Well, that’s one way to stop any hype dead in its tracks.
The Philadelphia Flyers have returned three of their top junior prospects — defensemen Ivan Provorov and Travis Sanheim, and forward Travis Konecny — to their respective junior clubs. Provorov is headed to Brandon of the WHL, Sanheim to Calgary of the WHL, and Konecny to Ottawa of the OHL.
These three cuts bring the Flyers’ training camp roster down to 55 players.
Konecny wowed in two games with the Flyers, while the two defensemen looked solid, if not as flashy. But Ron Hextall has continually preached patience with his top prospects, and for these three — one who was drafted in 2014 and two who were drafted this year — there’s no reason to be anything but patient.
They’ll play out the year in juniors … which is not the worst option, considering that none of them are eligible for the AHL. It’s either junior hockey or the NHL, and there’s a) no reason to rush a player to the NHL when the Flyers are likely to be mediocre-at-best, b) even if they’ve flashed skill in preseason, the chances that any of them are ready for the full grind of an NHL season are slim, and c) this stops the hype train, and the outside pressure from fans, dead in its tracks.
It’s expected that we could see even more cuts come out later today.
