2022-23 Flyers Player Profile: Noah Cates and Bobby Brink
By Scott Cole
If the Flyers are in a rebuild or retool, they are going to need a strong corps of young players to start integrating into the team’s future plans along with the veteran players. Bobby Brink, the Flyers’s second round pick of 2019, figures to be part of those plans. The problem is, for the Flyers and for Brink, that might have to wait awhile.
Any Flyers fan can tell you that this past year the team wasn’t just bitten by the injury bug, they were mauled by it. As a result, a lot of young guys were called up to fill in the holes. Many of them weren’t ready. Some, like Noah Cates, turned out to be nice surprises. Cam York didn’t have as much of the impact the team had hoped.
Brink, a 21 year old winger, was called up for 10 games and registered four assists. Playing in his junior year at the University of Denver, he scored 14 goals and had 43 assists. He, again like Cates, made the jump from the NCAA to the NHL as the regular season was winding down to get a taste of what pro hockey is like. He showed flashes of potential and was one of those young guys that could get a look at during training camp.
However, that is going to have to be delayed. Just before the NHL draft, he was sidelined with a hip injury that needs surgery. Jay O’Brien, the Flyers first round pick of 2018, is also having hip surgery.
Because these sort of injuries take a lot of time to rehab and recover, we can’t expect to see Brink at the start of the season. If he is healthy enough to play, it would be far more likely to see him at Lehigh Valley getting his strength and speed back before he is called up.
If he is healthy enough to play this year, there are two scenarios for him being called up: A) He is killing it at the AHL level and he needs to play with the big boys or B) Just like last year, the injury bug has became like the bear on The Revenant and the Flyers are, once again, Leonardo DiCaprio and we need him.
First things first, he has to get healthy. After that, we can figure it out. But from what we’ve seen, he has shown an ability to play in the NHL. Let’s see if he can stay there.