Potential Dumpster Diving Treasures that Could Pay Dividends for the Flyers if Injuries Occur

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With Training Camp now upon us, teams all over the NHL will be trying to see exactly what they have. Their coaches will be taking a look at some new line combinations, evaluating their team’s top prospects to see if they are ready to make the jump to the NHL, and trying to figure out where any newly acquired free agents will fit in. The primary purpose of all this, of course, will be to try and come up with a final list of players who they feel will best give them a chance at winning the highly coveted Stanley Cup.

But as we all know, not all prospects turn out to be what their respective teams hope they will be when they draft them. Some players who are coming back from an extended injury are bound to reaggravate it, or lazy ones who may not have trained as hard as they should in the off-season acquire new ones.

With that being said, the Philadelphia Flyers are no different. Their 25-year-old center Morgan Frost still has not developed into the elite offensive threat that he appeared destined to be when they drafted him out of juniors. Plus, with the extensive injury history of their over-paid Selke Award-winning center Sean Couturier, highly talented young defender Jamie Drysdale, and veteran blueliner Rasmus Ristolainen things could go from “Good” to “OH SHIT, NOT AGAIN” real quick!

So, with that being said, I think that there are a couple of players that were brought into other team’s camps on an invite basis that they should keep a close eye on. Just in case any of the Flyers players/prospects underachieve, or any of those unwanted injuries rear their ugly head. Then maybe, just maybe, Philadelphia could still salvage the season by signing one of these players off the Trash Heap if they do not manage to make the club that they are currently on a try-out basis with.

Tyler Johnson

The first in my mind would have to be the two-time Stanley Cup Champion center Tyler Johnson. I’m a bit surprised that Johnson did not receive a contract from anyone. I get that he is now 34 years of age, but he can still produce offensively. To prove this, all you have to look at is his totals from last season, where he scored 17 goals (that’s four more than any Flyers center was able to net last year) and 14 assists for a total of 31 points.

Now, perhaps the reason nobody wanted him was that he was a -35 on the season last year. But let me remind you that he was playing for Chicago, which has been horrible for quite some time now. So, much so that everybody who played for the Blackhawks was pretty much a minus player last season, including Connor Bedard, who was a -44. Did teams forget that Johnson was a +84 during his nine years in Tampa Bay? I’m sure he didn’t just forget how to play defense. He simply made the mistake of leaving a dynasty for the chance at a bigger payday.

In the coming days, if cut from Boston’s training camp, Johnson could not only prove to be an inexpensive upgrade offensively over the Flyers’ current disappointing group of centers. But a stopgap who could play alongside the Flyers’ Star prospect Matvei Michkov, at least until their newly drafted explosive center Jett Luchanko is ready to join the team, perhaps after playing one more season in juniors.

Logan Brown

If Johnson proves unavailable, another possible option for the Flyers to gain help in the dots would be the former first-round pick of the Ottawa Senators, Logan Brown. Logan is a 6’6 227 pound 26-year-old who, through all of Juniors and most of his time spent playing in the AHL, was a well over a point per game player. However, with so many prospects down the middle, the Sens decided to trade him along with an additional draft pick to St. Louis for an NHL player who could help them now.

If put into a bad position, the Flyers might be willing to take a chance on Logan because of this. Throughout the course of his career, Logan has excelled at making others look great. His head is always up and scanning the ice to try and make the perfect pass to set up a goal. This trait would bode well for the Flyers, considering most of their depth is at the wing position, with guys like Travis Konecny, Owen Tippett, Matvei Michkov, Tyson Foerster, Joel Farabee, and Bobby Brink already slotted to be on the roster.

But the Flyer should be aware that Brown is just coming back from hip surgery that cost him to miss all of last season. And, although he is supposed to be fully recovered now, when you are that big, once you start to sustain injuries, they usually begin to come in bunches. So, the team will need to do a full medical workup on Logan before allowing him to sign his name to anything. That is if the Lightning (who he is currently in camp with on a PTO) don’t sign him first.

Tyson Barrie

As previously stated, if Drysdale sustains another injury or Ristolainen suffers another setback, the Flyers could be in for a very long season. Both are right-hand shot defenders and although the Flyers have a plethora of blueliners within their system, most seem to be on the fast track to becoming career AHL players. That is with the exception of the young Oliver Bonk, of course. But he isn’t even likely to turn pro until after this upcoming season. Soooo, what should the Flyers do if the now somewhat expected happens again, and we lose one or more of our top four defenders to injury?

In my opinion, although it might not be too favorable with the current coaching staff considering this player’s lack of defensive abilities, I would look to try and sign 33-year-old Tyson Barrie to a contract if the Flames end up letting him go from his current PTO deal.

Think about it: the Flyers are coming off back-to-back seasons where they had the league’s worst power-play unit. And Tyson is a power play specialist. In fact, Barrie is so good while on the man advantage that 210 out of his 505 career points that he has scored have come while on the powerplay. And, if you add him to our back end, he will only make things easier for the likes of Michkov, Konecny, and Tippett.

As for all you Barrie haters, listen, he is not my top pick either, but we’re talking about if the team is put in a position where they have to scramble to find an NHL-caliber defenseman. Because I’m sorry if they were that worried about finding a veteran defender that was defensively sound like they preach, they want all the time; then they should have traded for 35-year-old Ryan McDonagh, who is a two-time cup winner and holds a career plus-minus of +246. And not chosen to re-sign the 36-year-old Erik Johnson, who has a career -11. Because the rest of Philadelphia’s defense could use some better guidance, seeing that Tyson, who was a -10 last season while playing for Nashville (and has been labeled not the best defender), was still better defensively than Cam York, who was a -13, Erik Johnson who was a -14, or Travis Sanheim and Jamie Drysdale who both finished the season a -20.

In closing, I hope it doesn’t come down to the Flyers needing to sign one of these players, but the harsh reality is that it might; with guys like Couturier missing a total of 98 games over the course of the last three seasons, Drysdale only playing in 42 of his last 246 games and Risto, managing to suit up for only 31 contest last year. Like they say, history is bound to repeat itself, and the Flyers have to be ready if it does. Because God forbid, the next time may be the last time for one of these players, and the Flyers cannot afford another Ryan Ellis situation where they are stuck paying buku bucks to some injury-prone player who is never going to hit the ice again, thus leaving them high and dry.