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Prospect Watch: Carter Bear
Photo Credit: https://chl.ca/whl-silvertips
Every year, so-called draft experts put out a preseason mock draft that tries to project where potential draft-eligible players will be taken. And somehow, every year, there manages to be a few prospects whose unexpected play allows them to absolutely explode onto the scene, leaving us all stupefied to where they came from. One such 2025 NHL Draft-eligible player who has managed to do just that this season is Carter Bear. Now, if you don’t know Carter, he is an 18-year-old Canadian-born prospect who hails from the Indigenous Peguis First Nation Tribe of Manitoba.
But, like most players of Objiway and or Cree descent, Carter is used to being overlooked and having to fight for the respect he deserves. For example, Bear was not taken by his current team, the Everett Silvertips, until the 6th round of the 2021 Western Hockey League’s Bantam Draft.
And, oh, how they are glad that they did make that selection. Because so far this season, Carter has been operating at a near 1.70 point-per-game pace, compiling 14 goals and 13 assists for a total of 27 points in only 16 games played, which, if you do a little math means that he is currently on pace to finish the season with 60 goals and 55 assists for a total of 115 points!
But, while Bear does seem to be dominating his competition, given his unrelenting drive, superior edges, and exemplary finishing ability, he’s also proving to be more than just another forward who can accumulate points in bunches. Unlike most players his age, Carter plays a mature game. And what I mean by that is he understands that if he wants to succeed at the next level he better get back and play defense as well. Which, he does so flawlessly, as he currently is averaging a +16 rating on the year and is projected to finish the season a +68.
That’s why, for these reasons mentioned above, I feel Carter is one of the fastest-rising prospects in this draft class. Starting the season, viewed as a mid-round draft pick, Bear has quickly managed to hurtle himself past the masses to the point where he is beginning to pop up on a lot of teams’ radar. And, while he may still not be viewed as most teams’ first choice come draft day, I assure you whoever ends up with him, Bear will undoubtedly spend the next decade making them look very astute.
Should Flyers Management Start Looking for a Possible Replacement for Torts?
Photo Credit: https://forums.hfboards.com/
Let me start this article off by saying that at the time of his hire, I do believe the Flyers made the right decision when they chose their current Head Coach, John Tortorella. I mean, he came with a pedigree that consisted of a Stanley Cup Win and two Jack Adams Awards, not to mention the fact that his brash, no-nonsense coaching style was exactly what this team needed at the time to help them weed out some of their locker-room cancers. You know, the players that had been around this team a little too long and, therefore, had grown comfortable with the state of mediocrity they were in, especially if it meant that after the regular season, they could get an early start on their summer vacation plans.
But the team is no longer at the start of a rebuild. This franchise is now three years into this renovation. The problems are long gone, and new management has been put into place, which has made significant efforts to get their club younger and faster by bringing in quality draft picks like Matvei Michkov and Jett Luchanko, to name a few. They also continue to set themselves up for the future by accumulating a multitude of other top-tier draft pick compensations that they will hopefully utilize during the 2025 draft this upcoming summer in an effort to continue to restock their once-barren farm system.
Still, even though management was able to gift Torts the young 19-year-old superstar in the making (Matvei Michkov) who leads all Rookies this year in goals and points, the team finds themselves amongst the league’s bottom dwellers winning just three of their now ten games played. So despite them having just won for the first time in Boston since 2011, I feel they are in trouble. If you look at the standings, you will see that the Bruins are dead last in the Atlantic Division. And the Flyers are only a point ahead of the league’s worst team, the San Jose Sharks.
So, with that being said, I think Tortorella has served his purpose here, and the team should be at least starting to look for his possible replacement. Do you disagree with me?
Well, let me provide you with some facts. With 2025 right around the corner, it means that it has been close to 21 years since Torts last raised a Stanley Cup. And it’s been seven years since he last won a Jack Adams award for being viewed as the league’s best coach. Even then, mind you, after winning 50 games during the regular season with the Blue Jackets, John’s team only managed to win one post season game before being knocked out of the playoffs and sent home packing.
