If you look at the teams in the 2013-2014 NHL Playoffs, what’s the common theme? They are getting contributions from their young prospects.
The L.A. Kings for example, are getting key goals and assists from young players like Tyler Toffoli. The 22-year-old had a goal and an assist in the epic Game seven overtime win over the defending Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks. He’s just one example of many on the Kings roster.
The Montreal Canadiens and the Anaheim Ducks both used rookie goalies in their playoff runs this year and both played very well. The Habs netminder, Dustin Tokarski, looked amazing in the game six 1-0 loss to the Rangers in the Eastern Conference final. Tokarski only played three regular season games but was called into action after an injury to starter Carey Price. He played stellar hockey in five playoff games with no support which cost the Habs the series in Game 6.
The Ducks tender, 20-year-old John Gibson, played only three regular season games (3-0 with .954 save %) and started four games in the playoffs. He went 2-2 with a .919 save % and 2.69 GAA. Gibson dazzled in his playoff debut shutting out the Stanley Cup final bound Kings before going down in Game 7.
These facts speak volumes to these teams’ player development programs. Ron Hextall, upon being hired as the General Manager of the Philadelphia Flyers, immediately spoke of his desire to keep their own draft picks and develop them into NHL Players. This clearly was not the case under the Paul Holmgren regime. The current flyers roster includes only three regular everyday players who were drafted by the Flyers: Captain Claude Girioux, defensive specialist Sean Couturier, and fan favorite scrapper Zac Rinaldo.
In the Flyers farm system, there are several recent draft picks who deserve a look. Here are a few names which we could see in a Flyers jersey sometime in the 2014-2015 season: defensemen Sam Morin, Robert Hagg and, Shayne Gostisbehere, forwards Nick Cousins, Jason Akeson, Tye McGinn, and Scott Laughton, and perhaps goalie Anthony Stolarz.
As Flyer’s chairman Ed Snider gets older, the team should get younger. It has been reported that Snider is battling cancer and has won the most recent round. This City and Snider deserve another Cup. He has spared no expense and given this city a winning team for over 40 years. It’s a shame the last Cup was also 40 years ago.
We can only hope Hextall follows through with his promise and builds from within. He learned his craft in L.A. under Dean Lombardi, who has taken the Kings to the finals twice in the last three years. With so many former Flyers connections and the team affectionately called “Flyers West”, we can only pray that Flyers East can the do the same under Hextall.
Based upon Hextall’s initial remarks, we shouldn’t see these prospects names as a part of a trade anytime soon. Based upon other teams successes in playing the younger players, hopefully we will see these names on the back of Flyers jerseys walking into the Wells Fargo next May for a Stanley Cup run.
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