Alex Appleyard provides weekly updates of Flyers prospects in Europe here at Sons of Penn. You can find him on Twitter at @avappleyard for live updates and conversation regarding the young guns overseas and the big club here at home in Philadelphia.
So here we are. After my initial overview of the Flyers’ history with European prospects and an overview of each of the current European based prospects in the Philadelphia Flyers‘ system, here is the first ‘proper’ update on how they are all doing. Take a trip overseas with me and dive into the world that is the crop of Flyers’ Euro prospects.
David Bernhardt
The offensive Swedish blue-liner has gone from strength to strength over the last week. In that time he has appeared in four games, two of which have been at the senior level in the SHL. In those games he has made a solid impact on his teams blue-line. On Tuesday in a 5-3 loss versus Växjö, the big framed defenseman played well despite his team being unable to generate consistent offense and spending much of the game in their own zone or the neutral zone.
He finished the game having played 12:25 as the seventh defenseman. However, he did manage to pick up a primary assist when his team tied the game 3-3 early in the third period.
He made a nice breakout on the play, skating past a man before flipping the puck to a forward in the neutral zone who cut across ice and fired top corner. On the down-side, he was also on ice for two goals against. On the first one he conceded a penalty shot, hooking the opposing forward during a one-on-one and watching the subsequent penalty shot get converted. He could do little to prevent the second goal he was on ice for. He tied up his man near the net on a point shot, but his defensive partner left his all alone to create a screen and a goal.
His second senior game of the week was less eventful. His team succumbed to a deflating 4-0 loss, but Bernhardt as an individual did not have a bad game. He got off a few good shots in 14:31 of playing time on the third pairing, leading the team in shot attempts with seven and only picked up a minus when the opponents put the puck into the empty net with the goalie pulled.
Bernhardt played a further three games in three straight days this week in the Swedish J20 SuperElit, the highest level of junior play in the country. In the first contest on Friday he contributed to a 5-1 win, picking up an assist, a +2 rating and firing two shots on goal. The next day, in a 5-6 loss, he posted a further two assists and was once again +2 while also firing a mammoth seven shots on goal. On Sunday he finished his busy week playing in a 5-1 loss. He was pointless and -2, though he did put six shots on goal. Bernhardt is proving that the junior level is simply beneath his abilities, as his 1.25 PPG in that tier is the highest of any defenseman.
Next week, Bernhardt will take the trip south to Gothenburg to represent the Sweden u20 side in the four nations tournament. A good showing there after his impressive play in the last few weeks could catapult him into the conversation for the WJC team.
Season stats:
SHL: 8gp, 1g, 2a, 3p, +1
CHL: 4gp, 0g, 0a, 0p, +0
J20 SuperElit: 9gp, 4g, 8a, 12p, +4
Ivan Fedotov
Well, this will be easy; there isn’t much to update. Fedotov is stuck in a goalie jam at his club and, as such, has yet to make an appearance this year. He has dressed as a backup a few times, including once this week, but has so far not managed to see the ice this season in Russia’s AHL equivelent, the VHL. It cannot be that his coach simply has not noticed him… 6’7 and over 200lbs is hard to miss!
Season stats:
VHL: 0gp
Linus Högberg
It has been a mixed week for the young Swede. The positives are that he managed to pick up his first point in a professional game, getting an assist in the first SHL game of the week he played on Tuesday. On the play he made a nice outlet to the opposite wing to help create an odd man situation. A further positive is that Högberg is appearing in every SHL game he can. He played a further two games this week, one on Thursday and one on Saturday, and it is quite apparent his calm style of game belongs at the higher level.
The downside has been his playing time. His side Växjö are a relatively strong team, with seven solid defensemen who all deserve playing time. While they rolled six earlier in the season while always including the young Flyers blue-liner, they are now generally rolling seven and Högberg has found himself as the seventh defenseman more often than not. As such, gone are the 10+ minutes a night he was playing to start the season, and he saw less than six minutes in each of his games this week.
With the international break next week, Högberg will join Bernhardt playing for his country at the highest junior level. He is unlikely to be able to force his way onto the WJC roster, but it must be remembered that the agile defenseman is one of the youngest players from his draft year and is likely being looked at for the future. Next years WJC he will likely be on the team.
