Philadelphia Flyers Sign Defenseman Marc Staal. Plus Our Flyers Development Camp Report

it's the lockdown Flyers podcast for Tuesday July 4th your daily dose of Flyers news analysis and high quality content that is talking about at a surprise Mark Stahl signing as well as development Camp day two yeah that was interesting uh we are going to get into it all on today's show [Music] you're locked on Flyers your daily podcast on the Philadelphia Flyers part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day [Music] hey there thanks for making lockdown Flyers your first listen every day I am Rachel Donner you can find me on Twitter at R Miriam I'm here as always with Russ Cohen who is on Twitter at sportsology you can subscribe or follow us for free over on YouTube or on the SiriusXM app anywhere you listen to podcasts you'll get the latest episode as soon as it's available here on the lockdown podcast Network your team every day Russ the two of us had the opportunity to hang out together in person at Flyers development Camp day two and hence the different background for me if you're watching on YouTube and you're used to seeing something a little bit different uh I am in New Jersey very close to the Flyers training center and while we were there the news broke that the Flyers had signed Mark Stahl a defenseman to a one year 1.1 million dollar contract and um it's a really fascinating signing I think and we had talked about how the Flyers really would likely go after a veteran defenseman for depth as well as uh just have somebody around to help the new kids along so to speak Mark Stahl is a very interesting choice of all of the available options yeah no question I mean again you know he lives in Thunder Bay or thereabouts and so he wants to be close to home so either probably they want to be on the West Coast and he knows John Tortorella like those are good things uh when you look at it I know there's a lot of dissension on Twitter about the signing I look at it like this uh and and Dean we are gave us some insight so the Insight was right now like Emil Andre who knows like there's this whole Swedish rule anyhow we don't know what that means how many games he has to play to stay or is he gonna have to go back or anything right so so to me that's up in the air uh Egos and wool is out of options so they're not going to send him down so either he's going to get scratched every night or he's going to play or it's going to be a combination right we've seen that before with other players so we know that so if you put Stahl into that mix you know maybe he doesn't play every day maybe he's playing three out of five days maybe someone was playing those other days you know that's you know so I think you know as far as that goes that's a workable situation I know everybody wants maybe some of the other guys to start hitting the lineup it's too soon I think for Andre unless he makes a Monumental jump I watched him he looks good but he still needs more North American seasoning in my eyes so unless there's something big that happens I wouldn't be rushing him into the lineup yet and then we know with adderd it's a pace thing so like this is one instance where where the Flyers are willing to do it right and fans don't want him to do it right it's crazy oh it is really interesting along those lines and just finding Mark Stahl in particular obviously the Tortorella connection is a big part of it right where there's the familiarity there and it could benefit some of the other players in terms of having as it was being talked about a translator so to speak so that the blue line can really just have a conduit of communication and somebody who really understands what Tortorella is asking for with Mark Stalin I think that that's a good thing of course the geography of it makes sense to your point and when Danny Bray was talking about it in the press conference you know he was asked about the fact that you know he had said there was like probably not going to be any more signings and then lo and behold there were two after he said that um that I really feel like he felt like this one was genuinely more of a surprise than the Hathaway signing that you know Mark Stahl was on their list potentially but they never thought he would come to the Flyers but because of all those other factors and you know he is 36 right so yeah I don't think he had a lot of options out there I'll be honest and say that so I think that's a part of it too yeah and so given like probably the the lack of options out there plus the Tortorella Factor plus the opportunity to Mentor young kids I think that's a really good thing for veterans like that and so you know while he's you know his better days have certainly long since passed as a player I mean look you played in the Stanley Cup we're all aware of that yeah he wasn't like the main guy he was a top four guy but on another team he might not have been a top four guy I think we're all aware of that too yeah absolutely and I think that you know as long as they uh you know hand out the minutes appropriately you know the way you said it earlier maybe he sits every now and again maybe they rotate him in zamula in and out maybe maybe sealer is part of that rotation in terms of who's in and out