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[Philadelphia Flyers]

Thursday Morning Fly By: Adding some guys to the farm

*Big news yesterday in the Flyers Universe, absolutely huge news. The Phantoms added some players. Just some AHL guys. Good for them! [BSH]

*Are you one of these people feeling nervous about the fact that Porter Martone is going to college? Because of what that other dork did? Well, knock it off. It’s a good thing. [Inquirer]

*No seriously, it’s literally the best thing for all parties involved. Including you, dear reader. This is good for you too. [BSH]

*Speaking of prospects, the World Junior Summer Showcase is taking place this week and a number of Flyers’ Kids will be participating. [BSH]

*It’s always nice to learn that guys you like to watch play hockey are also good dudes off of the ice, and Garnet Hathaway is a really good dude. [Inquirer]

*Oh boy nothing gets people going like a redraft. Especially a redraft that went really poorly for your favorite hockey team. [The Athletic]

*And finally, it’s been one entire year since Matvei Michkov came to North America and officially joined the Flyers. And a lot has happened since he did. [BSH]

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/post/thursday-morning-fly-by-adding-some-guys-to-the-farm/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Matvei Michkov recalls missed empty-net for hat trick: ‘I barely slept for 4 days’

Matvei Michkov had a lot of firsts during his rookie season with the Philadelphia Flyers. However, one first that he has yet to experience is recording a hat trick.

Michkov had seven multi-goal games during his rookie year, giving him more than a few chances to complete the hat trick. But whether it was the “HAT TRICK WATCH” graphic curse, a failed Michigan attempt, or an empty-net flub, the Russian couldn’t complete the hatty.

The Flyers winger was back in Russia for most of the summer, dominating a 3-on-3 tournament, scoring a Michigan in the KHL-NHL All-Star Game, and meeting with the media. During one of those interviews, Michkov was asked about his infamous failed empty-net attempt.

Matvei Michkov opened up about that epic fail when he missed his chance at a hat trick and thanked teammate Travis Konecny not just for the pass, but for the support afterward. pic.twitter.com/yo7wSUI32C

— Uggg (@Uggg_uggg) July 22, 2025

“Nah, honestly, I barely slept for like four days after that chance where I could’ve scored a hat trick,” Michkov said via translation. “And honestly, I wasn’t even that embarrassed about missing the empty net. I mean, yeah, that’s embarrassing too, but that’s not the main thing.”

Here’s a look at how close he came, in case you forgot.

MICHKOV HITS THE POST ON THE EMPTY NET FOR HIS FIRST CAREER HATTRICK AND IMMEDIATELY RUNS DOWN THE TUNNEL #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/sT1D6VLLSt

— Flyers Clips (@Flyers_Clips) March 28, 2025

Travis Konecny had a chance to put a shot on net himself, but unselfishly passed it over to Michkov for a chance at the hat trick. That’s what Michkov lost sleep over.

“The worst part is that my teammate gave up the shot himself. He could’ve scored on the empty net, but he passed it to me so I could get the hat trick,” Michkov explained. “And then I let him down, missed the shot, so he didn’t get the assist, and I didn’t get the hat trick.”

Michkov and Konecny had quite the connection during the 2024-25 season, despite the lines getting juggled around by John Tororella. Konecny had 10 assists on Michkov’s goals, while the rookie had six assists to TK.

“I felt really bad about it. Later, I went up to him, apologized, thanked him for the pass, and said ‘Thanks, man… sorry about that.’ … He was like, ‘It’s all good. I might’ve missed too,'” Michkov laughed. “‘Who knows how it would’ve gone if I got the same pass? No big deal, there’s always next game. You’ll score then.'”

Konecny was absolutely right as Michkov followed up his two-goal performance against the Canadiens with another pair of goals two days later against Buffalo — both assisted by TK.

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Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/p...-net-for-hat-trick-i-barely-slept-for-4-days/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Flyers’ Trevor Zegras clarifies ‘pee together’ comment about Jamie Drysdale

The duo of Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale were happily reunited as teammates when the Philadelphia Flyers traded for the former from the Anaheim Ducks last month. Two best friends back together to spend some time on the ice wearing the same colors. But that of course has now brought up an old quote that needed some clarification.

When Drysdale was initially traded as part of the return for maligned Flyers prospect Cutter Gauthier in January 2024, Zegras told the media that he was going to really miss the defenseman. Well, he did it in his own words.

“We pretty much do everything together. We pee together, we get injured together, we sleep together,” Zegras said of Drysdale when the trade went down last year.

Anyone with any cognitive ability to understand humor knew that the young center was joking around on the specifics, but just wanted to express just how close the two of them were. Drafted by Anaheim in consecutive years and were both brought up through the organization around the same time — specifically, Drysdale had to make the NHL at just 18 years old, the same season Zegras was a rookie, because of the COVID pandemic, but that’s a whole other thing — the two clearly formed a close bond.