Season stats:
SHL: 13gp, og, 1a, 1p, -3
CHL: 6gp, og, oa, +3
SuperElit: 5gp, og, 4a, 4p, +0
David Kaše
As stated previously, this season is turning into as big an ‘up’ as last season was a ‘down’ for Kaše. Playing regularly on the second line, the versatile Czech forward has cemented his position as a genuine top six forward at the top level in the Czech Republic. He started hot in his new role, putting up seven points in his first eight games there. However, he has cooled off on the scoreboard recently, despite still playing well game to game.
This week, playing at right wing in one game and left wing in the other, the young winger has been held pointless,and -1 overall in two games. He is still seeing a good amount of time on ice and regular power-play minutes as well, as shown by him playing 15:07 in the game on Friday and 16:28 in the game Sunday.
Next week, Kaše will be away on national team duty for the Czech under 20 side, where he will quite possibly be captain. He is a lock for the WJC, but will likely look forward to having the opportunity to dazzle versus players his own age. He has shown he can do it versus men so far in the young season.
Season stats:
Extraliga: 15gp, 3g, 4a, 7p, +0
WSM Liga: 1gp, og, oa, op, -2
Oskar Lindblom
The seasons change, time passes, people age… and Oskar Lindblom plays great hockey. After his immense start to his third professional season it is now almost expected that Lindblom will turn up and put on a show each and every game in the Swedish Hockey League. And this week he, once again, did not disappoint.
Lindblom partook in three games over the course of the last week and he started with a bang. On Tuesday, his side Brynäs faced off against Färjestad and put on a show. They romped to a 5-1 victory and the Flyers young Swedish winger was an integral part of the positive result. He buzzed in the first period and threatened in the second, but during the third he put on an absolute show. To say he dominated play is an understatement.
His first assist of the game came on the power play as he bullied his way to a great position on the boards, poked the puck from the left half-boards to a teammate, who then fed a pass to the slot that was resoundingly put home. Only minutes later, Lindblom was on the board again. He laid a beauty of a backhand pass to the slot and the resulting rebound was deposited into the net.
The two assists were nice, but the bustling winger could have easily had a four or five-point game. He almost jammed one home in the second period and forced a nice save after dangling by a defenseman in the same stanza. He also set-up a rushing defenseman with a well weighted pass from the goal line and helped create a two-on-one with a nice neutral zone play. It was a 5-1 drubbing, but without the momentum Lindblom created, it would have been a much closer game.
Not content to rest on his laurels, Lindblom put on another great performance on Thursday versus HV71. He was not as dominant as in his first game on the week, but if a player could dominate like he did in that game on a consistent basis they would be a star in any league on earth. That being said Lindblom still visibly excelled in the game, picking up two assists once again in a 5-3 victory.
His first assist was one which would not have looked out of place in the highlight reel of a puck-moving defenseman. Lindblom, from his own zone’s left circle, feathered a beautiful saucer pass right to his rushing center at the top of the neutral zone, creating a two-on-one for his line-mates that was easily converted. It was the kind of play that probably only three or four current Flyers forwards would have been able to make. His second assist was more routine. Lindblom made a nice play from along the boards to get his line mate the puck as slight chaos ensued after a shot was subsequently put on goal, and for a moment it appeared the young Swede had poked it over the goal-line.
Lindblom’s third game of the week was the second part of a home-and-home versus HV71. It was his teams most disjointed effort of the week and the relentless young wingers quietest game of the week, but he still played well in a 4-2 loss. The highlight of his game was a power play assist. After a failed jam play, he wheeled away to the boards behind the net and weighed a nice pass to the man on the half-boards. Lindblom then rushed to the crease to create a screen, and as a result the one-timer from the point-man nestled in the top corner behind the opposition goalie.
He could have easily picked up another assist in the third period. He weighted a beautiful pass to line-mate Clark, who had 9/10’s of the net to shoot at with the goalie out of position, but Clark conspired to graze the post when it was easier to score. After the game, Lindblom was briefly at the front of the SHL point race, but two points by Slovakian international Hudáček erased that for Lindblom.
The one disappointment this week for Lindblom was not one of his own making. He was not selected to represent the Swedish senior international team in the upcoming Karjala cup, despite being the highest scoring Swede in the SHL. Even more perplexing was that when winger Andreas Thuresson pulled out of the team with injury, Lindblom was not the replacement. Instead Patrick Cehlin was picked as a replacement, and while Cehlin does have international experience he has not started his season well, producing half the amount of points as Lindblom has.