of the line although it's powerful Nick sealer can't miss the game but yeah you're right well you know in an Ideal World but I do I hear in terms of of how he could benefit this team in this portion of the rebuild and it is a one-year deal it's not a lot of cap hits so even if he is sitting I don't feel that bad about it in the grand scheme of things and you can't bury it if it's a situation where he's just not looking good he's slightly injured so I'm not I don't worry about it I just you know I'm not going to tell the fans how to feel feel however you want but in the grand scheme of things yeah it doesn't bother me yeah so I think that um you know it it'll be a really uh interesting thing to see how he kind of folds into the flyers from an on Ice perspective this um this upcoming season and and what his attitude is coming into Camp um you know we kind of expect him to maybe play that Justin Braun role right yeah out there and so so in terms of the pairings and how they could end up starting to look um you know you have to think that maybe risto has a crack at the top pairing um unless Walker goes there but I just think risto would be the option that torts would go with I'm not saying it's the right move I'm saying if that's what I think Taurus would do yeah um given who's available there and then so if you have a you know a bottom pairing of Stalin sealer um I you know I I think that that'll work for the time being and where they are right yeah I mean that's the whole thing if you have playoff hopes or aspirations for this team stop having them that's all I can tell you I really it's like does anybody have no but the but the idea is like I I get where maybe some fans think that sneakily or hopefully they could do a little better like if Couture is in there and Atkinson's in there because Briere says that they'll be competitive competitive doesn't mean playoff competitive I just think he means competitive in games sure that's all I'm trying to say yeah that makes a lot of sense so yeah I think it is uh it is a real interesting move and I um look forward to seeing how this plays out um he did talk about the Hathaway contract a little bit as well since he he hadn't had a media appearance since that was signed and um this one was less of a surprise to him that um you know the signing did happen the same days again as he said there would be no additional signings um but apparently conversations were had beforehand with it and um and then came back to later and apparently the agent said something along the lines of it's not a no until I say it's a no correct yeah and so you know the fact that Hathaway was also eager to sign with the Flyers and be in a mentor style role getting you know the right kind of minutes he was also eager to give a two-year deal yes that it's two so I think you know uh it's the team is filling out as as was projected and as was expected yeah I think they're filled out now uh maybe you get like one Camp invite from somebody they know that's probably it yeah and then from now on if there's additional signings they'll be for Phantoms players um exclusively so to fill out that roster as the summer continues they certainly won't all happen um in the short term yeah don't expect a lot of reports from me talking about how a guy has a chance to make this team at a camp I don't think there's going to be a lot of that yeah we'll we'll see uh what rookie camp and training camp look like which is a different animal than a development Camp which is what we will be talking about uh day two of coming up next take your first swing at betting MLB on FanDuel and get 10 times your first bet amount in bonus bets up to 200 that's right just about 20 bucks and you'll land 200 in bonus bets win or lose that's 200 you can spend betting everything from the money line to the over under to who you think is going to hit the first home run all on the app on an app that's safe secure and super easy to use plus when you win you can get paid instantly there's no better place to bet on MLB than FanDuel America's number one Sportsbook so sign up today and visit fanduel.com lockdown to get up to 200 in bonus bets that's fanduel.com locked on FanDuel official official partner of Major League Baseball we'll have more on development Camp as the week continues but for now um looking at what they did on day two that's Monday at development camp that Russ what was your overall thoughts in terms of what we saw out there in terms of you know what drills were they doing what were they working on um and any you know standouts yeah so the first thing is um the one drill with the mini tires that they had to hop over with one skate that was about the only thing that seemed different to me everything else seemed the same the scrimmaging the small ice the you know their what they're photographing as players are shooting and other things nothing else seemed different um there was maybe one other instruction where they were skating on the opposite leg but that's that's really it so so nothing changed as far as that went um for standouts yeah I thought L.A denoye really did show off his um his offensive ability uh he did do like a nice toe drag in the three on three and and you know he goes I wasn't trying to show up