The battle for the seventh defensive spot will have implications on two young Philadelphia Flyers players.
I want to preface this article by saying there is still a decent amount of time and more moves can possibly be made by General Manager Chuck Fletcher and Co. The battle at hand is between two young and one-time promising prospects, Robert Hagg and Samuel Morin. Morin being a 1st round pick and Hagg being a high 2nd round pick, both of these guys were looked at as potential top 4 blue-liners at one point in time. They played together in Lehigh Valley for a few seasons and were both on a similar path to become one of the more defensive defensemen on the back end and help anchor the D-core.
The Flyers hit on other picks in Ivan Provorov, Shayne Gostisbehere, and Travis Sanheim to name a few that are on the current roster. This made things a bit more complicated for the two as it only allowed for a select few spots left on the NHL club. Management clearly couldn’t run out five defensemen who are all around the current age with minimal experience, so it now looks like it will become a heads up battle this upcoming camp between Morin and Hagg.
Let’s look at Hagg first since we have two full NHL seasons to dissect. Hagg’s 2018/2019 season was not good, the same for almost everyone else on the roster last year. He was used on different pairings throughout the year but was primarily used as the fifth-and-sixth defensemen. His Corsi stats at even-strength prove it, and he started his shifts off in his own zone roughly 55% of the time. A lot of these starts were on the PK where he was relied on pretty heavily by both Hakstol and Gordon.
If any role suits Hagg, it is most definitely a PK specialist, even if he’s not the best penalty-killer out there. He loves to get into shot-blocking lanes and lay the body as these are the two assets he leans on to keep himself in the NHL. He’s not a great skater, and it’s evident if you watch him for any extended amount of time, he takes short choppy strides. His ability to pivot and open his hips are equally as poor. Hagg lives and dies on his physicality and ability to separate forwards from the puck along the boards, and this is one thing he excels at.
He’s not a great puck mover and often finds himself in trouble when he has to make a quick decision to get the puck up to forwards in transition since his skating isn’t explosive or smooth he must find an out off the glass or up to forwards in a pinch. The seventh D-man role is one that I think Hagg would fill in fine as he would only be used sparingly and be stapled to the sixth spot killing penalties and taking a few shifts to relieve the top 2 pairs.
Morin is a much different and complex case. The towering defenseman and his time in the pros have been a tale of promise and agony. He was on the fast track to the NHL after his third pro camp and was one of the last cuts once the preseason concluded. Morin was likely to be the first one in line to be called up in case of injuries or poor play from the starting six defensemen, as well.
His season was starting strong with the Phantoms, posting seven points with a +4 rating in 15 games. He was the anchor to the young defense alongside TJ Brennan. Morin also played significant minutes and started on the top PK unit, performing well in both roles. Then, the injury bug struck and put him out until May of that year. His return in the playoffs was short-lived as he suffered a terrible knee injury which was later revealed to be a torn ACL after just three games and put him out for almost a full season.
Morin spent all of last season into February rehabbing his knee, seeing most of his time in Voorhees and around the NHL squad, which could only help him get a look at the way the team prepares themselves and get into routines. Sam is a great skater for a player of his size, too. 6’6 202 lb defensemen are usually lumbering and clumsy in their skating and movement, but Morin is almost the complete opposite. His skating almost reminds me of Colton Parayko as it’s not perfect but has a unique way of being productive. Morin can also be a decent puck mover, using his legs to get out of trouble and buy time to find a way out of the zone.
All of this being said, he has a total of eight games played in the NHL across three seasons, and that’s not a huge sample size to read off of. This upcoming training camp seems like his last effort to convince a new Flyers front office that he can play in the NHL and should be in the plans for the future, especially with Matt Niskanen having two seasons left on his current deal and Justin Braun having one.
Coming into camp under a new coaching staff and a relatively new front office gives both players a clean slate to start. It will be interesting to see who sticks and who could potentially be on the move in the upcoming season.