Philadelphia Flyers: Aube-Kubel has been excelling in playoffs

The young forward has taken the opportunity the Flyers have given him to heart during this postseason.

We haven’t officially hit the first round of the playoffs yet. But the Flyers dominated round robin play, sweeping the seeding play. They finished it off against arguably one of the toughest teams in the Eastern Conference.

And the play of Nicolas Aube-Kubel had a lot to do with it. He came alive during the game against Tampa and led the way in a convincing victory. It was by far the best game of the playoffs for him. And that doesn’t just count his two goals.

Aube-Kubel finished with the second best Corsi percentage (75.00). Only James van Riemsdyk was better (77.78). Aube-Kubel out-chanced Tampa players 15-5 when he was on the ice. His Fenwick was also off the roof at 84.62%.

He had a career-high six shots, while Tampa was outshot 10-1 with Aube-Kubel on the ice. They were also outscored 2-0 with both of those goals coming from the man himself.

And despite finishing with the third least amount of ice time among all Flyers, he made it count when he was out there. It seemed like he was all over the ice and could’ve had more than just the two goals. Tampa had no answer for him.

The numbers have improved steadily during each of the Flyers round robin games. His ice time has gone up as each game has passed the team by. As Aube-Kubel has earned more trust, he has delivered with his play on the ice.

The exhibition game against the Penguins was the only time Aube-Kubel had been out-chanced on the ice since the Flyers came to Toronto. Every game after that led up to that performance against Tampa Bay on Saturday night. He was due for a breakout moment.

Looking at all three round robin games, Aube-Kubel still comes in second with at 64.58%. His 64.86 FF% drops him slightly to fourth on the team. And for those who look at PDO stats, Aube-Kubel’s 97.5 shows that he is the real deal right now. It isn’t luck that is getting him by at all.

Now a key part to the team’s bottom six, Aube-Kubel finally has that trust that he had been looking for during his other brief stints with the Flyers. And it’s looking more and more like he is going to be a part of this team for the near and potentially distant future.

He is arbitration eligible after this season and is likely looking for at least a slight raise from the $700K he is currently making. If he keeps up this play, he may be able to use that Tampa game to prove that he can stick in the NHL even during the grind of a tougher than normal postseason.