Flyers players eager to get season underway
A few Flyers have been back in town recently and are ready to get the next season going.
The NHL and NHLPA are still in the midst of trying to get details for next season underway. The amount of games, where they’ll be played and how players will be paid are just a few of the many questions. The Flyers, like most teams, are ready to go whenever it all gets figured out.
The longer this goes on, though, the more likely the proposed January starts gets pushed back. While the hope remains to get started by the beginning of next year, there are a lot of hurdles to cross. And the rumblings keep coming day by day.
The biggest rumor coming involves a potential shutdown of next season. Prominent NHL agent Allan Walsh shared a few thoughts on Tuesday evening. During his Twitter thread, he mentioned that the NHL could invoke Force Majeure and cancel the 2020-21 season.
The NHL is soft floating the idea with media if no deal with the NHLPA is reached on the Return to Play, it can unilaterally invoke Force Majeure and cancel the 2020-21 season. 1/
— Allan Walsh🏒 (@walsha) December 2, 2020
This comes after the NHL has apparently gone back on a deal they agreed to during the pause. The league is asking players to take even less money than originally planned. Let’s just say it’s not going well right now.
For players that are not necessarily involved in major talks, all they can do is continue to train and get ready for whenever the season begins. That has been true for a decent size group of Flyers. A group of six players have been working out at the Voorhees facility.
The last few weeks has seen Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Ivan Provorov, Samuel Morin, Shayne Gostisbehere, Carsen Twarynski, and Tanner Laczynski all appear on the ice or workout facilities. Each are trying to do whatever they can to stay prepared.
"“In my head, I was thinking the season would start in early January, so that’s what I’m trying to get ready for,” Aube-Kubel said after a workout Monday. “If it keeps getting pushed out, I’ll keep getting ready for February or whenever the season starts.”"
Aube-Kubel is looking to build off of a strong rookie campaign in which he earned the trust of the Flyers coaching staff. He figured out what he needed to do to stick at this level.
That’s exactly what someone like Twarynski will be looking to do as well. He earned a spot on the roster after training camp and spent a total of 15 games in the NHL. He scored his first NHL goal during that time as well.
As for a player such as Laczynski, he will be looking to make a strong impression during his first real shot at making the Flyers roster. Signing his entry level contract this summer, Laczynski will have just as good of a shot as anyone to prove he is ready for the professional game.
Looking to Morin, he may just have to prove that he is able to overcome the injuries that have thus far derailed his young career. The expectation is that he will start in the AHL and spend a lengthy amount of time there. But the clock could be ticking for him to make an impact.
That goes for Gostisbehere as well. It has seemed more and more likely that he will remain on the Flyers roster for next season. And if he does, he should have the chance to prove that he has also put injuries behind him. Losing Matt Niskanen put a big hole on the defensive end. This could give Gostisbehere another chance.
These players, as well as the rest of the team, hope they will all be able to reconvene together in the next few weeks. If a January start is at all possible, training camp would have to begin very soon.