it was just the uh the play that was there but that's good for me that was like he felt confident he felt confident to do that um so he looked really good I think Zayn wisdom actually his speed looked good which was something that was nice to see uh J.R Avon his shot definitely looks really good so that was not nice to see yeah I want to talk about that for a minute because you know you mentioned denoye already and Avon um I agree with you there I think um the two of them especially looked really good and for at least one or two of the drills they had a combo of denorier J.R Avon and Bobby Brink working together and it looked really fun with some really great Puck movement between them and just the combination was really Dynamic and when you just start you know imagining into the future I think you know it's a lot of fun when you see kids like that together and and be successful out there yeah no question I mean we have to see how Brink's speed does otherwise you mean I get a chance to play with the noye uh there may be different but his offense looks good but his skating still needs work so we'll see where that's at um I did get to see some pairings like they had Bonk and Andre you know basically going back and forth with some Outlet passes working the corners and they look really really good like really smooth you know bunk looked excellent he's his Puck retrieval is really good so all that checked out Sierra Nick looked you know in the other session looked good really fast with the puck uh I liked what I saw Cole canubles shot seems to have a little more bite than it did a year ago maybe that's why he got drafted this year and didn't get drafted last year uh that's good too uh Helga Grant still has to work on that shot accuracy he's another guy that can't seem to shoot from the right spot but as far as defensively look good look very confident his skating was good needs a little more two-step quickness but you know you could see where he'll be able to fill a role for sure yeah um going back to some of the guys you just talked about uh Zaid wisdom I just really felt like he had a lot of energy out there and the grouping that he was it with out there granted I think he was probably one of the stronger players in that grouping of like the line mates he was given but um he really did stand out quite a bit and I felt like his um turns were a lot tighter yes and his uh Puck possession uh body positioning was especially really good um so I'm very eager to see how that translates moving forward just because he did have a little bit of a rough year this past year um but he seems raring to go and in good spirits and so I I appreciated that a lot yeah he seems good I expect him to have some impact on the 505 game on Thursday so yeah I liked what I saw yeah and then with uh Cole knubel um I I felt like he was really nervous out there like there was a little bit of tentativeness um but I think the way he deals with that is he just attacks it and tries to push through it and you can see that and sometimes he would lose the puck in a situation in one of these drills but I think that that doesn't bother him either no he just he just kind of keeps on trucking and does the best he can and sometimes it just comes through with flashes of really cool stuff yeah I mean that's how he's gotten better before that's what he will do now like when I interviewed him and Mike about a year ago you know Mike said that he just eats up the work and I think you'll see that throughout camp with Cole yeah and then um with Jose grants we didn't get didn't get to him quite as much but I do think that as the session progressed he seemed to be getting better and better like he kind of warmed up into things and um we did hear the day before from Emil Andre about bronze and that um you know he said that Helga was a really good two-way defenseman but good offensively but on the side he's also like a really great person and is also funny so I'm looking forward to yeah offensively has yet to be proved honestly Emil's being good to you know to help you that way yeah well that's what they do yes right um I I think that yeah I think there's some real good potential there I thought um you know we were having a whole lot of jersey number conversations oh yeah too many but mostly triggered by the Tyson Forrester situation because of the mark Stahl signing so Mark Stahl is now going to take the 18 that we thought Tyson Forster was gonna happen now Tyson Forster is going to take 71 which one of the other prospects currently had at Camp I forget who it is off the top of my head but it's going to be this like whole number and we think cam York might take eight but we don't know for sure we don't know for sure but granz was wearing three which was the single digit which is you know what um you know I I think a real premium in Flyers land right if you want a single digit and the fact that they gave bronze a single digit number is something you know in Camp is something that leads me to believe that they're going to want to push to have him make the Flyers well yeah I mean because he's played NHL time so in that camp yeah he's one of the few right so yeah there's like a courtesy thing it is it is because he's got the experiences the Elder