Now, I’ll give him credit. It is pretty impressive that he has been able to achieve the honor of being named the Head Coach of five different organizations in the NHL throughout his career, not to mention him winning over 745 regular season games during that same time. Still, it doesn’t change the fact that over his three years in Philadelphia, he has only managed to obtain an abysmal .486 win percentage, which if you look at his stats is by far the worst of any team, he has previously coached or been fired from over his 23-year career.
In saying that, I don’t know about you, but I expect a little more this far into the rebuild. I mean, last season, this team, without Michkov or any other true superstar on the roster, held down a playoff position for over 110 straight days before succumbing to multiple injuries on the back end that led to their abrupt fall from grace.
So, with virtually the same team coming back, I ask you, what’s the problem? And what is the coaching staff willing to do about it? The answer: Nothing! So far this season, when asked by the media, Tortorella just chalks the team’s inability to win games up to their youth—reiterating on multiple occasions that the team is young and going to struggle at times, which I get to a point. But if that is true, why is he not trying to implement a plan of action to prevent that problem from happening?
And why, after back-to-back seasons of finishing with the league’s worst power play percentage, did he not choose to fire his assistant, Rocky Thompson? Granted, the PP has been better this year thanks to #39, but what happens when Matvei’s English gets better, and he will then be expected to actually have to listen to this guy who made a career out of punching in the face of his opponents, let alone the fact that he never even scored a goal in the NHL or the fact that he never saw any playing time while his team was on the man advantage. Let it be known that Thompson’s systems have not changed; the team is just benefiting from Michkov’s pure talent and current language barrier.
So, I ask you, with the team’s youth movement now well underway, should we still be employing a coach who historically has always favored veteran players over inexperienced youth?
Or should we bring in a coach with some fresh ideas and lots of experience coaching young men to glory?
Suppose you agree with the latter statement. Here are a couple of names I would suggest the Flyers at least start kicking the tires on.
Todd Nelson
Nelson is currently the Head Coach of the American Hockey League Hersey Bears. A team that is coming off a season where they won over 77% of their regular season games (53 to be exact) and then went onto the playoffs where they were able to repeat their success from last season, which garnered them back-to-back Calder Cup Championships. For his efforts, Todd was also lucky enough to be asked to coach in back-to-back AHL All-Star Games, as well as being named the AHL Coach of the Year last season, where he was given the (Louis AR Pieri Memorial Award).
But I assure you Todd is not just some overnight success. Serving as a Head Coach back in the early 00’s for the UHL’s Muskegon Fury, Nelson was able to coach the team to back-to-back Championships. He won an AHL Championship serving as an Assistant Coach for the Chicago Wolfs back in 2008 and added another Calder Cup Championship in 2017 when he was serving as the Head Coach of the Grand Rapids Griffins.
Still, with all those years of success and over 400 wins accumulated coaching in the minors, Nelson is not new to teaching at the highest level. In the past, he served as an assistant for the Atlanta Thrashers, Edmonton Oilers, and the Dallas Stars.
With all this being said, I think it would be well deserved if he were ever to be afforded the opportunity to be the next head coach of the Flyers.
Rand Pecknold
Another worthy candidate for the Flyers’ top spot, if it were ever to come available, would be the NCAA’s current active leader in wins, Rand Pecknold of the Quinnipiac Bobcats. Rand has spent the past 30 years building this now colligate powerhouse from the ground up. And it should be known that he has been able to do so with a fraction of the budget that some of his fellow Eastern College Athletic Conference coaches have.
Still, with less funds and no flashy gimmicks in place to get top-tier talent to come to the little town of Hamden, Connecticut, to play for him. Pecknold has managed to accrue an incredible 642 career wins. He’s done so through developing a keen eye for prospects who are willing to play a complete 200ft game and be defensibly responsible. Players that are going to be there to learn how to be a successful member of a team and not just focus on their individual point totals.
This method has allowed his previous teams to reach multiple Frozen Four Tournaments and earned them a National Championship in 2023.