Season stats:
SHL: 14gp, 5g, 10a, 15p, +7
Felix Sandström
Splitting time with fellow Brynäs netminder David Rautio, the Flyers’ young goalie prospect only played once this week, picking up a 5-3 win versus HV71. The game itself was a microcosm of Sandström’s season so far. He played well but his individual figures did not look pretty at face value as he stopped 20/23 shots for a .870 sv%. The reason? As usual, the team in-front of him suffered multiple defensive breakdowns.
Of the three goals that were scored on the athletic goalie only one was even remotely stoppable. The first goal was a seeing eye shot from an un-marked man in the right circle that went high over his blocker, the second was a breakaway that was sniped high blocker, and the third was from a man left all alone at the edge of the crease. On the third goal, his defensemen abandoned the forward near the goal and chased a man behind the net, who then switched the puck back for a tap in.
Next week, Sandström will be away on national team duty alongside fellow Flyers prospects Bernhardt and Högberg. He must be hoping that the two youngsters play better in front of him than he has been afforded at his club-side so far this season.
Season stats:
SHL: 6gp, 4w, 2l, .882 sv%, 2.69 GAA
German Rubtsov
Opposing players in the MHL must be hoping against hope that Vityaz Podolsk find reason to recall Rubtsov to the KHL as soon as possible.
Since being sent down a few weeks ago, Rubtsov has proven that the level of play in Russia’s top junior tier is below his talent level. Despite playing on a mediocre team without a plethora of top-end talent, he has stood out and made everyone around him better. His stats may not seem markedly different than those he put up last year, but last year he was playing on the Russian under-18 national team that was stacked with talent and multiple NHL draft picks. He no longer has Maltsev making his match-ups easier, or the skilled Kayumov available to lay it off to on his wing. In short: he is doing a lot with very little.
This week, Rubtsov played in three MHL games. The combined results? Two goals and two assists. He garnered them in his usual fashion, a mixture of speed, vision and a wicked wrister. He picked up points in all three games as his team lost two and won one. It is arguable that Rubtsov would be better served playing in the KHL’s AHL equivalent, the VHL. There he would be playing regular minutes versus men, and could test himself at a higher level than the MHL, a league he already has in his back pocket. But as it stands it seems the young Russian will have to simply keep dominating in the MHL for the foreseeable future.
The young center’s next challenge is winning a spot on the Russian WJC team. He was not selected to be part of the four nations tournament roster and will instead be heading across the Atlantic with, in effect, Russia’s under 20 ‘B’ team to play in the Super Series against the best the OHL, WHL and QMJHL can offer. Rubtsov will get to test his mettle against the cream of the Canadian crop, and a good performance likely means him cementing his place on the WJC team.
Mikhail Vorobyov
Of all the young Flyers prospects plying their trade in Europe right now, Vorobyov may well be the one with the biggest grin on his face over the last week. Why? Well, he has been afforded an opportunity that is rare for such young players in the world’s second best league. With team-mates Engqvist and Hartikainen out injured, Vorobyov was promoted into a top six center role for club Salavat Yulaev Ufa this week.
That may not seem an enormous deal, but the KHL is a league where it is difficult for youngsters to make their mark and play significant minutes. His promotion is made even more impressive by the fact he is on Salavat. They are no powder-puff team and compete for the Gagarin Cup on an annual basis. To play a big role for them you have to be a damn good hockey player they can trust to play all three zones at a high level.
In his first game in his expanded role, Vorobyov showed he could handle the pressure of moving up the lineup. Despite his team losing 3-2, he picked up a nice assist as he outplayed his checker on the right halfboards and cycled well with line-mate Kaprizov before defenseman Kulyash stepped up into the play and fired one home. Vorobyov finished the game +1 as well.
On Friday, he played in his second game of the week and once again put in an impressive performance in a 4-3 victory. He played a good two-way game and was vital in securing the win. He played a big part in the game-winning goal, despite not getting an assist on the play. He won a board battle behind the net and his line-mate dished in front for a quick shot and goal. Vorobyov was unlucky not to be given an assist on the play. His final game of the week was a 6-0 drubbing of HC Sibir. He was held pointless in the blowout but was +1 and contributed with some very good defensive work to shut down the opponent.
Vorobyov will continue to play a top six role next week. But this time for Russia’s under 20 international side in the four nations tournament. The big Russian pivot will likely center the first line alongside club line-mate Kaprizov.
Check back in this time next week for the next weekly update! With the international break, most of the young Euro prospects will be away playing the cream of the crop at their age-group.