Statesman and so that's that's really even though he's not the oldest there uh that's still why yeah so I just thought that whole dynamic was was interesting in terms of the number Shuffle that um that was going on um one of the other things that I thought was a lot of fun was when they had a lot of the defense men grouped together doing drills and doing like tight drills in the corner in terms of Puck retrieval and and trying to do the you know the starting process of a breakout in the corner um samuran was part of that in the coaching Group which was really great to see that he's you know really an active part of this Player Development process um Kara Mori from Princeton who's the women's head coach there has been at Flyers development camp for a number of years and and she was back so the two of them were kind of leading this drill in the corner and like Bonk and Emil Andre were just like the two of them were doing so well at it and yeah I should have had a video with Bonk but I didn't hit the uh record but I was watching them well there is one honor there is one on our Instagram there you go check that out he did really well with it though he he did but I just feel like you know at least on the defensive side of things there was a lot of attention to that on day two and um and Nick Schultz talked about it after the session as well um he's really coming into his own in that role and focusing on the defensive side of things with Player Development and he had a lot of really good things to say about both of them about bunkin and Emil Andre yeah I mean right now nothing bad to say uh but just what I saw from Andre like I said I can't tell you he's a guaranteed NHL or at the beginning of the season that's all I know there's expectations and I'm just trying to tell people temper it a little bit let's wait and see yeah well there's so many more guys to talk about and we will do that coming up next so before we get into some of what we did see I want to talk a little bit about what we didn't see because there were two uh recent draft picks from this year that were not on the ice due to them being banged up a little bit that we're hoping to see and that's Denver Barkey uh from London as well as Carter Southern and uh Nick Schultz talked a little bit about that after the session just saying they didn't want to push it too hard but they're hoping to get both of them on the ice at some point during development Camp that's good I mean that's hey definitely be on the side of caution the fact that they're there with their teammates is good and yeah we'd like to see them yeah no question but I don't want anybody getting hurt either I've watched guys get hurt and develop mechanics it's sad yeah it's uh it's not ideal so I'm glad they're at least there and they're participating in in everything as much as they can they're trying to keep them involved in all the off ice stuff um so so that's a good part of it um as far as some other guys I think one guy that a lot of people were really wanting to see where they're at is Samo to omawa and I have to say like he did not stand out to me I don't think it was like especially bad or anything I just think that there was nothing like extra there that maybe you were looking to see to differentiate how he looked a year ago right I just don't see any Improvement yet maybe it'll happen we'll see but none of us down the line felt that way right I think so um yeah it was uh it was kind of tough to see I think you know because a lot of us were really looking for signs of some of that Improvement um anyone else that stood out to you yeah I mean you know Brendan Fury Camp invite had a really nice goal uh again we were far away from the three on three but I I pretty good eyesight so I uh I did happen to see one that he snapped off and you know the only downside to him is he's 24. so he should be able to do that uh play the Minnesota state Mankato but we'll see like uh you know I gotta say that that looked pretty good uh McPherson the one they drafted uh so which one is that Ryan uh because there's the twins they have twins there was really good at passing like his passing was really really on point so that was something where I was happy to see that and I did have to look at that twice just because Alex bumps passing uh looked to be improved yeah that's a good thing I agree and he you know he talked about going to Vermont and I asked him about um did he think he because he he was honest and said look I get it's not the biggest program uh but I asked him if he thought he'd be a top six player there and he said yes and and this is where I want to point out that for development I would rather him be top six of Vermont than third or fourth line at bu if you're top six in Vermont then you're going to get power play uh maybe even top power play and you're going to get more opportunity than you would get at one of those other colleges so you don't always have to be at that big school if you're going to be good you're going to be good but to develop you do need the ice time you need the opportunity and I feel like he'll get that yeah and you know we had talked previously on the show about the Vermont connection with John LeClaire and Patrick Sharp and he talked specifically about