The Flyers are back for their first set of on-ice activities as a group of 35 players are scheduled to attend the team’s annual prospect development camp. The camp will be spread over five days, with four different days of on-ice sessions.
Fans will see a lot of familiar faces, as well as a few new ones. Almost all of the Flyers’ recent draftees will be there in Cutter Gauthier, Devin Kaplan, Alex Bump, Hunter McDonald, and Alexis Gendron.
The group of familiar faces will be headlined by Cam York as the 2019 first-round pick looks to be keeping himself in shape and could be a mentor to some of the younger defensemen taking part in the camp. York will be looking to solidify his place on the Flyers roster come training camp.
Some other familiar faces include forwards Samu Tuomaala, Tyson Foerster, and Zayde Wisdom. Defenseman Ronnie Attard will also attend as he looks to make an impression on the development staff. Samuel Ersson comes in as the only goaltender in camp to be drafted by the Flyers.
That brings us to the prospects who earned an invite to the development camp. There are 11 total players who have the chance to impress the Flyers staff and potentially earn an invite back for training camp in a few months.
Out of those 11 players, eight of them are forwards. It’s clear the Flyers are trying to restock their prospect pool so there is expected to be a lot of competition.
The Forwards
The 11 forwards invited to the Flyers Development Camp all come from various leagues. They span across the QMJHL, the USHL, the OHL, and the NCAA.
Jacob Gaucher
Gaucher highlights the lengthy group of forwards. He has spent four full seasons in the QMJHL, most of them with the Val-d’Or Foreurs. He debuted for the club at the end of the 2017-18 season where he appeared in 10 games, failing to register a point. After getting his feet wet, he debuted for the team full-time the following season. There he posted 12 goals and 24 points in 68 games.
He improved upon that total the following year, also being named an assistant captain. He grabbed 14 goals and 38 points in 62 games. Gaucher, like many prospects, had his season halted during the 2020-21 campaign. In just 36 games, he only had four goals and 11 points.
A change of scenery, whether needed or not, ended up doing Gaucher well this last year. As the captain for Baie-Comeau Drakkar, he had a breakout campaign. Averaging a point-per-game, Gaucher had 35 goals and 68 points in 66 games. Both were tops on the team.
Gaucher will be trying to follow after his brother, Nathan, who was drafted by the Ducks in the first round just a few days ago.
Mikael Huchette
A Quebec native, Huchette appeared in just his second season in the QMJHL. He debuted last season for the Quebec Remparts in the shortened season. In 32 games, he posted seven goals and 11 points. It’s obviously hard to get a full grasp on what he could do in juniors without a full season. So this past year gave those around a much better look at what he could do.
In 62 games this last year, Huchette almost doubled his goal total with 12 and added 33 points total. The 18-year-old stands at 6’3” but only weighs in at 196 pounds. So he will certainly need to put a bit more weight on to be able to withstand the physicality as he progresses in juniors and beyond.
Theo Rochette
This won’t be the first time that Rochette is looking to impress at a development camp. Undrafted in 2021, the 20-year-old was invited to the Maple Leafs’ camp last summer but was unable to secure a contract from the team. He headed back to the QMJHL as captain of the Quebec Remparts and broke out in a major way.
Rochette would be drafted seventh overall by the Chicoutimi Sagueneens of the QMJHL in 2018, playing there for one and a quarter seasons. He showed off his potential offensive talent with 14 goals and 43 points in his first season.
Split between the Sagueneens and Remparts, Rochette posted 14 goals and 39 points the following year. He followed that up with 12 goals and 30 points in 32 games in the shortened season last year. With a full season under his belt with Quebec, Rochette showed what he can really do. In 66 games, the young forward posted 33 goals and 99 points. His 33 goals were second behind Zachary Bolduc, the Blues’ first-round pick in 2021. His 99 points were tied for first, also with Bolduc.
Potentially with a chip on his shoulder, Rochette could be looking to prove to the Leafs why they should’ve signed him instead.
Clint Levens
Moving over to the USHL, Levens just finished his second season with the Sioux Falls Stampede. The 19-year-old doesn’t have a lengthy background to take a look at. Before the USHL, he played for the Florida Alliance 16U hockey program for two seasons. Levens was originally drafted by the North Bay Battalion in the OHL Priority Selection Draft before the Stampede would take him in the USHL Draft.
