Flyers Prospect Bobby Brink Excelled During Freshman Year

The Flyers 2019 second-round pick is through his first season at the University of Denver and is up for rookie of the year.

The Flyers drafted Bobby Brink in the second round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. He was coming off a 68-point season with the Sioux City Musketeers of the USHL. He had also posted 6 points with the U.S. National U18 Team in the United States Development Program. And he grabbed six points in five games with the USA U18 team.

That season, he took home the USHL Forward of the Year Award as well as being named to the USHL First All-Star Team. Not a bad resume to go into the draft with. He was ranked 19th by the NHL Central Scouting. Only one site had him ranked lower than where he was drafted. The Flyers knew what they could be getting when they traded up to select him.

And Brink has delivered. He finished his freshman season with 11 goals and 13 assists in 28 games. He was fourth on the team in points and third in goals. Both were top marks among Denver’s freshman class.

Overall, Brink finished second in NCHC rookie scoring with 16 points. His 10 assists were tops among rookies. This was in just 17 conference games. His 0.94 points-per-game led all NCHC freshmen.

He was named NCHC Rookie of the Week twice and Rookie of the Month multiple times as well.  Brink was one of two players unanimously named to the NCHC All-Rookie Team. He was also named a finalist for the NCHC Rookie of the Year. Quite the accolades for Brink during his first collegiate season.

Brink will be up against North Dakota’s Shane Pinto and University of Nebraska-Omaha’s Nolan Sullivan for Rookie of the Year. Pinto will likely be his biggest competition for the award. Pinto led all NCHC rookies in goals and points.

Unfortunately, Brink took a bad hit during a game on February 14th against North Dakota. While the injury turned out to not be as bad as initially feared, that was the last game Brink would play this season. He would miss the final seven games of the season. It’s not known if he would’ve ended up back for the beginning of the playoffs as his status was week to week. North Dakota was first in their conference.

It’s possible Brink could try and take a run at turning pro after this season. Joel Farabee shined during his rookie year and decided to turn to forgo the rest of his college career. It may be better for Brink’s development to stay at Denver though. The Flyers would likely want him to add some more muscle as he’s on the smaller side. He’s a few inches shorter than Morgan Frost and almost 20 pounds lighter. Bulking up was a big key for Frost and is no doubt something the team would want Brink to do as well.

Despite the tough injury towards the end of the season, it was a successful first year for Brink. We will find out soon if he will take home the ROY award. The winners will be revealed on Twitter starting on Monday, March 23rd.