Quick Hits: March 26, 2019
1) On Monday afternoon, the Flyers announced that they had signed 2018 first-round pick Joel Farabee to an entry-level contract. Farabee, who is currently working to get back from a lower-body injury that forced him to miss the game that knocked Boston University out of the March regionals, enjoyed an outstanding freshman season at BU.
After a fully expected adjustment period to the collegiate hockey level, Farabee really took after a strong performance for Team USA at the 2018-19 World Junior Championships. He went to lead his BU team in scoring, and continued to show the sort of high-caliber two-way instincts that made him a standout in the USNTDP before advancing to college hockey.
The 19-year-old Farabee is slide-rule eligible for next season, meaning that as long as he doesn't play 10 or more NHL games next season, the first year of his entry-level contract will not burn until the 2020-21 season if he plays in the AHL. Farabee is still somewhat physically immature, and it's far from a certainty that he's immediately ready to handle the rigors of an 82-game NHL season. Thus, a year in the American Hockey League with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms is a viable option if he does not earn an NHL job out of training camp.
If neither Farabee nor 2017 first-round pick Morgan Frost start out in the NHL, the Phantoms could have quite an intriguing group of incoming forwards next season. Flyers 2017 second-round pick Isaac Ratcliffe is also likely to spend time in the AHL. Other incoming players will include Matthew Strome and Maksim Sushko. If Wade Allison and/or Tanner Laczynski forgo their senior years of NCAA hockey, one or both could also be in Lehigh Valley.
Farabee is not eligible to join the Flyers this season. His contract starts for the 2019-20 season. If he is cleared to play in time to join the Phantoms for the tail end of their current season, it would be via signing amateur try-out (ATO) agreement.
2) The Flyers had an off-day on Monday. On Tuesday, the team will reconvene for practice at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. Tuesday is also the annual active military member visit to the Skate Zone, with troops from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (NJ) touring the facility and stopping by the locker room after practice.
3) One of the big reasons why the Flyers surged from January until mid-March was that a group of their young players beyond just standout rookie goalie Carter Hart -- Travis Sanheim, Nolan Patrick, Oskar Lindblom and more recently, Philippe Myers -- stepped up their games and were making an impact to supplement the veteran core group as well as "young vets" such as Ivan Provorov (who showed signs of getting back to more of his accustomed level after a rough first-half) and Travis Konecny.
During the team's current 2-5-0 stretch, some of the younger players have hit a bit of a wall along with much of the rest of the team. As a team, the Flyers have looked a bit gassed after their long run to climb within about five or six points of the playoff cutoff.
As a team, the Flyers have been spending too much time in the defensive zone (the Washington game was a step up in that area) and they have several defensemen (including Robert Hà¤gg and, to some degree, Radko Gudas of late) having issues as well as their share of breakdowns where forwards are not going to the right spots.
4) Brian Elliott is the Philadelphia chapter of the PHWA's nominee for the 2019-20 Masterton Trophy.