I didn’t see anything that was worth noting good or bad so in a lot of times that’s okay um if it was more bad then then it’s worse so I I think he gets a pass from me it’s all right yeah and like we said Carson beis um you know I think it was just hard to really gauge in that scrimmage and you know you’re looking at drills and you know we see we saw make some really good saves in the drills but that’s not really game situation so see I think this upcoming season is going to be really interesting for him it will I mean here’s the way I look at this I don’t look at this game for goal scoring I know that some people do they want to mark down the goals they want to talk about all the goals but you see even the players don’t really care about their goals it’s really about how they’re doing their job except for Hunter McDonald he cares right yeah that was funny but but really it’s about how they do their job and how they’re going about their job and that’s really the way I sort of graded them on what can I Envision these guys doing what were they actually doing and you know didn’t improve during the game and so like when I and and I and I’m also basing on what I’ve seen from them before previously up to this point that’s really the way I’m grading these guys in this not just hey did he score in the game right well there were some Camp invitees as well as Sawyer Bolton who the Phantom signed uh so we want to talk about all of them and if any of them stood out out and maybe could be headed for more activity with the Flyers coming up next so I do want to talk about Sawyer Bolton uh man what a really great kid like super great personality and I would say you know he Embraces his sort of tough guy role his protector role very similar to his dad but I would say he’s more skilled than his dad as a player okay I mean I don’t think it’s an incredibly High bar but he played in the NHL he played with Danny prier so there’s something and I remember him uh he didn’t I didn’t see enough of him so I can’t even comment on him I I don’t know what there really is with him so we’ll see for me yeah yeah I guess but uh I I was just glad to see him at camp and I thought he fit in really nicely like I didn’t think he was overmatched I didn’t think you know no I mean I saw him in Dr yeah right it’s fine uh but yeah nothing stood out one way or the other for me to to mention them yeah so every year the flyers and other teams invite undrafted or sometimes you know overages to their camps just to get a look at them and and it’s good experience for for these guys sometimes it’s a local kid um that gets an opportunity you know something like that and I would say um the the guy that imp impressed me the most was Jack Williams who is a forward from Northeastern University which is again a really good program and he just like was taking advantage of every opportunity he was doing everything that he was asked of and all the drills during the practice sessions and then he just really really popped to me he was the center of the line with Avon and Barky and right I I was trying to sus out if it was the Barky effect that was making him look better and honestly I don’t think so he was doing his own thing and he scored a goal in the script yeah I don’t think it was because of Barky because I saw the same shot that he scored a goal on him in drills the day before and it looked really good so yeah he has a really good shot he had scored like 17 goals with nor Eastern his skating is pretty good uh you know I don’t know what kind of future he has but at least he showed that off so yeah that was noticeable yeah I think you know he’s 5’11 175 right now so you know I it’s so funny because we didn’t even really mention but the defensemen were just huge camp and the only way you could really tell because they were all so huge relative to each other was looking at Cara Mory on the ice who’s right shorter and realize how tall they all were but um you know I know that um Williams is a a forward but I think you know he’s a little undersized relative to the rest of the guys that Camp he’s 22 so a little bit older at this point but I do really think he was taking advantage of of this opportunity and really I think made a mark for himself but was there anybody that you that you thought stood out amongst the invitees yeah I thought Jack paage showed some really good speed I you know I was surprised to to see a guy 63 skate like that um he he was able to get ahead of the pack a few times he’s a local Westchester so I was like all right he’s going to be he only played four games at bu and I don’t know why um so maybe they just because they had too good A Team maybe he got injured I don’t know all the specifics because I don’t watch teams that closely during the season that just follow prospects so um until like basically till the um the end of the season with the Frozen four so yeah I don’t have a good feel for that part but yeah I felt like you know he got me to know his name I didn’t know his name before this yeah and I do think he stood out he’s a left-handed shot uh defenseman and but yeah he’s huge it was very amongst the Towering group of defensemen at this camp but I thought he fit right in um really well and and showed out in in the scrimage for sure um I do want to mention Matteo drebach who is one of the goenda was the only prospect drebach um is from Ontario and he is um somebody that I I don’t know what kind of future there is for him but I will say that you know during the drills and stuff we didn’t