Although the Philadelphia Flyers largely stuck with the same group of players throughout their run in the Stanley Cup playoffs this year, the team hopes that many of the young players who watched on standby will benefit from the experience.
Top Flyers prospects like Spencer Gill, Nikita Grebenkin (upper-body), Carson Bjarnason, Oliver Bonk, Jett Luchanko, Jack Berglund, and David Jiricek were all present in the press box for the Flyers’ five home games in the postseason.
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Only Bonk and Luchanko managed to play in a game, the Flyers’ Game 4 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, and Jiricek was a participant in warmups.
All of the players, however, got to see and hear what playoff hockey was like in Philadelphia.
The intensity of the games against seasoned opponents like Pittsburgh and Carolina, the cheers and boos from the crowd, and the boisterous standing ovation following the end of the season, which Flyers general manager Danny Briere lauded multiple times in his end-of-season press conference.
“We always ask a lot about our fans, and we ask them to invest in the team and spend money and time to come and see us. What they did last game was truly, truly amazing,” Briere said to start his press conference.
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“I wanted them to know that it was our players who took notice of that. I probably had seven or eight guys in my exit meetings that specifically mentioned how the fans reacted at the end of the game. They knew how special it was to play in the playoffs in Philadelphia. They didn’t realize how special it was.”
Now that the Flyers have gotten a taste of that, they want everyone to be hungry to get back to the playoffs every year and continue to learn and improve.
That includes the prospects who will be important parts of this process in the near future.
“We didn’t know our fans would react the way they did, which was fantastic. That was amazing. Along the way, we didn’t know if Oliver Bonk or David Jiricek would play games, but they got the chance to go on the ice for a few warmups. That was all part of the experience,” Briere said.
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“We had Jack Nesbitt and Spencer Gill here at the end of the season. Even though they couldn’t play, they came in, spent a few days being around the team to see what it was like, the atmosphere of the playoffs, and get a taste of how exciting it could be. It goes beyond just the guys who were playing. A lot of our young guys were here. To have them around to experience that, we hope will help their development.”
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With Noah Juulsen a pending free agent and the future of Rasmus Ristolainen uncertain, it would certainly seem that Bonk and Jiricek have strong chances to parlay that experience into roster spots and improvement in their games next season.
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Luchanko, who replaced Matvei Michkov for Game 4 against Carolina, will assuredly make his bid to make the Flyers out of training camp for a third consecutive season.
Berglund played seven playoff games with the SHL’s Farjestad BK before helping the Lehigh Valley Phantoms with their playoff push on an AHL tryout, then watched the Flyers from afar.
The Flyers hope that all of these prospects will take something from the two-round playoff run and apply it in the near future.
