Philadelphia Flyers: Looking Ahead to Training Camp

The boys will officially be back in town when the Flyers take to the ice for training camp on Monday.

Hockey is officially back. At least, it will be once the Flyers step on the ice as a team on Monday. That is when training camp is set to begin around the league. Teams will have about two weeks to get up to speed before heading off to their respective hub cities. That will take Philadelphia to Toronto with the rest of the Eastern Conference.

But before they get there, there will be some things that will have to be worked out in training camp. And some things to look forward to as well. This will be the first playoff action for a few of the Flyers younger players. Carter Hart will have the biggest role among those players. But players like Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Joel Farabee will also be experiencing things for the first time. The former is likely to play while the latter may have to fight for his spot.

While not expected to play, players such as Morgan Frost, Carsen Twarynski, and Connor Bunnaman will have the chance to see what it takes to get ready for the postseason. And what it takes to win.

So we should expect to see a few battles taking place during the two-week camp. Some big things to watch out for will be fights for the few roster spots that could be available to a few players.

Depth Roles Available

The Flyers’ top six is likely set heading into the postseason. So the roster battles that we will see will include players in the team’s bottom six. Farabee will be one to watch. When Nate Thompson and James van Riemsdyk went down, Farabee was given a chance to fill in.

Now with both healthy and ready to go, that could leave him on the outside looking in. The Flyers could look to hold him out simply to have him watch and gain experience that way. Thompson was brought in at the trade deadline specifically because he had playoff experience and could help a partially young team along the way.

But that could also be done from outside the lineup as well. Farabee had some ups and downs during his rookie season but overall didn’t look much out of place. He was certainly better during the second half of the year. Especially when he was briefly sent to the Phantoms after the deadline due to cap concerns. He came back refreshed and ready to go.

So if he proves to the Flyers that he is ready to handle the NHL postseason, they could take someone like Thompson out of the lineup.

Another battle to look towards will be on the defensive side of the game. Shayne Gostisbehere and Robert Hagg will be fighting for the sixth spot on the blueline. Hagg had been in more recently, but Gostisbehere got the chance to join the lineup when Philippe Myers went down.

It’s more likely that Gostisbehere will have to fight to make it into the lineup. The team has shown how much they appreciate Hagg for all that he does. And Gostisbehere has been on the wrong end when it comes to the way he has played the last few seasons.

It could have been injury-related as he did have arthroscopic surgery on the same knee he injured early in his career. Coming into camp and proving that he is back to the defenseman he was before could go a long way into helping him earn a roster spot.

Hart’s First Postseason

This has been mentioned on numerous occasions, but Hart will be seeing the NHL playoffs for the first time in his career. He has plenty of players around him that have seen their fair share. He has the biggest mentor in Brian Elliott. His goaltending partner has been through a lot in the league and has been one of his biggest supporters.

He showed nothing but support when Hart took over the starting role last season. And he has been there for the team when they needed him to step up as well. So Hart will be able to lean on Elliott if he needs to. But this is his team now. The Flyers will be following Hart.

And that is a big thing to ask of a young goaltender who has never seen the playoffs before. But that is also why this will be an important time for his development. Even these next two weeks will be big for him. He has never had to prepare for something like this.

None of these players have with everything that is surrounding the playoffs this season. But it only magnifies what Hart will be going through. The team will have an exhibition game before the round-robin begins. What makes it slightly easier is that the Flyers already have a guaranteed spot in the playoffs.

So Hart will be able to gain the experience early on in the round-robin without having to worry about the Flyers not making it if they do poorly. The worst that can happen is they keep the fourth seed. The best-case scenario is they end up sweeping the round-robin and capture the top seed.

The team will go as far as Hart can take them. If they play well, it’s easy to imagine he will have a big role in that.

Veterans Stepping Up

While there are quite a few young players on the Flyers roster, the team also has their fair share of veterans. Matt Niskanen leads the way with the most playoff experience. He is also the only player with a Stanley Cup to his name. So he of all people knows what it takes to make it to the top.

But players like Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, and even Sean Couturier will be expected to step up and lead the way. Couturier is the youngest out of that group but has an immense out of experience that is well beyond his young age. Entering the league as an 18-year-old, he has been through four separate postseasons. Though, he only appeared in one game during the 2015-16 playoffs.

His most recent appearance turned out to be his best, despite the Flyers not making it out of the first round. Couturier posted five goals and nine points in five games. And some of that came while playing on a torn MCL. He grabbed a hat trick in the final game of the series. So he has been able to step up when the team has needed him.

Giroux has also seen his fair share of postseason play. But the numbers have significantly gone down the last few seasons. He posted double-digit points in three of his first four postseasons. One of those being the run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2010. But ever since the 2014 playoffs, the Flyers have been unable to make it out of the first round.

They also missed the playoffs in 2015, 2017 and 2019 during that span. So Giroux should be eager to lead the way.

This is one of the best teams the Flyers have put on the ice in recent years. They have what it takes to get the job done. Alain Vigneault has come in and quickly turned this team around. They were one of the best in the league before the season was paused. If he can bring that play out of them when the playoffs resume in August, this will be a hard team to stop.