really pay attention to anybody that wasn’t Jaris because right there isn’t honestly much reason to but in the scrimmage this guy made some really tremendous saves and I was really happy for him that he was able to stand out that way yeah in that regard I’m happy for the guy it didn’t really move the needle for me unfortunately like to say anything more but yes I acknowledge what you saw yeah yeah so that was that was good for him but it was I think you know as far as this Camp overall I think you know the new draes that we wanted to stand out and the ways that they stood out pretty much checked out with expectations for them right yeah I I think so I mean again I feel like most did there were a few that were a little disappointing to me and I’ve already gone through those so I feel like most everybody’s getting a good start on the season and I think that’s really the uh the big thing unfortunately we don’t know like what kind of marching orders they get but um I know when Sam spoke the day before he was very honest about how many times a year he keeps up with a guy and it’s I think he said it was something like four or five uh so that’s good and and so that’s a you know if that happens with a lot of their Scouts then they could really check on the marching orders on most of these guys so you know that’s pretty good coverage if that’s if if that’s like the standard yeah it does seem like the Player Development folks are really keeping a close eye on the guys that they’re assigned to and and that is good sign when they can obviously they get injured like Sam said and sometimes there’s travel difficulties but yeah yeah that and that’s Samaran we’re talking about um but yeah he seems really focused and dedicated to helping these guys out dedicated is the word and I think that’s the the big thing because I can’t tell you if he’s effective at his job or not yet because he’s too he’s in it he hasn’t been in it long enough but he’s dedicated to it and that’s the first sign yeah I think so I think he’s enthusiastic and dedicated which I is is a a really good thing to see very noticeable uh and knows a lot about the players he’s assigned to yes like knows a lot of specifics so that that was really cool to see I’m really happy for him on that front as well and then I think you know the rures were fine I think again it wasn’t like nobody of the attorneys blew us away but we got what we needed to out of the guys like Bon and Barky um but you know like it would have been nice to see one of the other lower draft picks just kind of pop a little bit more but they didn’t as much um B and Barky right now are still like leading the pack I regardless of the hype of Hunter McDonald he’s still got to play a lot of games in my eyes I just would not be rushing this guy into too much I I really want to see the guy play a full year in Lehi he should not be like the first call up to the NHL or anything like that but I know there’s you know discussions that you know just could be for fun it’s not with the team it’s just for fun and hopefully it just it stays that way but there’s just so much enthusiasm for this guy I I I’ve seen this script before so hopefully they could the Flyers can stay away from it but honestly yeah Barky and bom fine uh Barky still he doesn’t have an A A A Perfect path to the NHL either because he still needs two more you know more two-step uh explosiveness he still has to get stronger and so he’s not going to go straight into the NHL he needs to play in the AHL too um you know Bon it’s possible he might be able to skip a step or only play a short time in the AHL but that’s right now he’s the only guy that’s tracking that way so we will be keeping track of all these guys uh as they go into their next seasons whether it’s at Junior whether it’s in the AHL uh looking forward to all of that or college I guess is the other option there or Europe but um really excited to see where some of these guys develop over the next year and when some of them return to camp in September we’ll we’ll see what they have done over the rest of the summer uh on tomorrow’s show which will be Monday we’re going to do a deep dive into hakey ruonan we’ll have our new weekly poll on the new draft picks and uh have our Nemesis of the week so that should be a lot of fun as a reminder it’s always good to hear from you so send in those mailbag questions via Twitter at lockon Flyers you can email us at lockon Flyers at gmail or comment over on our YouTube channel I’m Rachel I’m on Twitter R Miriam that’s r m i r i a I’m russom sportsology s p o r TS o l o g y locked on has launched the first ever National Sports 247 streaming Channel on YouTube that’s also available able on Amazon Fire TV and the pre Fire TV channels app locked on sports today is here for you 247 covering top sports stories of the day with local Experts of locked on plus National shows covering every League find locked on sports today now available on the free Fire TV channels app have a great day everyone but

On today’s show, Russ and Rachel look at the prospects at Flyers Development Camp. We evaluate the new draftees performance, as well as returning guys and their progress. Key prospects we touch on include Denver Barkey, Oliver Bonk, Jett Luchanko, Alex Bump, Alex Ciernik, Spencer Gill, Devin Kaplan, Ethan Sampson, and more. We also touch on camp invitees like Jack Page, Jack Williams, and newly signed Phantoms forward Sawyer Boulton, as well as the Luchanko ELC.

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