LIVE From Flyers Rookie Series! Interviews with John Snowden, Riley Armstrong, & more | PHLY Flyers
[Music] Yeah. Heat. [Music] Hey everybody, how you doing? Well, that’s good. Welcome to PHLY Flyers presented by your local Ford store and Bet 365. My name is Bill Matz. I’m your director of fun and games for the afternoon. Joining me here in the Xfinity Mobile studio is Philadelphia’s number one hockey beat writer, Charlie O’ Conor. Coming to you live from the PPL Center, the site of tonight’s Rookie Series game. Flyers Rangers. Fourth year in a row they’re doing it here. And uh I haven’t been up in the press area in a while. It’s really cool. Really happy to uh be able to do this today. It’s exciting. Charlie, you were here last night. What’s going on, my friend? I was. It’s a great location. We got the banner in the background. That’s my uh my first pro sports championship that I witnessed live right behind me. the 1998 Calder Cup Championship. It’s pretty awesome. No, this is great. It’s great to be here and it’s been a fun weekend so far. I’ve been up here since uh since Friday afternoon, covered last night’s game. Uh and now I will be covering tonight’s game. But before that, we got about an hour and a half’s worth of quality Flyers content for you. Starting with the 4-3 overtime victory last night from your Philadelphia Flyers rookies. Tremendous game. We’re going to get into that. We have uh we have John Snowden, Phantom’s new head coach joining us. We’re going to have director of player development Riley Armstrong with us. Mattie Campbell will be here to talk about last night’s game. Uh the Phantom’s owners are going to be here. It is going to be a really, really great show. Patrick Sharp, uh special adviser to hockey ops. It’s going to be really great. But we got to backtrack. We got a hit last night and we got a hit. The big takeaway presented by Xfinity. Uh Charlie, 4-3 Otime. Overtime. 4-3 overtime win. Otime. Otime. Yeah, it’s Yeah, like making the band OT. Exactly. Um Jeez, we’re off the rails. We’re two minutes in. Um yeah, last night we get the game goes to overtime. Flyers rookies win it. Seemed like a great game. I was able to catch most of it. What were your uh big takeaways presented by Exfinity? Uh big takeaways? Well, I give the Flyers rookies a lot of credit because they fell behind quick. They were down two nothing early. Carson Bejnison very clearly was showing some rust. Uh the first goal I wouldn’t say was terrible. It was stoppable, but it wasn’t terrible. Second goal, you got to you got to make that save. And they go down two nothing. Easily could have went off the ra the rails, but they settle down. They had a really good second period. They go into uh to the the third period still down 3-2. They had briefly tied it beforeh the Rangers took a 3-2 lead. Third period, it was back and forth. They find a way to tie the game. Great play by Devin Kaplan to set up Jacob Gochce for the game tying goal. And then Nikita Grabbankin, the uh baby, what a personality he has. He is going to be a fun guy to cover. He scores the game winner off a nice drop pass from Carson Dor. Um I would say as John Son, we’re going to talk to him in a few minutes, said there were a lot of standouts in this game, but there were a few guys that really jumped out at me. Number one being the guy that I wrote my postgame column about Denver Barky. As good as Alex Bump was, and he was very good in this game, I think he was impressive. Didn’t score any points, but I think he popped on most of his shifts. Denver Barky to me was the most impressive prospect in this game for the Flyers. And that’s exciting because he’s one of those guys where there is a lot of excitement around Denver Barky. But there’s also concern about whether he can translate his highscoring game from the junior game to the NHL to the pro game given the fact that he still is a very small player and players his size don’t often click at the NHL. There’s an outlier. There’s a lot of guys his size, his profile who bust and hey, we don’t know how he’s going to be. But I can tell you last night he did not look like a guy who’s going to bust. He did not look like a guy who had issues with pace. He did not look like a guy who couldn’t handle the professional size translating his game. We’ve talked about is he going to need to be one of those Scott Lton types where okay, it’s going to be a little bit of a project for him to kind of change and become a different kind of guy. Last night he looked like that uh he looked like that dynamic player we saw with London. And I I told you this and it’s just funny to me because last night it’s the first rookie game. These guys have been on the ice together for a couple of hours maybe. I have a friend calling me last night who’s telling me Barky’s Jaru. He it it’s true. He had a couple he had a few drinks in him and he was just trying to tell me that this kid’s going to be a star. And I will tell you this friend, he did call Rensky over prover. That was his and listen it was it was got a little tracker. It was a decade ago. His his last win was a decade ago, but hey, we all we all have to celebrate our victories. But I do love how I I love this every year because we get a little bit of a preview and we get that a little bit of excitement. I love being here. Just the smell of that rink. I’m sure you’ve missed