Saturday morning's Philadelphia Flyers news.
Starting this weekend, the Philadelphia Flyers and their top prospects will square off with the New York Rangers and their top prospects in the Rookie Series. Finally, hockey is back.
The Flyers prospects had their first practice of camp at the PPL Center in Allentown, Pa., on Friday afternoon, mixing into a group of interesting lines and defense pairs.
Per PHLY's Charlie O'Connor, who was there in Allentown, Owen McLaughlin centered Denver Barkey and Porter Martone on one line, and Jett Luchanko slotted between Alex Bump and Cole Knuble on another.
First-round picks Oliver Bonk and Maksim Sokolovskii matched up to form an intriguing defense pair, to say the least, and Ty Murchison and Spencer Gill, who could be a go-to combination for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms this year, comprised the other.
It's shaping up to be an exciting week for the Flyers, who will wrap up the Rookie Series against the Rangers on Sunday night, then dive right into main training camp on Thursday.
The young guns are a full-go from now until Wednesday, when they'll have a day off with the rest of the team, and then the Flyers will be all business until this time next year.
This is me speculating here, but I do wonder if, with a strong showing this weekend, Oliver Bonk and Ty Murchison can do themselves some favors when it comes to their respective roster battles.
Training camp is short this year; the first regular season game is on Sept. 30. Inherently, Bonk and Murchison will have more opportunities to show their stuff, even if against lesser competition.
Their performances in the preseason and against the NHL guys at Flyers Training Center will hold more weight, for sure, but they can't and won't blow off the task at hand, either. This is part of the gig for them at this stage of their careers.
Just something I'm keeping an eye on when the Flyers face the Rangers' prospects on Saturday night.
