In 2018, then Flyers general manager Ron Hextall selected, with the 112th pick in the NHL draft, Jack St. Ivany from Manhattan Beach, California. He was a speedy defender with good puck moving skills. He went undrafted the year before, but had caught the eye of some scouts that next season. Hextall took a chance on him and selected him.
On Monday, St. Ivany’s journey as a Flyer came to an end. The Flyers did not extend a qualifying contract to him, allowing the prospect to become a free agent and able to sign on with other teams. The 23 year old defender had played two seasons at Yale University before transferring to Boston College for two more seasons.
In his collegiate career, he scored 12 goals, 48 assists, and had a +/- of +5 in four seasons. This past year, St. Ivany posted a career high 24 points in 35 games.
It’s not that St. Ivany didn’t perform well enough for the Flyers to extend a contract. There simply is no room for him. He is sitting behind Cam York, Ronnie Attard and Emil Andrae on the depth charts; all draft picks in 2019 and 2020. The Flyers second round pick in 2018 was Adam Ginning, another defender who will be debuting at Lehigh Valley this year after playing the last few years in the Swedish leagues.
In addition the Flyers have Egor Zamula, Mason Millman, and Cooper Zech in the minors. They also have restricted free agent Linus Hogberg to sign as well. This doesn’t take into consideration all of the guys at the pro level the Flyers currently have or the youngsters who have had some NHL experience.
Last month, the Flyers lost the rights to prospects Matthew Strome, Maksim Sushko and Kirill Ustimenko as they did not qualify them. Earlier this offseason, they failed to come to terms with Connor McClennon. On the same day they did not re-sign St. Ivany, they did retain the rights to Jackson Cates.
Perhaps this is a sign that the Flyers youth movement is paying dividends and a player like St. Ivany can be allowed to walk. Zamula is expected to make the NHL jump sometime this year. But the Flyers have only so many contracts they can give out and so many players they can hold to. For St. Ivany, this just wasn’t his time.