it, Charlie. Oh, we’re back. We are so back. We’ve never been more back than we are here at the PPL Center. Uh guys who stood out to me last night with Nesbit, but bump into Amala. Um extremely noticeable. Not to Amala. Two full AHL seasons under his belt. You would want him to be noticeable and he very much was. Alex Bump, another guy we’ve Okay, how is it exactly going to translate? It’s a new level now. Well, at least in the rookie game. Yeah, he is everywhere. I think uh I think it was Jason Martinez last night on the call said it looks like he’s playing both wings. Like it looks like he’s on both sides. They they were just make Yes, this Jason’s right here. That’s why I pointed at him. He’s off camera. Uh but he he just seemed to be everywhere creating havoc down low. He and Tuamala on the forch check and that’s something I was really impressed with with Tuamala. We saw maybe a little bit of that feistiness we’ve said he needs to add to his game. Yeah, Matty Matty Campbell did a uh a recap breakdown of the game up on all phy.com. Check that out if you’re a diehard. If you’re not a diehard, become a diehard. But Maddie pointed out in her breakdown in her observations that with Tuamala, she’s obviously watched Tua a ton. She’s been with the Phantoms for multiple seasons. She’s seen him play a lot. So, she’s seen the speed. She’s seen the skill. She’s seen the shot. But what he showed last night that maybe hasn’t been a big part of his game, at least at the AHL level, is that little grittiness that he some battles on the boards. He was playing more physical. He was mixing it up after whistles. He was coming to teammates’s defense. And that speaks to what Brent Flair told me a few weeks ago about how Tuamala has to find a way to fit on this uh this NHL team long term. He’s going to be a flyer. He’s going to stick and be a flyer. He’s not gonna play over Mafé Mishkov or Travis Kne. He’s probably not going to be a top sixer. So, he needs to adapt his game to be more of a a third liner, maybe even a fourth liner, a guy who can play in the bottom six. And you can’t be a bottom sixer if you don’t have any sandpaper to your game. And we saw tonight that clearly TuL is taking that message to heart. At least it seems like he is. Because what you’re doing at these rookie games, it’s as much a performance for the brass and the coaches as it is trying to win a game. You are trying to impress them and you are trying to show them that you’re listening to their feedback. I did the work and you’re making the adjustments that they want you to make because all of this is about these guys trying to eventually become NHL players. Uh with with Alex Bump to Amala, impressive Alex Bump, uh his linemate last night, man, he’s fun. He is he’s he is as advertised. Um I want to see him get some time with Mishkav this year and you know we’ve said things are going to move around plenty. Even even if he doesn’t make the team out of camp I he’s going to get time in the NHL this year. I’d be shocked if he didn’t. Really feels that way. He still has we okay well he likes to carry the puck into the middle. How’s that going to go again? At least in the rookie game. Oh, it translated. He’s just another one of these guys who’s like puck too dangerous area. How can I make it happen? And I mean, that’s what they need, that that little bit more aggressiveness on offense. And I think we’ve heard Rick Tockett say they want to be a possession team. Yeah, I think he can help in that. Yeah. Yeah. He he looks pro ready to be sure, and that makes sense. He played a little bit in the AHL last year, to be sure. But he I liked his elusiveness. I like the way he was he was pulling pucks off the boards and taking it into more dangerous areas, whether it was winning a battle or whether it was just avoiding a checker. he was showing because he’s not he’s not a bad skater, but he’s not a burner. He’s not a skater on the two mile level. But if he can be an elusive skater, if he can get separation just by being smarter and working harder than the guys he’s against, that’s going to work at the NHL level. And that’s how you succeed despite the fact that you don’t have plus skating ability. Now, uh, with the center of that line, we saw Jack Nesbbit last night, and you tweeted, uh, you you mentioned like, okay, he’s kind of in a support role here, especially in the offensive zone, and while yeah, he’s not as polished as the other two, the way they were forchecking and the way that they were wreaking havoc down low, it’s not as if he really had a choice but to be but to basically be F3 and be uh just kind of be that support guy. But he definitely I thought was impressive. I didn’t think he was just a passenger on that line. I thought he made a lot of good plays. I thought there were a couple times he was doing this little side step in the offensive zone where he was more it wasn’t a a full-fledged dangle, but he was legitimately gaining separation just by making a little quick move and fooling the defenseman. I thought he was really impressive. He surprised me at at how effective he was despite the fact that you can see how much work he still needs to do on the skating side. He was finding ways to impact the forche. as you said, he was really good as the F3, as the high man in the offensive zone, just finding ways to be there when the puck got there and finding ways