So, now that they are teammates once again in Philadelphia, that comment went semi-viral once again and Zegras had to make sure people knew he was joking around.

At a charity hockey game in Connecticut called Shoulder Check, both Zegras and Drysdale participated and with some media presence, the center was asked about the quote once again.

Trevor Zegras saw everyone re-sharing this when he was traded to the Flyers, and needs to clear the air! https://t.co/I1AUjwXueF pic.twitter.com/UvILjGHB6G

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) July 25, 2025​

“It’s from a movie. I did say it,” Zegras said. “It’s funny, I did say that to somebody very early in the morning. I didn’t think it would take the shape that it did. Definitely makes me reconsider the things that I say to the reporters because it was more off the cuff and trying to be funny. When it’s just blocked in two paragraphs, with our faces, obviously it can take a different turn, but I still think it’s pretty funny.”

The last thing we want is Trevor Zegras to be more cagey towards the media. Maybe the one beacon of hope for hockey players to not just become completely cold robots with zero interesting quotes coming out of the mouths; we need Zegras to feel even more comfortable trying to crack jokes. For the sake of fans, everywhere.

Here’s hoping that there are even more opportunities for this duo to be in front of a camera together, though. The Flyers were given a gift to make content out of and now that these best friends are reunited — defenseman Cam York is a part of the group, as well — who knows what could happen throughout next season off the ice and with a microphone in their hands.

Zegras does have some pressure to perform on the ice, though. Acquired for nothing but a solid fourth-line center and a couple of draft picks, there isn’t the pressure of a high acquisition cost, but it is the pressure of potentially being an answer down the middle. Maybe at first, if there is some struggling to start the season, we won’t get to see Zegras’s personality fully flourish off the ice. But, if the Flyers hit the ground running and Zegras is a point-per-game center that has fixed this team’s power play, we should see some real fun, hopefully lighthearted quotes come from the young center.

It all starts when the Flyers visit the New York Islanders on Sept. 21 for their first preseason game.

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Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/p...es-pee-together-comment-about-jamie-drysdale/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Friday Morning Fly By: Crickets

*Remember how we said everyone is already at the cottage? Everyone is already at the cottage. Big news yesterday was the verdict in the Hockey Canada trial, which is now over. [NBC Sports Philly]

*Despite the outcome, the league has decided that these five remain ineligible to play in the National Hockey League. [Sportsnet]

*Hey you know what, when’s the last time you checked out the internet’s most definitive ranking of cheesesteaks in Philadelphia? This feels like a good time for this kind of levity. It’s Friday. [BSH]

*Also let’s talk about how most hockey players are not scummy humans, as evidenced by this very cool look at an offseason charity game in Connecticut that’s turned into a rather Big Deal for the pros who participate in it. [The Athletic]

*And finally, what’s summer for, everyone? That’s right, summer is for lists. So here’s a power ranking, in the form of offseason storylines for each of the 32 teams in the league. It’s a list, folks. A ranked list. What could be better? [ESPN]

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/post/friday-morning-fly-by-crickets/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

A Flyers fan’s guide to the 2025 World Junior Summer Showcase

Things may have been getting a little dull around here, now that Development Camp is well and truly behind us, and the Flyers seem to have wrapped up all of their business and closed up shop for the summer, but we have a little blip of action coming up to tide us over until things start to really ramp up again.

The annual World Junior Summer Showcase is set to kick off this afternoon, hosted — as a bit of a changeup from its usual site at USA Hockey headquarters in Plymouth, Michigan — at the University of Minnesota’s Ridder Arena. Over the next week, we’ll see representatives from the American, Canadian, Finnish, and Swedish programs facing off in some game action, as the management groups of these national teams begin to take their notes and begin to think about how they want to construct their teams for the big tournament in December. It’s still very early in the process, but there’s a lot of intrigue at work here — particularly because the Flyers will be so well represented.

Between the four national teams, the Flyers have seven prospects in the mix, with the added likelihood of an eight coming into play down the line a bit, when the main camps for the World Juniors come around. You can peruse the full rosters here, but here’s the breakdown of the Flyers’ prospect group by team:

USA White
Jack Murtagh
Shane Vansaghi

Finland
Heikki Ruohonen
Max Westergard

Sweden
Jack Berglund

Canada
Porter Martone
Spencer Gill

Altogether, it’s a nice spread of prospects spread out throughout these four teams. Along with these seven set to compete, Jett Luchanko also got an invitation to this tournament, but he had to decline, as it would seem that the groin issue that held him out of the Flyers’ Development Camp still has him not quite ready to return to game action. All indications are that he’ll be ready for camp, so nothing to worry about there, and what’s more, after having represented Canada in last year’s World Junior Championship, he’s as close to a lock for this year’s roster, and one can’t imagine that the folks over at Hockey Canada are feeling particularly pressed to get further impressions of him. The same will more or less be the case for players like Ruohonen and Berglund, who are also returnees from last year’s teams, but for all of Murtagh, Vansaghi, Westergard, Gill, and Martone, they’ll be beginning their own campaigns to earn their first spots on the U20 teams this week.

