Writer: Kevin Durso
Flyers close development camp with 3-on-3 tournament
Taylor Leier captained Team Barber to win the Flyers Development Camp 3-on-3 scrimmage tournament on Sunday. (Photo by Kevin Durso/Flyerdelphia)
The Flyers development camp came to a close with the players splitting up into four teams for a 3-on-3 scrimmage tournament.
Team Barber, consisting of captain Taylor Leier, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, David Drake, Radel Fazleev, Robert Hagg, Luke Philip and Anthony Stolarz, claimed victory in the tournament.
Here are some highlights.
- Ivan Provorov is definitely offensively-gifted, but it takes seeing him live to really get an understand for his talent. Though the ice was cut in half and teams were playing at 3-on-3, Provorov has the vision of a forward when making passes. Several times he assisted on goals for Team Ashbee with very skilled passes.
- Shayne Gostisbehere, who was captain of Team Ashbee, didn't look at all impaired by his ACL injury from a season ago. His skating was fluid and polished. He also scored a couple of goals and assisted on a few as well. Offensively, he was possibly the best player on the ice.
- Taylor Leier has a lot of good offensive qualities that make him a player to watch this season. He'll likely still start in the AHL with the Phantoms, but if the Flyers run into injury trouble, Leier has the potential to get the call. He scored several goals and the puck was like a magnet to his stick.
- Felix Sandstrom was very impressive as well. Most of the goalies were in fact. But Sandstrom stood out. In the first two, 10-minute sessions, he didn't allow a goal and made some solid saves. Five goalies were at camp, and even though one team had drafted two, it appeared only four played.
- Team Ashbee came out of the gate strong, schooling their first two opponents. But as the tournament moved into the playoff rounds, they seemed to tire and didn't win either of their final two games.
- Team Clarke, captained by Scott Laughton, came in second place, falling to Team Barber, 3-2, in the final game of the tournament.
Overall, when you watch this camp, there is a lot of talent in the system and Ron Hextall, who was watching from above the rink at the Flyers Skate Zone in Voorhees, has to like a lot of what he saw.
All in all, the day provided an entertaining end to camp after six days of drills.
The Flyers now head into the summer as they continue to construct the team for the 2015-16 season. Training camp begins in just over two months on Sept. 17.
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.