to keep cycles alive. Nesbbit to me was very impressive. And the exciting part is you watch him and you’re like, he’s he’s good at so many things. If he just gets the skating better, how good can he become? All right, and now we are excited to introduce our first guest today, Charlie. Uh we have a jam-packed schedule full of guests here. And here he is. We uh we have our very first one. It’s uh new Phantom’s head coach John Snowden joining us. John, uh got your got your first win in the organization. How you feeling? Yeah, pretty good. Obviously, uh was it felt good and just to get back to to hockey and and starting to put our product of what we wanted to look like and moving forward for for the organization. It was it was a good win. I I never had a doubt at any point in the game. I thought we controlled a lot of it and we had a lot of guys that showed well last night. So, how has your introduction to the organization been? There’s been some turnover uh throughout the organization, new head coach at the NHL level and now at the AHL level. How you how you getting acclimated? Oh, it’s uh it’s been very easily and and seamless. Um just the organization in general, they just they bring you in, they welcome you, they treat you like family. Um, everybody’s willing to to talk and and and pass ideas around between each other and I don’t think anybody is uh in a space where it’s like I know this is this is the only way to do it. Like everybody’s so open and and the dialogue of where we want the the direction for everything to go is has been it’s pretty seamless and and and been really easy. John, we uh we talked to you after after the game last night and you singled out a few players that that you thought were specifically standouts. The first guy you mentioned was was Denver Barky. We had a little back and forth about him, but I guess with the benefit of a of a night to kind of sleep on the game, why do you think he was able to to be as effective as he was last night? I just thought he was incredibly competitive. Um he never quit on any puck. His his his brain for the game is is so smart, so it puts him in spots where he he doesn’t have he’s always he’s always ahead of the play, right? Um I thought defensively he was disrupting plays, which then gave him opportunities to spring and get going up the ring quickly. um when he got into the Ozone, he won so many puck battles, just using his leverage and you know, everybody worries about his size, but his competitiveness and his brains of how to to to manipulate bigger players and to get under their hands and get himself out of things quickly and um you know, and then just his stick, his stick disrupts a lot and he he gets pucks from behind because he never quits on anything and then he transitions it quickly back into offense. I was Yeah, he he was he was I thought he was so good last night. I thought there was just there’s so many areas of the game I don’t have enough time to talk about with the way he played. I thought in my in my eyes last night. Now you spent a couple of years as the uh as the assistant to Ann Leair. Now you’ve stepped up into the big seat. I realize it’s only been a few days that you’ve actually had the guys on the ice for rookie camp, but what’s the uh what’s been the biggest change now that you’re now that you’re at the top? Well, everybody asked me questions and that’s the biggest thing. You have to talk to us. Yeah. No. Uh and just just the dayto-day process of, you know, how are we going to do this? How are we going to do that? the trainers, just making sure everything’s scheduled on time. And it’s a big thing for me is just making sure that we’re we’re prepared and for every single situation that comes. I mean, we have to have plan A, B, C, and D. And if all those fail, we got to make sure we have X, Y, and Z ready as well. Um, and then making sure everybody understands what what that looks like. Um, you know, we have a completely new staff here with with with my uh with my staff and just kind of working out the kinks. we’ve made some changes in the room on how how we want to present things to the players and um and then just us our workflow together. So, it’s it’s been a little bit of a change on that. Um I’ve I’ve done it before. I’ve been a head coach before. Um, so I have my methods in the way that I like things to be done and um, you know, obviously working under Ian for the past two years and seeing how he operates and he’s very organized and he he built a great culture in the room and it’s my job now which is just and improve upon what it is and keep building and and and developing the players that we need to get ready to make the next step. Uh, another guy I wanted to talk to you about, he obviously entered this camp with a lot of buzz, a lot of hype, Alex Bump. um didn’t get on the score sheet, but talking to you after the game, it seemed like you were very happy with how he played. For fans who, you know, maybe were hoping to see him, you know, pop in a couple goals and look at that and be like, “Oh, this is where we can get excited.” Why did you like his game as much as you did despite the fact that maybe he wasn’t rewarded on the score sheet? Yeah, it’s it’s hard to score and it’s hard to produce offense and um they have five guys on the ice that have something to say about it as well. Um and and he’s not a surprise coming