Who else could be in contention for the Philadelphia Flyers vacant third-line winger role?
Since the Philadelphia Flyers brought back Brian Elliott on a one year deal to fill the backup goaltending role, the team has had one glaring hole remaining on their roster in the third line wing position. General Manager and Team President Chuck Fletcher likely would rather have his potential candidates play on the right side as Oskar Lindblom has played on the left for most of his NHL career. Lindblom does have experience slotting in on the right, though, so he and Head Coach Alain Vigneault could still opt for a guy to play on the left.
You probably know about the top candidates to earn the role when training camp begins in Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, Isaac Ratcliffe, and German Rubtsov, but there’s always the possibility of Fletcher and Vigneault opting for a dark horse candidate to fill the open spot. It could range from a different prospect, a veteran on the roster, or still be acquired via trade. The Flyers will have eight defensemen under contract once Ivan Provorov signs a new deal, and maybe Fletcher uses one of them to obtain a Top-9 or Bottom-6 forward. It’s worth noting that I would rather see the four previously mentioned options win the spot on the third-line and I’m purely speculating on who else could contend during camp.
Scott Laughton is one of the options. While Laughton has spent the last two season serving as the fourth-line centerman, he’s played left wing in the NHL before. I wouldn’t dismiss the idea of him getting a promotion from the higher-ups, especially since he signed a new contract this offseason and is coming off a career-high 32 points. Slightly more ice-time and less defensive responsibilities at even strength could also see the 25-year-old have yet another career year offensively for the Flyers. This would open up a place on the fourth-line for a Mikhail Vorobyev or Nicolas Aube-Kubel, too, but I’d rather see Laughton stay on the bottom line. He’s been more than serviceable there, and Vorobyev and Aube-Kubel could still make the roster by beating out Michael Raffl or Tyler Pitlick. Both of the youthful forwards could earn that third-line wing spot with a strong camp and preseason, as well.
Another candidate could be Chris Stewart, who Fletcher signed to a pro-try-out. Now, before you virtually throw tomatoes at me, this is the least likely scenario of the bunch. There’s a reason as to why Stewart didn’t make an NHL team this past year, and it’s because players like him are a dying breed. At this stage of his career, all he brings is a physical element to the ice. You need more than just that to be worth-while in today’s NHL. Fletcher and Vigneault should want more skill playing on Nolan Patrick’s wing, and Stewart isn’t that anymore. This is the Flyers we’re talking about, though, and we’ve seen in the past that they can value bad veterans over quality talent just for the sake of experience (see: Chris VandeVelde, Andrew MacDonald, Dale Weise, etc.)
Like I said before, I’d much rather have Frost, Farabee, Ratcliffe, and Rubtsov on the third-line over any of the names listed above. I like Laughton, but it’s time to give one of these kids a chance, and a Top-9 role is an excellent way to introduce them to the NHL level while getting enough time on the ice.