Analyzing Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost’s Time With The Flyers So Far

Let’s take a look at how the two rookie forwards have performed with the Philadelphia Flyers so far.

Folks, the future is finally now when it comes to the Philadelphia Flyers. Since the start of the 2019-20 regular season, the team has seen six different rookies make their NHL debut in an Orange and Black uniform, which has been quite the change from a previous regime that would arguably wait too long to give the kids a shot on the main roster.

You have to commend General Manager Chuck Fletcher’s willingness to show faith in the youths, as they’ve aided the Flyers more often than not through the first 30+ games of the year. Two forwards who have helped the most have been none other than Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost, who’ve flashed their offensive, and at times, defensive capabilities that made them such highly-touted prospects since being drafted in 2017 and 2018.

Both forwards started out of the gates hot after being recalled from the AHL, as Farabee netted four points in his first ten games and created scoring chances like a madman while Frost had three in his initial two contests. I think it’s fair to say that Frosts’ debut was a bit more flashy of the two with all three of his points being of the highlight reel variety, including a beautiful backhand tally that he roofed passed former Philadelphia netminder Sergei Bobrovsky in the 5-2 loss against the Florida Panthers in November. Farabee’s made some dazzling plays of his own too, including a nasty, cross-ice pass to find Scott Laughton in front of the net during the 3-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets towards the end of the same month.

Not all of their time in the NHL has been great, though, which is to be expected of two rookies learning the ways of the league. Each forward has hit a scoring slump at some point, as Farabee’s had two separate three-game scoreless droughts while Frost just recently broke out of a seven-game pointless streak. Like I just mentioned above, every young player goes through their ups and downs in their first couple of seasons, and the most crucial aspect is to see how they overcome those obstacles. In this case, Frost and Farabee both snapped their scoring skids as they continued to adjust to the level of NHL play.

As far as underlying numbers are concerned, which I know some of you absolutely adore, they’ve been somewhat adequate there, to boot. According to Natural Stat Trick, Frost possesses a 54.19 Corsi (CF%), 52.99 Fenwick (FF%), 49.20 Expected Goals (xGF%), 57.05 Scoring Chances (SCF%), and a 47.81 High Danger Scoring Chances For (HDCF%) percentages at 5-on-5 with Score and Venue Adjusted. Farabee, on the other hand, has posted a 49.40 CF%, 47.24 FF%, 42.86 xGF%, 50.43 SCF%, and a 45.09 HDCF% in the same strength.

While I’d obviously like to see Farabee improve in these categories since, in this case, 50.00% is considered average; it’s worth noting that the sample size is still relatively small, especially in Frost’s case and that these numbers could drastically change when April comes around. Not every rookie can have a Connor McDavid or Elias Pettersson-like impact when they reach the NHL, too. It can take a full year, two, or even three before they really begin to dominate the league, as we’ve seen with our very own Travis Konecny.

To put it simply, Farabee and Frost have been, at worst, just fine in the NHL so far and should only get better as their professional careers go along.