into the game. I think everybody knows, you know, what he can bring. But what I liked about him was is that he he won a lot of puck battles on the wall. Um he got out of some um situations where he might have had two guys around him and he was able to win the battle and get himself out and extend the next play. Um you know, we all talk about his interior mindset to how he gets to the middle of the rank. He had some really good entries where he attacked the middle of the rink and he’s looking to distribute off of that. But I thought on the power play he had a lot of pretty good looks on that where he probably could have scored on one or two of those and then he, you know, he delivers a couple shots and then he he gets the D to freeze and he uses a goal line. We get a quick couple strikes off of that. Um, but overall I just thought his his pace, his competitiveness, he was around offense. I thought their line could have scored one or two goals in the game. They just couldn’t find the back of the net. And that’s just this early part of the season where they might not have the touch yet, right? And um but overall like I thought he impacted the game in a positive way. Every time he was out there and every time the puck hit a stick something was happening in my opinion. Um talking about uh you know the players as a whole. You mentioned last night that you know you felt like there were there wasn’t enough time to talk about all the all the guys you thought stood out. Are there players that you know maybe they didn’t have a bad game but that today you maybe want to see a little bit more from? I mean yeah. I don’t think I don’t I don’t think you’re going to I wouldn’t single anybody out in those situations. I think there’s some players that might have to have a little bit more of a presence when it comes to who they are and what their makeup is. Maybe stick their nose into a couple things and scrums around the net or keeping guys off of our net. Um but overall like I thought everybody was was good for the first game. I I didn’t you know was everybody excellent? I wouldn’t say everybody was excellent, but I think as a totality of a team, I thought we had, you know, 18 skaters that were really good in the game last night. And at some point in the game, they made an impactful play or they made something that, you know, we could all say like, “Okay, there it is, you know.” And um so, you know, I I I wouldn’t single anybody out. I think there’s probably a couple players that would think that they want more and there’s a couple players thought they were really good and maybe we didn’t think they were as good as they were, but you know, that’s just that part of the year that we’re in right now. So, rookie camp opens two days ago. You have a few hours on the ice now. There’s some phantoms out there, some guys you’re familiar with, but a lot of brand new faces and line combinations. How challenging is it? What are you doing to like coaching on the fly on the bench just to get everyone kind of on the same page? How challenging is that? It’s it’s tough. I think um I think messaging for us was just compete. Like the biggest thing is I I understand we all understand as a staff and and people watching that there’s going to be mistakes. It’s like there’s going to be a lot of mistakes and we’re going to make bad reads and we’re going to, you know, I mean, just take the third goal for instance, like it’s a second period, we we have a bad puck and a bad change and it ends up in our net after we pretty much controlled the entire period, you know, and that’s just that’s the part of the year that it’s in. So, um, you know, I I thought they grasp the concepts. I thought, you know, as a whole, for how much we threw at them in a in a short amount of time to just get them organized. So, if they’re organized on the ice, they can feel a little bit more free because they at least know, okay, this is where I have to be now. how I can just play from there. I thought that they did a good job, but they handled it and it shows just the the hockey IQ of the players that that we’re bringing into the organization is to be able to take a ton of information in a short amount of time and then execute it. You know, I would say 75 to 85% good in the game for myself. This is more of a of a bigger picture question, but you know, one of the the obvious push pulls of being an AHL coach is, you know, you want to win. You’re a competitive guy, but then there’s higher organizational goals in terms of development that the the parent organization wants you to achieve. How do you plan to go about finding that balance between winning on the ice, but also developing the guys that need to be developed? Well, I think you can do both at the same time. And I I think it starts with your plan and development. And and if you if you have a good plan and you have a a good focus in where we’re going to go with our development process, I think it lends to to to team success, right? Like if you develop players the right way, you’re going to win games. And and when you have talent and you develop players the right way, you’re going to win games. I think we all saw we have talent last night. Like there’s a lot of talent. There was a lot of plays that were made. And it’s our job now is to to make sure that we develop the right way, teach the structural stuff that we need to