Levens chose the Stampede, where he has played the last two seasons. Not seen as a top scorer, Levens posted nine goals and 17 points in 58 games this past season. That was an improvement on the three assists he had during his debut season in 2020-21. Levens has found himself in a lot of penalty trouble during his time with the Stampede. With 121 penalty minutes a season ago, he followed that up with 154 minutes this past year. At just 19, Levens will have to learn to tame things down as he was by far the leader in the category.
Dovar Tinling
Tinling’s hockey journey has had a few twists and turns along the way. Playing alongside his older brother, Azzaro, the two would play for the Hawkesbury Hawks of the junior A Central Canada Hockey League during the 2019-20 season. Playing on the same line for a majority of the season, Tinling would claim the CCHL Rookie of the Year after posting 21 goals and 51 points in 50 games.
Tinling would have plenty of collegiate options thrown his way as he was recruited by the likes of Michigan and Penn State. However, he chose to head to the University of Vermont. Having not turned 18 until March, that made him the youngest player in NCAA Division I hockey. His journey didn’t end there, though.
Tinling would only play 26 career games for Vermont, recording just three total points. One has to remember, though, that he came in as a 17-year-old. And the hockey program itself struggled mightily as well. He decided to leave the team during his sophomore year for the USHL. The Des Moines Buccaneers had drafted him in the second round of the USHL Futures Draft in 2019. There, he grabbed 12 goals and 25 points in 39 games.
This past summer, the Penticton Vees acquired his playing rights from his old Hawks team in the CCHL. The Vees are a part of the British Columbia Hockey League. So it looks as if Tinling will be off to yet another league next season. Passed over in the 2022 NHL Draft, he’ll look to get on team’s radars this year.
Chayse Primeau
Son of Keith Primeau, Chayse comes into camp after four seasons at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. The 24-year-old is the oldest player on the development camp roster. So he has quite a bit more experience than the rest of the group. And it doesn’t hurt that your father was a long-time NHL player as well. His brother, Cayden, is a part of the Montreal Canadiens organization and has appeared in 18 NHL games over the last three years.
Chayse was originally set to attend Canisius but ended up decommitting after a coaching change. Just a few days later, he was already in touch with the Omaha staff. And four years later, Primeau is set to take on his next journey. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, NCAA athletes were given an extra year of eligibility. Primeau will play his fifth season at the University of Notre Dame after his transfer.
With Omaha, Primeau appeared in 117 games where he posted a total of 29 goals and 72 points. Not eye-catching numbers, but he did post identical stat lines of nine goals and 23 points during his final two seasons. He’ll be the latest Primeau looking to make it into the NHL.
Tye McSorley
If that name sounds familiar, it should. Tye is the nephew of NHL veteran Marty McSorley. McSorley spent the last half of the season with the London Knights after three and a half years with the Oshawa Generals. During his time with the Generals, he only had a single goal and eight points overall. The team did not take part in the 2020-21 season.
Things clearly weren’t working out for McSorley with the Generals. He was traded to the Knights in December of last year for a 10th-round pick in 2023. Known to have a physical presence, McSorley began to find his offense with the Knights. In 42 games, he had eight goals and 15 points. He secured the first hat trick, a natural one at that, of his junior career in a 7-3 victory over the Owen Sound Attack.
Known as an “overager” in junior hockey, McSorley made the cutoff by about six months to be able to play this past season. A player can be no older than 20 as of the last day of December in the current season. McSorley had turned 21 this past season.
Tyler Savard
Rounding out the group of forwards, Tyler is the son of NHL veteran Marc Savard. He is coming off his first season in the OHL with the Soo Greyhounds as he did not play hockey during the 2020-21 season. The Greyhounds drafted him in the 11th round of the OHL Draft in 2019. He was ranked among skaters for the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, but would not be selected.
In his first junior season, Savard posted nine goals and 28 points in 49 games for the Greyhounds. It took him a bit to get adjusted to the fast pace of the OHL as he was held off the goal-scoring sheet during his first 11 games. Before coming to the Greyhounds, Savard impressed with the Soo Thunderbirds of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League. There he had 19 goals and 50 points in 43 games. That was good for second on the team in scoring.
It’s going to take some time for the 19-year-old to get up to speed after losing an entire season of his junior career. But having a chance to join an NHL prospect camp will certainly help him along the way.