his conversations with Patrick Sharp um and how having that additional connection is going to help in his development and that he really felt strongly about the coaching at Vermont that that was going to be an environment that was going to allow him to take that next step including getting those top six minutes yeah and Adam you need looked really good with his decision making so his skating's good his decision making is good he's the one he's one that could sneakily make the team and it wouldn't even shock me like if there's an injury I feel like he might be able to get plugged in he's really close yeah I think he is Robert Hague right yes that I I what he does especially you know the second half of last season with the Phantoms in terms of his decision making at the point and just figuring out how to really effectively be the initiator of an offensive drive but then kind of let the everybody else do what they need to do but he gets the puck in the right spot at the right time for everybody else to be able to do what they need to do he's also getting smarter in terms of choosing where and when to take shots from The Point again to create offensive opportunities and I think you could see some of that in the drills that they were doing at this step Camp you definitely could and that to me is a is a big deal so you know let's see let's see what happens here I think one of the other people that I wanted to keep an eye on was Devin Kaplan a draft pick from last year and um I think that he's just one of those guys that's going to be a slow burn in terms of the progression and that he does look better than he did last year I think he's he's a little smarter and and I think the college time has really helped him a lot in terms of discipline he's just a guy that's going to push it around the edges in terms of his confidence and isn't necessarily going to take a huge jump at any given time right again three years in college is not going to shock me for him so that's what I'm expecting and then a year in the AHL but this is what I'm expecting and then we'll see what we have yeah it's really difficult to evaluate goaltending yeah today was almost impossible right because they were really just kind of doing some filming and and figuring some stuff out um with them of course like they they were participating in the in the drills but Carson bjarnesson is obviously like the only one we were really focusing a time which is a shame but you know we all kind of want like one really good goalie in Camp so we could talk about him write about him and at least we have that from a media perspective but I do feel bad for the other guy so if somebody's staying out I'll certainly report it yeah I think we would see that more at the scrimmage later this week than we will in drills uh that's for sure but it was good to see him out on the ice and um I think that uh he seemed to be having a lot of fun out there yeah he he was having fun um also uh there are you know some slight oh you know you talked about the injuries never mind you already talked about that yeah so I think you know other other than that I I think it was a pretty standard day at development Camp um and I think you know we could learn little things from from what goes on here but maybe not a ton yet again I think the scrimmage is where you're really going to see uh what some of these guys can do and where you can really compare like a camp invite up against a top prospect and really see what the breadth of skill and ability is yeah and again with Nomad famous cuff there it's you know you're not gonna have like a star study Camp I get it and he's never gonna go to camp like you're just never gonna he's just gonna show up and he's just gonna be on the flyers I think so I doubt you'll ever see him in a rookie camp for for this kind of situation A A Dev Camp because he's already a pro so that's I don't think you'll see that so um so you're missing a little of that but I still feel like even with that said their crew this year a little better than their crew last year I think so I think so too I think there was like a lot more upside this year at Camp than yeah you know in terms of than critiques to be made and um I think that's a good sign when you're in year one of a rebuild it is a good sign it shows that some players got better and some of the new players were needed and it just seemed to be a good mix right now yeah well we're going to continue our conversation about some of the new players on tomorrow's show we are going to be talking to Mike Stubbs who covers the London Knights uh for radio up in London Ontario so we're going to talk more about Oliver Bonk as well as Denver Barky who are both on the London nights and what they could be potentially breaking to the Flyers yeah great I look forward to it yeah it should be a good conversation so that will do it for today's show as a reminder we always want to hear from you we're going to be doing that Big mailbag Show the following day so make sure you get your questions in Via Twitter at lockdown Flyers you can email us at lockdownflyers gmail or comment over on YouTube I'm Rachel I'm on Twitter at rmerium that's our Miriam I'm Russ I'm at sportsology s-p-o-r-t-s-o-l-o-g-y have a great day everyone