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Top Five Philadelphia Flyers Forward Prospects In The System

By Benjamin Gabrych

VANCOUVER, BC - JANUARY 2: Morgan Frost #26 of Canada skates with the puck in Quarterfinal hockey action of the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship against Finland on January, 2, 2019 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images)
VANCOUVER, BC - JANUARY 2: Morgan Frost #26 of Canada skates with the puck in Quarterfinal hockey action of the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship against Finland on January, 2, 2019 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images) /
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The Philadelphia Flyers have a lot of offensive talent that should develop into solid players in the coming years.

It’s been said before, and it’ll be said again, the Philadelphia Flyers have a considerable amount of depth in their farm system. The forward, defensive, and goaltending groups all possess promising prospects that, at worst, should turn into capable NHL players down the line, though not all of them will. Former Flyers General Manager Ron Hextall did an excellent job of restocking a once depleted pipeline, and current GM and Team President Chuck Fletcher followed up with a quality draft of his own this past June.

In this article, which will be apart of a three-part weekly series, I’m going to focus on the top five forwards and continue with the defensemen and goaltenders in the coming weeks. Philadelphia has plenty of notable names in the system on the offensive side of the puck, with underrated talents to go along with them as well. The criteria for my rankings will be scoring production, the type of league or leagues they’ve been able to produce in, and overall upside as prospects. These are all, obviously, opinion-based and may differ from how others see them. Putting all of that into perspective, let’s get into the five.

The Flyers fifth-best forward prospect is none-other than Tanner Laczynski. The 6’1, 190-pound winger also has the ability to play center, too. Laczynski’s had an impressive collegiate campaign, scoring 109 points in 102 games during his three-year career with the Ohio State Buckeyes. More recently, he netted 30 points (10 Goals, 20 Assists) in 27 games during his junior season and sat second on the team in points, even after missing a couple of games due to injury. The NCAA is a step above the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) while being below the American Hockey League (AHL) in terms of all-around talent, so scoring at over a point per game pace throughout his time in college is pretty impressive for Laczynski.

The 22-year-old forward owns NHL-ready strength as he’s hard to knock off of the puck and has a hard, accurate shot to go along with it. The one thing he needs to work on is utilizing that shot more. Laczynski usually looks to pass first while making plays on the ice and shooting more would help open up passing lanes while notching a couple more goals for himself, too. I see him as a Top-9 forward in the NHL who can be moved throughout the lineup if needed. Laczynski will head back to Ohio State to serve as Captain of the 2019-20 team.

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