teach them, make sure everybody understands the systematical play that we need to have. When it starts the flyers, then it rolls down into us and then it rolls down into reading. So anytime someone moves up and anytime someone moves down, they there’s no in between. They can just go play and they can continue to grow as their player and that’s going to help their development. So, I think at this level, like if you take this job at this level, you have to understand you got to find a way to do both and and I I think it can be done and I believe that we have the right plan in place to do that. All right, John, thank you so much for your time and good luck this season. Thanks. Real quick before we let you go, I tried. Yes. Sorry. Um just uh lineup changes, are you able to tell us who’s coming in and who’s coming out? Yeah, I think we have a couple things that we’re just waiting from just like the medical team, but um we might have a couple like uh I’m trying to think. We mighty might not be in tonight just to give him a day. I thought he did a great job last night. We have Jack, we have Quinn that we can get into the lineup that we’d like to see play. Um so, but we’re we’re we’re wrestling with it right now, making sure we have all the things in order for that to come out here shortly. Gotcha. Okay. All right, John. Thanks. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thanks, guys. All right. That was new Phantom’s head coach John Snowden. Just a couple of hours before the Flyers rookies take the ice for night two of the rookie series here at the PPL Center. And before we go any further, we got to take our first break. We all have that friend. They want to make their place the place to be on game day. Whether you’re watching the puck drop, whether you’re watching the birds on Sunday, whatever it is, you know, they have the bar, they have the food and everything, but if they don’t have Xfinity, that big fan is kind of fanfishing you. If you call yourself a sports fan of any kind, you got to have Xfinity. It’s the ultimate sports destination. I can find the best games and my favorite teams all in one place. And the way I watch is next level. It’s the perfect fan flex. I’ve got all the action right in my living room. Plus, Xfinity’s best picture and sound with enhanced 4K is so clear it feels like I’m in the arena. We actually are in the arena today, but if you’re not, you got to be watching on Xfinity. Uh, sometimes I can even get four games going at once cuz if you have the Quad Box, you might as well use it. On top of that, I get real-time notifications and live stats right on my television. It’s the best seat in the house every single time. Next game day, make sure that big fan isn’t a big fail. Learn more at xfinity.com. Exfinity. Imagine that. Restrictions apply. Multiv- view requires Xfinity 4K capable TV box. And now it’s time to tell you about the Ford Explorer. It’s America’s all-time bestselling SUV. It’s got a legacy of family trust and performance. And now it offers three row seating for up to seven passengers. Great for families and road trips. You don’t want to go on a road trip without that third seat. And you definitely don’t want to be taking the family. you’re out on the road forever and suddenly, oh, the kids are fighting. You can separate them. Extra row. It’s outstanding. Uh, it’s packed with Ford co-pilot, a suite of advanced driver assist features, and it offers up to 87.8 uh cubic feet of cargo space with rear seats folded down. And the rear seat passengers get available captain’s chairs for extra comfort and accessibility. It’s built for families, but ready for adventure. A true doit all SUV. For more information, visit your local Ford store. Well, William, we did it. We’re back. That’s one uh one segment down, one ad breakdown. One segment down. We obviously just talked to uh to head coach John Snowden, Phantom’s head coach. He’s also running the bench for these rookie games. Uh interesting stuff from him, I would say. Not that surprising to me that they’re more or less giving Denver Barkley the pat on the back. Like, all right, kid. Hi, bud. You you played well. We don’t need to see any more from you. And we did uh we have seen him. He’s been he wasn’t on the ice at Dev camp, right? And so it’s it’s kind of been a you know, you had the long OHL season. Yeah. Well, he had he had the high ankle sprain that knocked him out for a lot of the OHL playoffs, came back. But yeah, it does seem like they’re they’re they’re just taking it easy with him. But to me, this is more, if you remember, they didn’t play Mishkov in both games last year either. He had the really good first game and then they’re like, “Yeah, that’s fine. We we we’ve seen everything we need to see.” So, uh, but but it seems like, uh, Nathan Quinn’s going to be coming in for him. He wasn’t willing to tell us about defense, so I guess they’re still maybe trying to make that decision on whether Oliver Bon will come back in the lineup. He, uh, he did not practice yesterday. Uh, they said it was a maintenance day, but we’re all hoping that we get to see Bon at least one of these. That was the when you asked for the lineup changes, was hoping to hear the name, but it sounds like it sounds as if it’s still a Yeah, we’re gonna see sort of sort of thing. Fingers crossed. I I believe Jackie Spiegel this morning uh reported that it seemed likely he was going to play. So I was hoping we’d get the confirmation on this show, but we’re still still waiting on that. Yeah. So we will uh when we find out if and when we find out, we will let you know as we are live here just a few hours. What is it? 505 puck drop tonight. 