Flyers Prospect Proves Worth With Team Canada

Oliver Bonk has been one to watch for the Flyers since the 2023 draft, and World Juniors has been the perfect place to witness his growth and potential as a young defenseman.

Josh Kim - The Hockey News - Flyers Prospect Proves Worth With Team Canada

When Oliver Bonk got drafted 22nd overall in 2023, there was immediate excitement surrounding the Ottawa native. He possessed a number of attributes that announced to Flyers fans that the 18-year-old defenseman was one to look out for in the coming years, including a solid build of being 6-foot-2 and 180 pounds, a defensive soundness well beyond his years, and a mobility to his game that makes him an incredibly efficient defender.

Although he’s played for Hockey Canada at other levels—and already having a gold medal to his name from the 2023 Hlinka Gretzky Cup—it was uncertain whether or not he would be selected to represent Canada and go up against the best under-20 hockey players in the world. After an anxious waiting period, Bonk got the call that he would be representing Team Canada at the 2024 World Junior Championship.

So far, his role in the tournament has been skating on the second or third lines, along with quarterbacking Canada’s second power play unit. He’s been incredibly consistent, notably one of the few bright spots in Canada’s most recent game, a shocking 2-0 loss to Sweden.

Bonk continued to have excellent gap control and read the game with intelligence, using his ability to move the puck, along with the blossoming offensive side of his game, to be one of the more fun players to watch for Canada. Despite Team Canada's elimination from the tournament, Bonk undoubtedly left everything out on the ice whenever he played, a quality that will see him fit in well with the Flyers as the organization uses this World Juniors tournament to gauge his development trajectory for the next couple of years.