|
Quick Hits: Ratcliffe, TIFH, and More |
|
|
|
|
|
Quick Hits: September 6, 2021
1) The 2022-23 season will be a crucial one for Flyers 2017 second-round pick Isaac Ratcliffe. He is almost certain to open his third pro season as a member of the American Hockey League's Lehigh Valley Phantoms and it will be up to him to work his way into serious consideration for his first NHL recall. Ratcliffe can become a first-time restricted free agent in the summer of 2022.
The 2020-21 season was a nightmarish one for Ratcliffe, even apart from pandemic-driven factors. A pre-season rib fracture and a collapsed lung resulted in multiple surgeries. An already belated and shortened American Hockey League season was further delayed. When he finally got on the ice, Ratcliffe never got untracked performance wise or felt close to 100 percent physically until what he estimates was a four-or-five game stretch late in the season. He then suffered an ankle injury that ended his season.
The Phantoms as a team had a pretty good 2020-21 showing but it was a step backward for Ratcliffe. He posted just two goals (one of which was a breakaway goal) and eight points in 22 games.
During his rookie season in 2019-20, Ratcliffe struggled mightily in the early months of the season. He lost more puck battles than he won. He had trouble getting to the scoring areas with any consistency and had more than his fair share on unforced turnovers.
To get the player to simplify his game, former Phantoms head coach Scott Gordon began to deploy Ratcliffe as a checking forward on the fourth line and the penalty kill. By the end of the year, Gordon called Ratcliffe the team's most improved player from the beginning of the season of the end. Ratcilffe himself was during an end-of-season press conference that he felt being a penalty killer could be his ticket to the National Hockey League.
Offensively, though, Ratcliffe posted just 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in 53 games as a rookie. Through two pro years, he has eight goals and 23 points in 75 AHL games. While it was fully expected that Ratcliffe would need time to develop at the minor league level, more was expected from a scoring standpoint after he had a 41-goal season in his Draft-plus-one year with Guelph and then posted 50 goals and 82 points in his final junior regular season and then added an additional 15 goals and 30 points during the Storm's surprise run to winning the OHL championship.
“I feel like the last couple years, my offensive game fell apart a little bit,” Ratcliffe admitted during the Flyers recent Development Camp.
"ButI feel like I’ve gotten it back a ton since that last injury. ... I feel like I’ve come a long way and I definitely learned a lot. This summer, I focused a lot on my mental strength, too, and feeling a lot more confident coming into this year. That’s going to be a big part of my game, being able to play my size and going into battles knowing I’m going to come out on top.”
Ratcliffe was one of the standouts at Development Camp, including scoring three goals during one of the 3-on-3 tourney games on the final day. In and of itself, that doesn't mean much. The most experienced players at Development Camp -- as well as Rookie Camp in September -- are expected to do well in that setting. The real test will come when they're competing in NHL camp and during the regular season (whether at the AHL or NHL level). Scoring goals in a half-rink 3-on-3 is fun but it's not a predictor of a player's future.
Nonetheless, it is a good sign that Ratcliffe is now fully healthy and much of his lost confidence has seemingly been restored. With a new coaching staff in Lehigh Valley and what, on paper, looks to be a talented Phantoms roster around him, Ratcliffe could have the opportunity to work his way higher in the Lehigh Valley lineup as a prerequisite for becoming a candidate to make his NHL debut. A strong Rookie/NHL camp would be an ideal start toward that goal.
Back in 2017, the Flyers were high enough on Ratcliffe to trade three picks in order to move up in the second round and take Ratcliffe with the 35th overall pick. in return, the Flyers sent the 44th (Filip Westerlund), 75th (Nate Schnarr) and 108th (Noel Hoefenmayer) picks of that year's draft to the Arizona Coyotes.
2) Today in Flyers History: Sept. 6, 1994
The Flyers traded the rights to Alexander Selivanov to the Tampa Bay Lightning for a 1995 fourth-round pick. Philadelphia had taken the 23-year-old Selivanov in the sixth round (140th overall) of the 1994 NHL Entry Draft then flipped his rights to Tampa about nine weeks later.
Selivanov, who went to marry Phil Esposito's daughter, Carrie, joined the Lightning immediately. His second NHL season was his best, notching 31 goals and 52 points in 79 games and then adding two goals and four points in a six-game playoff loss to the Flyers. Later in his inconsistent 459-game NHL career, Selivanov had a 27-goal, 47-point campaign in 67 games for the Edmonton Oilers during the 1999-2000 season.
Selivanov and wife Carrie had two sons together as well as a son from her previous marriage. Tragically, Carrie passed away in 2012 after suffering an abdominal aneurysm. After Selivanov's retirement as a player in 2012, he served as a coach with the KHL's Admiral Vladivostok. He had a brief stint as interim head coach last season before returning to an assistant coach role.
The Flyers used the 1995 fourth-round pick acquired from Tampa to select Slovakian forward Radovan Somik with the 100th overall selection of the Draft. He went on to join the Flyers for two seasons (2002-03 to 2003-04), dressing in a combined 113 regular season games and 15 playoff games. Somik produced a combined 12 goals and 32 points in the regular season as a checking line winger for Ken Hitchcock's teams and chipped in two goals and four points in the postseason.
Somik returned to Europe during the lockout-canceled 2004-05 NHL season. Since 2007-08, he has played for Czech Extraliga team HC Pardubice. Currently, the longtime assistant captain is getting ready for his seventh season with Pardubice. Somik turned 37 in May of this year.
3) Sept 6 Flyers Alum birthday: Bill Root (1959).
Defenseman Root played 24 regular season games and two playoff matches for the 1987-88 Flyers; the final season of the Mike Keenan era. The Flyers had acquired Root from the Toronto Maple Leafs on June 21, 1988 in a trade for Mike Stothers. Following the 1987-88 season, the Flyers left Root exposed to waivers. He was claimed by the St. Louis Blues.
4) Happy Labo(u)r Day to all North American readers of HockeyBuzz.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»