The Flyers’ rookie camp opens Friday, and this one comes with a lot more heat than the usual tune-up. Instead of a handful of players angling for notice, Philadelphia has five players in the mix who already saw NHL playoff action last season. That gives the weekend rookie series against the Rangers a little extra bite.
The Flyers and Rangers will meet at PPL Center, home of AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley, with Game 1 set for Saturday at 7:05 p.m. ET and Game 2 on Sunday at 5:05 p.m.
ET. Here are six names worth tracking.
Porter Martone, No. 94, is the obvious headliner. The winger is one of the NHL’s top prospects and a favorite to win the Calder Trophy, and he’s expected to be in the Flyers’ season-opening lineup with a significant role waiting for him. Martone joined the club at the end of March and helped drive the Flyers’ playoff push, all before he turns 20 next month.
“He was well-prepared for pro hockey,” Flyers special advisor Patrick Sharp said in July. “But for him to step in in the middle of a playoff chase and be an impact player right away with the great players we had on the Flyers, to be counted on in the playoffs was, I think, really special.
It's hard to do. You don't see that very often.”
Denver Barkey, No. 86, arrives with more NHL games under his belt than anyone else in rookie camp. The 21-year-old forward spent more than half of last season with the Flyers and suited up for all 10 playoff games. Now the goal is simple: grab a spot in the opening-night lineup.
Barkey’s edge shows up in everything he does. He doesn’t treat a rookie game like a warmup. He treats it like it matters.
“The biggest thing about him is that he's just so competitive,” Phantoms head coach John Snowden said last September. “He's a smaller guy, but he plays like he's 6-4.”
Alex Bump, No. 20, made his case last season after getting called up following the March trade deadline. He scored in his NHL debut, finished with nine points - five goals and four assists - in 17 games, and the Flyers were 6-0-1 when he picked up a point. He also had two goals in six playoff games, including one in his first postseason appearance.
Bump knows the lesson of camp is that nothing gets handed out.
“Nothing's guaranteed,” Bump said in June. “You have to come into camp ready to make the team.
You have to push someone out of their spot almost. That's just the reality of being a young guy coming in, you have to take someone's job.”
Oliver Bonk, No. 59, is another defender the Flyers are watching closely. Their decision to use him in last season’s second-round elimination loss spoke volumes about how much trust they already had in him.
The 21-year-old missed the rookie series last year because of an upper-body injury that lingered, and he didn’t get into a game with Lehigh Valley until December. Still, the Flyers kept him around for the playoffs and even gave him a look against the Hurricanes.
That makes him the most polished defenseman in camp and a legitimate contender for the season-opening roster.
“I think he'll challenge at camp,” Flyers assistant general manager Brent Flahr said in July. ... “He may force his hand.
To me, the moment's never too big for him, just the way he plays the game. Doesn't matter the level.”
Jett Luchanko, No. 77, is the kind of player the Flyers and their fans are hoping to see take a step in this setting. His development hasn’t been smooth. He dealt with a core-area injury that had bothered him for about a year and a half, fractured his jaw last season, and has bounced around a lot over the past two seasons.
The 20-year-old has speed, vision and a taste of the playoffs already. What the Flyers want now is a healthier, more aggressive version of him, especially as a scorer in his first full pro season.
“We want to push that offensive side this year, really challenge him to be a threat when he's on the ice,” Snowden said in June. “Be a threat to shoot, be a threat to take pucks to the net.
We don't have to pass every single time. Just be a dual threat all over.
His skating is going to give him that advantage; now we've got to make him see those opportunities to attack.”
Maksim Sokolovskii, No. 61, is impossible to miss at 6-foot-7 and 240 pounds, and that size alone makes him one of the more interesting players in the group. The Flyers took the 18-year-old defenseman 27th overall this summer, and he’s very much a project. But the tools are there, and the organization clearly likes the raw material.
“You watch him in drills, some of the things he can do for a player that size, at his age, are impressive,” Flahr said in July. ... “His physical tools are immense. For us, it's just the tip of the iceberg.”
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