Now, while others have tried in the past to lure Rand away from the team, he has poured so much of his blood, sweat, and tears into. A chance to coach a historic franchise such as the Flyers may just prove too enticing to pass up.
Dale Hunter
The last name that I would suggest the Flyers check into the availability of would be the OHL’s Dale Hunter, who coaches for one of the Flyers’ most trusted spots to select young talent from, and that would be the London Knights. Now, Dale, who served as the captain for the Washington Capitals for a great many years, retired back in 1999 from the NHL and, almost immediately upon doing so, became part owner of the Knights, where he has been the Head Coach ever since.
During that time, Dale has managed to pile up well over 900 regular season wins in the OHL, as well as winning four league championships, with the latest actually coming last year, where he got the chance to coach both the Flyers center prospect Denver Barkey and their defensive prospect Oliver Bonk.
Hunter knows what it takes to win in the NHL, and when you compare his hard-nosed, gritty play style and his relentless will to win, Dale seems like he would be a perfect fit to slide into what hopefully one day soon will be a vacant coaching position on South Broad Street.
As I said, I respect John Tortorella as a coach. In fact, he is just the kind of coach that would have fueled me to prove him wrong back in my playing days. But let’s face it, today’s kids are not built the same way some of us Gen X’ers were, which is why Torts’ old-school coaching style never seems to allow him to retain a job for any considerable amount of time. So, with a new influx of youth being brought into the Flyers lineup already, along with the possible addition of up to six players to be taken by the Flyers in the top 64 picks this summer, why not go ahead and replace this struggling relic with someone who has been spending the last 20 years providing tutelage to today’s future pros.?
Prospect Watch: Nathan Behm
Photo Credit: Kamloops Blazers X Page
Most leagues around the world are now close to a dozen or so games into their respective seasons. With being said, one name that has surprised me thus far is Nathan Behm, who plays for the Western Hockey League’s Kamloops Blazers. Nathan, who is 2025 Draft eligible prospect, is a 6’2, 198-pound winger who can line up on either side of the face-off dot and be equally effective, so much so that he has managed to come out this season and set the officials scoresheet on fire. Netting eleven goals and seven assists for an impressive total of 18 points in only eleven games played! And, to put into perspective just how good his production has been this year, his goal-a-game average finds him only trailing the diminutive dynamo Cameron Schmidt of the Vancouver Giants, who has tallied 12 goals this year for supremacy of the WHL leaderboard. Here’s the catch, though. Schmidt was/is viewed by many as a projected first-round NHL draft pick for some time now.
So, you have to figure when you’re playing that close to greatness, it can only mean that your stock should be on the rise. That’s why if Nathan can keep this pace up, I would not be surprised if he hears his name being called somewhere in the second round of this upcoming summers draft.
Now that I have your attention, let’s break down Nathan’s game. As I already stated when I provided you with his height and weight above, Behm is a player who already possesses NHL size and strength. And it’s that combo that allows Nathan to push his opponents off the puck during scrums in the corner. Where he then, effortlessly creates distance from them with just a few short powerful strides. But that’s not all; because of his lanky frame, Nathan wields what to some would seem to be an unusually long stick, but to him, it fits just right. And with it, Behm can stretch out and receive a leading pass on a fast break that is saucered to where only he can get it, which often leaves him off to the races.
And my oh my, what a talent he is in the offensive zone. Whether he is setting up around the face dots or in tight around the goal mouth Nathan just has a knack for knowing where the puck is going to end up. So that he can put home a nice juicy rebound or set himself up to perform his (what should be patent pending) finishing move, which I call the “Turn and Burn.” Where if you’re not familiar with it, Nathan will set up with his back to the goalie; then, upon receiving the pass, Behm blindly completes a 180-degree turn only to blast it past the goaltender’s glove or blocker.
I’m telling you guys. Behm has the kind of scoring touch that NHL scouts fall in love with, and with any hope, maybe your favorite NHL team will be the one lucky enough to get to draft him.