Philadelphia Flyers: Why Recall Shayne Gostisbehere?
By Mickey Walsh
In the wake of the news of a painful sounding surgery for Mark Streit, Flyers General Manager Ron Hextall had some large skates to fill. Streit, the team’s best defenseman and certainly the most productive one, will likely be out for more than a month with a detached pubic plate, leaving a gaping hole on defense for a team that’s mired in the midst of a miserable stretch of losses.
So who would Hextall recall?
The GM has preached patience when it comes to the organization’s “big five” defensive prospects– Shayne Gostisbehere, Samuel Morin, Robert Hagg, Travis Sanheim and Ivan Provorov– and has promised not to rush them into the NHL before they’re ready. So far, he’s stuck to his guns: despite many fans thinking that junior prospects like Provorov and Sanheim would be upgrades over the current blue line, Hextall and the front office seem to want to get the kids as much time as possible honing their craft in lower leagues before making the leap to the NHL and facing off against stronger, faster, bigger and better players. It’s the smartest course of action, and it’s a refreshing change from former GM Paul Holmgren’s “win now” mentality.
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Despite Hextall’s modus operandi, it was Gostisbehere who got the call to replace Streit and join the Flyers last Saturday against the Hurricanes, and not a player with NHL experience like the demoted Andrew MacDonald or Davis Drewiske. While it’s easy to think that Hextall is breaking his own vow of patience, it’s a smart move to make. Streit will (hopefully) only be out for six weeks, which is the perfect window for a prospect to try out the big league and, as Hextall says, “show what [he] can do at this level.” And when your team’s second-leading scorer goes down, wouldn’t you want someone to step in who can best match those offensive qualities? Hextall says Gostisbehere, who has 10 points in 14 AHL games this season, is “highly skilled, [he] moves the puck extremely well, skates the puck out of trouble. [He’s a] smart player.” MacDonald and Drewiske are defensemen of the stay-at-home variety, which, given the fact that the Flyers are next-to-last in the league in goals scored, isn’t the kind of skillset the team needs right now.
Flyers GM Ron Hextall says Shayne Gostisbehere is a “highly skilled… smart player.”
In talking to the press about the recent roster moves, Hextall sounds a little less enthused than expected about calling up Gostisbehere. Maybe because the last time didn’t end so well– after returning to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms following a good-but-not-amazing two-game stint with the Flyers last year, Gostisbehere promptly tore his ACL and missed the rest of the season. While it looks like he hasn’t missed a beat, there may be some wariness in the front office that he’ll over-exert himself in Streit’s absence and injure himself again. Even so, the GM remains cautiously optimistic. “I’ve said in the past that we’re not going to rush anybody,” Hextall reminded the media, “and if things don’t work out with either guy [Gostisbehere or Taylor Leier, the other player recalled from the Phantoms], we’ll look at our options, but we expect both guys to help our hockey club right now.”
With a shot that deflected off of Wayne Simmonds’ stick for the game-tying goal against Carolina, earning him his first NHL point, Gostisbehere was electric in this year’s regular season debut with the team, and was oftentimes the best-looking player on the ice. In last night’s game against the Los Angeles Kings, he notched his first goal and put on a display of speed and astonishing stick-handling, looking absolutely monstrous all over the ice. While he hasn’t spent enough time at the professional level to completely quell any doubts, it’s becoming very clear very quickly that he was the right man to match the sorely missed offensive skills of the team’s best defenseman.