Philadelphia Flyers: Which Prospects Could Slot In On The Third Line?

The Philadelphia Flyers have some in-house options that could possibly fill the third line right wing vacancy.

Coming into the offseason, the Philadelphia Flyers had four needs they had to address before training camp started in the fall, a second-line center, backup goaltender, second-or-third pairing veteran defenseman, and a third-line right winger. General Manager Chuck Fletcher fulfilled some of those obligations by inking Kevin Hayes to a seven-year deal, bringing back Brian Elliott on a one-year contract, and traded for defensemen Matt Niskanen and Justin Braun to help sure-up the blue-line. Now, only one of those holes still have to be filled with Free Agency officially beginning in a couple of days; 3RW.

A potential issue with the Flyers signing somebody to slot in on the third line is due to their cap situation. Philadelphia currently has 15,146,310 million dollars in cap space following all of the moves Fletcher has made according to Cap Friendly, with Restricted Free Agents like Ivan Provorov, Travis Konency, and Scott Laughton still needing contracts. If all goes according to plan and Fletcher’s able to give them long-term deals, the Flyers won’t have a whole lot of money to work with after the fact. It’s possible that one, or more, of those three players get a bridge deal as Travis Sanheim did, but it’d be better to see them get locked up, so the team doesn’t have to worry about them in the near future.

One way the Flyers could fill that third-line right wing role is if they use a prospect who shines during camp. Fletcher didn’t rule out the possibility of that happening, making this year’s training camp and preseason an interesting one to watch. The potential candidates to earn that position are fairly obvious, but worth discussing nonetheless. Morgan Frost leads the way, as he’s arguably the Flyers top forward prospect at the moment. He’s set the OHL on fire in the past two seasons and has looked excellent during development camp this year as well. Frost has also tacked on more muscle, now weighing in at around 186 pounds. Given his skill and added strength, the 20-year-old could see himself on the Flyers roster if this keeps up in September.

The other two that could make it on the team are Isaac Ratcliffe and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Joel Farabee. I think Farabee has the lowest chance of the three to get the third RW spot due to his thinner frame and that a year in the AHL would bode well for his development. I’m not saying he won’t be able to prove me wrong, because he has the talent to do so, just that Frost and Ratcliffe have a better shot at this time. Speaking of Ratcliffe, he already has the size to play in the NHL with a 6’6, 201-pound frame and thrived in a leadership role with Guelph Storm this past year. The 2017 Second Round Pick also plays a more physical game than the other two and the Flyers could use somebody with that sort of heavy style with Wayne Simmonds and Ryan Hartman gone from the club.  Ratcliffe really impressed me with his play during the OHL playoffs and Memorial Cup tournament and could surprise some people.

Other prospects may enter the picture later on, but for now, I think those three forwards have the best shot at making the Flyers. There’s still a chance that Fletcher opts for the free agent route, too, so we’ll have to wait and see if the aggressive GM has any more moves up his sleeve.