Roster spots won’t be won or lost at development camp.
The point of the annual gathering of Flyers prospects is more about getting a jump on preparations for the fall than it is about making an impression. That comes later, at rookie camp and training camp, in September.
This year, though, there's a collection of players worth keeping an eye on -- including a few who weren’t ready to make the jump to the NHL last season who might just be ready this year. Their journeys start today.
Here are five to watch:
Travis Sanheim
Development Camp will be most Flyers fans' first chance to see this year’s first-round draft pick on the ice. Sanheim won’t make the team this season; he’s still at least a few years away. But the Flyers are very high on the young defenseman, whom they selected 17th overall, and believe he’s got a lot of upside. This week’s camp will be his first opportunity to show it.
Scott Laughton
Arguably the most NHL-ready of all 29 players attending the camp, Laughton will spend the summer proving he deserves to stick around with the Flyers for good this year. He already has five games of NHL experience under his belt (in 2013), and had yet another strong year with the OHL’s Oshawa Generals in 2013-14. He was named captain of Team Canada at the World Junior Championship last year, too. The Flyers’ roster is crowded at center, sure, but this could finally be Laughton’s year.
Samuel Morin
The towering defenseman selected in the first round of last year’s draft has put on 20 pounds this offseason, and told French-language site TVASports.ca that he wants to make the Flyers’ roster this fall. Will it happen? Probably not. Could it? Perhaps -- the Flyers haven’t been able to bring in defensive help this summer and they’re still in need of it. Morin stuck around at training camp for a while last year; if he sticks around even longer this time around, he would come cheap. And that, as we know, wouldn’t hurt.
NHL
Shayne Gostisbehere
Speaking of young, cheap defensive talent, Gostisbehere could be another option to flesh out the Flyers’ roster, should the team decide to do so. The Flyers inked the Union college product to an entry-level deal earlier this year, and then-GM Paul Holmgren said “it’s not far-fetched” that the Frozen Four standout could be in the NHL in 2014-15. "Ghost," as he's known, is a much-improved player from the version that the Flyers drafted in the third round in 2012.
Robert Hagg
Rounding out the trio of top defensive prospects is Robert Hagg, whom the Flyers selected 41st overall in last year’s draft. Hagg played against men in Sweden for two years, and made a seamless transition to the AHL late last season when he spent 10 games with the Adirondack Phantoms. A strong skater who’s projected to be a possible future top-pairing D-man, Hagg will most likely spend this season with the Phantoms -- but it’s not completely impossible he makes a leap to the NHL, either.