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Quick Hits: Working on Weaknesses, Defense Prospects, and More

July 8, 2017, 11:17 AM ET [94 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
QUICK HITS: JULY 8, 2017

1) On the first day of Flyers 2017 Development Camp, general manager Ron Hextall raised a point during his media availability session that reiterated something the legendary Fred Shero often said: When players train, they should primarily focus on improving their weaknesses rather than showing off their strengths.

Hextall said that he wished there were development camps back when he played, and that the off-season is the best time for players to try to refine specific skills. In the Development Camp context, he'd rather see a player mishandle the puck in working on a new skill instead of only doing what is comfortable. Likewise, when players are turning, they have a preferred side.

The Flyers' GM said that it impresses him more to see young players who challenge themselves to step outside of their comfort zone and embrace coaching rather than trying just to show off what they've already mastered. Hextall opined that part of the maturation process of a player is to learn how to work smarter and not just harder.

Whether that message resonates with young players in camp remains to be seen. It's hard to shake the desire to try to put on a show to impress coaches and management, regardless of being told that there no NHL contracts or jobs to be won or lost in July.

2) Later today on the Flyers' official website, there will be a feature article I authored on the outlooks for Travis Sanheim and Philippe Myers as they get ready for training camp in September. While Samuel Morin and Robert Hägg are the front-runners to move up to the NHL roster for opening night, there could be five-way competition for up to two spots between Morin, Hägg, Sanheim, Myers and a non-roster NHL veteran brought in on a tryout basis. Even if second-year pro Sanheim and rookie Myers are assigned to the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms to start the 2017-18 season, the competition is one that will be ongoing for the long term to stake down spots in the Flyers' starting six.

3) While Sanheim and Myers are the marquee defense prospects in this year's camp, keep an eye as well on rookie pro Mark Friedman and Swedish blueliners David Bernhardt (who turns 20 in December and played in the World Junior Championships last season) and Linus Högberg (who turns 19 in September). It was not all that long ago when prospects such as these players would have been the ones at the forefront of the Flyers' hopes for the blue line.

Think back to when Kevin Marshall, Marc-Andre Bourdon and Joonas Lehtivuori were arguably the top three Flyers defense prospects in the system. It is the nature of the development beast that two of them failed to advance once they got to the American League while Bourdon had concussion issues wreck his career after working his way to the NHL. That's not the issue here. The point I'm making is that the Flyers' system is now much deeper in both quantity and quality of prospects than it was in the late 2000s and early 2010s; so much so that the strides taken to date by the likes of Friedman and the two Swedes hardly get mentioned.

4) Speaking of the unpredictability of young defensemen, today is Karl Dykhuis' 45th birthday. Originally a 1990 first-round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks, Dykhuis has some of the best raw tools I've ever seen for a young defenseman. He was big and strong, and had very good wheels. He showed flashes of offensive upside, too, and sometimes could play at a high level in his end of the ice. However, things never truly clicked for Dykhuis over the long haul, despite some strong stretches (especially during the 1995 and 1996 playoffs) for the Flyers in what eventually became a 644-game NHL career. He always seemed to have fragile self-confidence and got down on himself, which prolonged his slumps due to tentative decision-making.

Dykhuis was a good example of how realistic expectations have to be set, even for first-round picks. There are very few can't miss prospects at that very difficult position, and the same goes even more for goalie prospects. The Flyers were fortunate in 2015 to be able to draft one of those rare can't-miss defensemen in Ivan Provorov. Two years later, he's already an above-average all-around defenseman and has still barely scratched the surface of his capabilities.

Enjoy watching Provorov in his second pro year but don't expect that every Flyers defense prospect, even the guys atop the list like Sanheim and Myers, can simply duplicate what Provorov did last season. If a second impact NHL defenseman (i.e., bonafide top 3) emerges from the quartet of Sanheim, Myers, Morin and Hägg, the team would be in strong shape for the future. If a third does, it will be a bonanza.
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