Flyers Have Hard Decisions to Make with Oliver Bonk Impressing

An early bite from the injury bug has forced the Philadelphia Flyers to tap into their prospect pool and lean on depth players, but one top prospect, in particular. is making an early case to remain with the team even when everyone is healthy.

Defenseman Oliver Bonk, called up by the Flyers in the wake of the injury to Rasmus Ristolainen, has been pressed into action on the top pair next to Travis Sanheim. His season debut against Carolina was rough, stumbling to a -3 rating in the 4-1 loss, but Bonk bounced back in a major way in his second game of the season against Seattle on Tuesday night.

Bonk, 21, handled exactly 20 minutes in Tuesday's 3-2 shootout loss to Seattle, adding an impressive assist on a solo rush towards the end of his shift and adding a shot on goal to boot.

In Bonk's 18:40 of ice time at 5-on-5, the Flyers controlled 61.29% of the shot attempts (19-12) while out-chancing the Kraken 8-7, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Of course, it wasn't all perfect for Bonk, who made a bad line change that eventually led to a Jordan Eberle breakaway and subsequent penalty shot.

Flyers goalie Dan Vladar made the stop, and Bonk just kept playing after that. The former first-round pick's mentality is something that has impressed head coach Rick Tocchet thus far.

"He knew he screwed up, and I watched him, and he just kind of was breathing through it and didn't it faze him. I thought he even played better after it. I love that about a young guy," Tocchet said of Bonk after Wednesday's practice.

"He didn't let that moment get to him, and then you know you saw him make that rush play to the goal to [Christian Dvorak]. So that's a big step, to see a young guy do that."

On his assist, Bonk dove to his stomach to sprawl out and break up a 2-on-1 Kraken scoring chance, then took it upon himself to scramble up the left side boards, motoring into the zone before flinging a backhand pass across the middle of the ice.

Tyson Foerster, who was cutting up the gut, dummied Bonk's pass for Christian Dvorak, who slammed the puck past an unsuspecting Philipp Grubauer, giving the Flyers their first goal of the game and pulling them within one.

It was a play like that where a young guy, like Bonk, took it upon himself to make a play, and it may very well have been the play that spurred the Flyers to go on and earn a point in the overtime loss.

Just over a minute later, Sanheim followed suit during a sequence of 4-on-4 play, driving up the ice before peeling back to find Trevor Zegras as the trailer, who coolly slotted past Grubauer in the top left corner to tie the game at 2-2.

The offensively-starved Flyers, who are also without top-six winger Travis Konecny, need all the help they can get from a defense core that has long been greater than the sum of its parts.

"We definitely need the fourth guy. I mean, you can't win in this league or get chances if you don't have that fourth wave," Tocchet assessed Wednesday afternoon.

Despite the strong outing from Bonk and Sanheim, the Flyers still rank 29th in the NHL in scoring amongst defensemen, getting eight points in eight games from their rearguards.

That output, as low as it may be, still accounts for 28.6% of points by Flyers players this year, which is the ninth-highest percentage in the NHL.

This is all to say that players like Sanheim, Bonk, Jamie Drysdale, and even Cam York and David Jiricek have needed to carry the load for a sputtering group of forwards, and they themselves have not been infallible.

One thing is clear, though: Bonk is making a legitimate case to stay with the Flyers at the NHL for the long run, even if and when Ristolainen returns.

The Finn won't join the Flyers in Detroit for Thursday night's game against the Red Wings, which will provide at least one more opportunity for Bonk to show the Tocchet and the Flyers they can rely on him in big minutes or small, regardless of the situation.

Made in London

It's not a surprise, either, that their investment in the London Knights pipeline has been paying off.

Forward Denver Barkey, who made the surprise leap to the NHL level in his first professional season last year, has established himself as a fixture for the Flyers' middle-six.

Bonk, who was drafted with and teammates with Barkey in London, could be following suit in short order.

"It's all you can really hope for from your friends, especially here, someone to lean on, someone to give you advice who's already been here for a year," Bonk said of Barkey. "It's great, seeing where we came from in London to here. It's really special to see."

Added Barkey: "It's been cool. We've grown up together since we were 15 years old. We've been in London together, watching each other grow, and this has always been our goal. So, to be living it together, living the dream, it's cool, but we want to continue to grow, establish ourselves as full-time players, and just continue to do this."

Barkey's comments are an important reminder of what the Flyers' rebuild is and where it's supposed to be headed, built on youth and culture.

The 0-5-3 start to the season has clearly left a sour taste in everyone's mouths, from the front office downstream to Tocchet, the players, and the fans, but the early opportunity for someone like Bonk could be the first silver lining to what has otherwise been as glum a start as any NHL team can have.