The tournament will kick off this afternoon with a pair of games, and continue through the week. The full schedule is below (all times in Eastern Time).

Sunday, July 27
2:00 – USA White vs. Finland
5:30 – USA Blue vs. Sweden

Monday, July 28
2:00 – Finland vs. USA Blue
5:30 – Sweden vs. USA White

Tuesday, July 29
5:30 – Canada Red vs. Canada White

Wednesday, July 20
2:00 – Sweden vs. USA
5:30 – Canada vs. Finland

Friday, August 1
2:00 – Canada vs. Sweden
5:30 – Finland vs. USA

Sunday, August 3
2:00 – Sweden vs. Finland
5:30 – USA vs. Canada

The Finns and the Swedes have brought their more pared down rosters with them from the jump, but we’ll see both the American and Canadian teams beginning with two split squads before trimming down to one main team ahead of Wednesday’s slate of action, for the Americans after they’ve played two games apiece, and for the Canadians, after Tuesday’s scrimmage.

It’s worth remembering that this tournament will just run as a round robin format, and no medals will be handed out this time around. And this is because, as much as we can expect the players to bring full intensity and take these rivalry games seriously, the overall results of this tournament don’t matter so much as the impressions that the players make on an individual basis. This camp is all about the players getting comfortable with potential team and linemates, and the management group beginning to do some evaluations. This camp won’t make or break anyone — the stakes won’t really rise until the main camps in the winter — but first impressions matter for the teams, and for us more casual viewers, it will be interesting to see how these largely shiny new prospects will show against some of the very best players in their age group. There always seem to be some interesting surprises in these summer tournaments, and it will be interesting, in turn, to see how this one plays out.

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/p...martone-shane-vansaghi-jett-luchanko-preview/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Phantoms announce return of Keith Petruzzelli; sign Yaniv Perets, Ben Meehan and Carson Golder

The Lehigh Valley Phantoms added some players to their depth chart Wednesday. The team announced goaltender Keith Petruzzelli will return for the 2025-26 season while goaltender Yaniv Perets, defenseman Ben Meehan and forward Carson Golder have all signed with the club. It’s more than likely all four of the aforementioned players will be spending most of the season in Reading of the ECHL.

We are excited to announce the return of goaltender Keith Petruzzelli, along with the signings of goaltender Yaniv Perets, defenseman Ben Meehan, and forward Carson Golder. Welcome back, Keith and welcome to the team Yaniv, Ben, and Carson! pic.twitter.com/UruI5i5cTQ

— Lehigh Valley Phantoms (@LVPhantoms) July 23, 2025

The Perets signing was speculated earlier in the month but nothing was confirmed. Perets has spent most of his career in the minors. In 2023, the undrafted goaltender from Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec, was signed by Carolina, playing one game with the Hurricanes in 2023-24 and playing 34 games in the ECHL with the Norfolk Admirals. In 2024-25, Perets played all of 13 minutes in a Carolina uniform, unfortunately allowing one goal in roughly eight minutes of play for a 7.32 goals-against average. Last the previous season, he played 27 games in the ECHL, all with the Bloomington Bison. He also had a four-game stint with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves.

As for Petruzzelli, he spent 34 regular season games and three playoff games with Reading in 2024-25. He also played six games with Lehigh Valley. His best numbers were with the Royals where he posted a 3.12 goals-against average and a save percentage of .901. Petruzzelli, 25, was drafted in the third round by Detroit in 2017 but never saw any NHL action with the Red Wings. In 2022 he was signed by the Leafs, but spent most of the time bouncing between the AHL and the ECHL.

Both Perets and Petruzzelli should add a bit more depth in Reading as the Phantoms lost Cal Petersen in the offseason. As well Eetu Makiniemi will be playing in Finland next season, ending his brief tenure with the Flyers and Lehigh Valley after an injury-shortened year. Added to those moves, Parker Gahagen, who saw some playoff action with the Phantoms last season, signed a American Hockey League contract in early July with the Bridgeport Islanders, so he is another netminder no longer in the conversation. And one isn’t sure what’s going to happen with Aleksei Kolosov this coming year, whether he remains with the Flyers, is sent down to the Phantoms for the year, or simply heads back to play in the KHL with Philadelphia retaining his rights.

