Here’s a candy crush of various quotes of interest from the Flyers development camp which ended on Monday.
The prospects will head to Stone Harbor on Tuesday for the annual “Trial on the Isle.…
The most interesting tidbit to come out of the camp was the revelation from development coach John Riley that the Flyers visited with the Kansas City Royals in Arizona during the club’s road trip last March when the Flyers played the Coyotes.
The Royals at Major League Baseball’s reigning World Series champions.
Basically, the Flyers compared notes and strategies for how they develop young prospects from the time they draft them to the time they are promoted to the major league/pro level.
“I try to be open-minded and be progressive with my learning and certainly watch other sports and learn from them,… Riley said.
“Sammy [Kjell Samuelsson] and I actually spent some days with the Kansas City Royals sharing ideas at their spring training. As far as professional sports for Kjell, Brady [Robinson] and I, we try to learn from other sports and certainly incorporate them into practice planning and the drills that we do during the course of the session.
“We kind of work on that throughout the year, different things that we see when we go watch our players. We might see them do certain drills with their teams and see them do it well or do it poorly and build on that. Then like I said just studying and learning the game for myself and trying to incorporate those things.…
Flyers general manager Ron Hextall spoke about what he wanted this year’s group of 34 to take back with them.
“I want them to walk away better players in a week, but probably more realistically walk away with some fundamentals to work on the rest of the summer,… Hextall said.
“During the year kids are on Junior, college, the American league, the international league and it’s hard to change something and focus on a weakness when you’re in your season because you’re trying to win games, trying to play well, score, this and that.
“So we really wanted to try and take away some fundamentals to work on over the summer as a time to change. Whether it’s your stride or the way you carry the puck, so that when the season comes it’s second nature.
“Little things like having the puck out to the side rather than in front of them. It’s those types of things that they need to do over and over to master. Obviously the nutrition and our expectation level for every individual player, those types of things are huge. Really teaching them how to be pros ……
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Goalie prospect Carter Hart on his style:
“I would say most goalies nowadays are butterfly, but I’m more of a reactive, blocking style, I’m not going to just drop straight down to block and hopes it hits me. I’m really one to shift into saves and being able to move out of my butterfly.…
Forward prospect Anthony Salinitri on playing with and against top prospect Travis Konecny:
“I grew up watching him, too because he played for Elgin [Middlesex AAA] and I played with Windsor. He was a guy we always had an eye on when we went to the rink. You kinda looked up because he worked hard and was a skill guy.
“He did it all. When I got the chance to play against him, it was a real eye opener for me to see how talented he was. Something for me strive for. Playing with him was even better.…
Defensive prospect Reece Willcox talking about what it was like at Cornell to play against current Flyer prospect Cole Bardreau:
“I played with him for three years. He’s a guy that you love to have on your team, but hate when he is on the opposite side of the rink from you. He competes so hard and is not afraid to get under people’s skin and he just knows his role and plays it to a tee.…
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