Meanwhile Ben Meehan, 24, played two games with the Iowa Wild in the AHL last season after finishing his fifth and final season with the University of Massachusetts-Lowell in Hockey East. While with the university team, Meehan scored three goals and had 14 assists in 36 games. The native of Walpole, Massachusetts was drafted in the fifth round by the Kings in the 2020 draft.

As for Carson Golder, the 22-year-old left winger spent most of his time in the ECHL the past two seasons with the Norfolk Admirals although he had some short stints with the Manitoba Moose over those two years. In 2024-25 Golder played two games with the Moose and had two assists. In 41 games with the Admirals he had 18 goals and 14 assists for 32 points. Golder, who has some size (6’3″, 203 pounds), went undrafted during his years of eligibility.

Again, the moves should be seen as the Phantoms filling out spots for Reading next year and not too much more. However, should the Phantoms run into a string of injuries, or the Flyers face the same unfortunate situation, then these players could be called up to Lehigh Valley to replace players up with the big club. No real earth-shattering moves, but some additions to sure things up before training camps begin.

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/p...gn-yaniv-perets-ben-meehan-and-carson-golder/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Flyers’ Porter Martone explains why he committed to Michigan State

The Philadelphia Flyers’ top selection of the 2025 NHL Draft is starting a new journey this fall. Sixth-overall pick Porter Martone is going to be one of the top prospects going from the Canadian Hockey League to the NCAA as part of the new agreement between the two leagues.

The 18-year-old winger announced earlier that he has chosen to commit to Michigan State University, leaving the OHL’s Brampton Steelheads, a team which he captained last year, and foregoing any possibility of making the Flyers out of training camp — and even getting rid of the opportunity to go to an NHL training camp this fall.

While taking part in the 2025 World Junior Summer Showcase this week, Martone was able to further discuss his decision to go play college hockey.

“It has been crazy after I got picked,” Martone said. “I always wanted to play in the NHL next year. After development camp we sat down and I just kind of weighed the pros and cons of everything.”

Martone, his representatives, and the Flyers, seemed to have all had multiple discussions about what’s next for the young winger. The player publicly expressed his desire to go to the NHL this season, before — like, immediately after he was selected — so it was clear where his head was at. But, in the end the Flyers most likely saw that he needed to still work on some things and having him go to college avoids an awkward situation.

If Martone signed his entry-level contract and attended training camp, but didn’t make the team, then he would be heading back to Brampton to play on a weakened team in a weakened league (due to some of the very best players leaving for college hockey) and that is not a good developmental environment. Especially for a player that is already physically mature enough to more than handle college hockey, it seemed like an easy decision to increase the difficulty, play against stronger and older opponents, to further develop and aim to sign his first NHL contract after his college season ends.

But, in the end, it was still the player’s decision even if the Flyers most likely wanted to take a more patient approach with Martone.

“They were going to support me either way. If I did get the chance to go to training camp and try to make the team, they were going to support that,” Martone said.

“At the same time, I sat down and thought with my camp, and I did include the Flyers as well, was what’s going to make me the best player five to 10 years down the road when the Flyers are trying to win the Stanley Cup?”

For an 18-year-old winger that has always dreamed of the NHL, and is just one, small step away from it, that is an incredibly mature thought process. Sure, Martone is physically ready and at-worst would score 30-35 points in the NHL next season — being a very good offensive threat in the middle six and somewhere on the power play. But, as we have seen happen so many times, a top prospect can plateau if they’re trying to just keep their head above water and next thing you know, they have the exact same role and exact same production at 23 years old.

It is a hypothetical scenario, but one that happens almost every single year.

Both Martone and the Flyers will have to continue to be patient to see him in the Orange and Black, but it is going to most likely be so much more impactful with a year of college hockey under his belt. Plus, he’s heading to an outstanding program in East Lansing, with a roster that should compete for the national championship next spring.

Martone is not the only top CHL prospect going to the Spartans. Columbus Blue Jackets prospect and 2024 fourth-overall selection Cayden Lindstrom was a dominant force for the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers before succumbing to a back injury that kept him out for the entirety of last season before his return during the WHL Finals. He will be more than motivated to make an impact during his freshman year and could certainly be Martone’s center for the majority of the season; potentially forming one of the most lethal duos in college hockey.

Other 2025 prospects like Ducks’ Eric Nilson and Preds’ Ryker Lee are also heading to Michigan State. And that’s not even mentioning that fellow Flyers prospect Shane Vansaghi was already on the team last year and gives us even more of a reason to stay tuned in to what the Spartans get up to next season.

College hockey is going to be an absolute blast next year and we’re personally glad that there’s even more of a reason to watch now that one prospect from Peterborough, Ont. is taking part.

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Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/p...-explains-why-he-committed-to-michigan-state/