5:00. That’s right. Yeah. So uh we’ll we’ll have that information. If we get it, we will pass it along to you. But I am uh I’m excited. I’m excited to actually catch some Phantoms games this year. We were talking earlier like it feels like there’s more interesting prospects than there have been in a long time that are actually going to play in the AHL guys at different points in their development. So maybe they’ll get NHL time, some will, some won’t. But the Phantoms actually have a pretty interesting roster this year. They do and you saw it last night just in some of the guys who who shined. Like one guy, and it wasn’t all good. There were a couple bad plays he made, but one guy who I thought was impressive in the game was Ethan Samson. And he’s a guy took a hit at one point. He did. That was one of the moments that wasn’t that good. He took a big open ice hit up at the point in the first period, but thought he looked really good on the power play, just being calm, moving the puck well with with some really talented guys on that top unit. And he probably wouldn’t even have gotten that opportunity if Oliver Bonk had been able to play. I would guess he was probably slated to be the power play one defensive guy up top. Instead, Samson gets a chance. I thought he looked good. He’s spent two years in the AHL, so as you said, different points in his development. He’s going into his third year in the AHL. He’s going to be trying to prove that he deserves an NHL NHL shot in comparison to, you know, guys like Kaplan, guys like Barky who are getting their first full-time taste in the AHL. I mean, hey, maybe maybe Barky shocks everybody and earns his way to the NHL roster. But you’re right, possible. There’s guys in different places in their development, and it will be fun to track this team. Makes me really happy we got Mattie Campbell covering this team for us here in Allentown all season long and writing great articles for us at all phy.com. our AHL correspondent, Mattie Campbell. If you’re not a diehard, that’s what you’re missing out on. Stuff like that. Charlie, someone I want to bring to your attention because I want to see if you notice it because we had a conversation about Hunter McDonald the other day. Okay. And how with the wrist line and status up in the air, it’s well, it would be nice to have that element on the blue line and we, you know, have tabbed Hunter McDonald as one of those guys for a while, but h there’s one problem. He’s left-handed. Bristo is a righty. played some time on the right side last night. I did not catch that. You you dropped that in our outline. I’ll have to watch that for this game as long as he’s in the game, but I did think it was interesting. You know, we asked John Snowden about things, you know, players that maybe he was hoping for a little bit more from and he wasn’t willing to name names, which fair, but you did hear him sort of say, you know, we might need guys to be, you know, boxing people out a little bit better. I didn’t think Hunter McDonald was great. I didn’t think he was bad. I didn’t think he had a bad game, but I didn’t see that that meanness, that nastiness as much as I wanted to see from him. So, if he gets in this game, because it’s not a guarantee, they are probably going to make some swaps on defense, but if he gets in this game, I just want to see him, you know, being a little bit more assertive physically and and showing that he can he can bring that aggression, can bring that intimidation a little bit more than I saw last night. Yeah. And now we uh we are we are introducing our next guest as he makes his way over to us. The director of player development here in the Flyers organization. It is Riley Armstrong. Great to see you, Riley. How are you today? Good. How are you guys doing? Yeah, thanks. Thanks so much for uh for joining us today. Really appreciate you taking the time. Uh my first question, it’s something I’ve wondered for for as long as I’ve been doing this. What’s a director of player development? What exactly is your role in this organization? Um, I think I wear a lot of hats. Um, you know, it uh it it it goes with as soon as a player is drafted, um, they kind of come under my wing. And it’s not just my wing, it’s the whole staff of Johnlair, Patrick Sharp, Sam Moran, Chris Stewart, um Wayne Simmons is helping out. Mark Reky’s now in the fold a little bit too. Um, you know, and we all we all play a part in trying to get these guys ready. And it’s not necessarily just the on ice play. It’s how they grow up uh being away from the rank and when they come to Lehi or they make the flyers and they’re getting their first apartment or they’re buying furniture. Um setting up their cable and they’re, you know, paying bills and setting up bank accounts and all that. We try and assist in all that type of stuff just so the the the noise away from the rink is is low so when they get to the rink they’re able just to play hockey. and um yeah, it’s just, you know, being around being being just around the guys and and making sure they’re taken care of. Uh moving to the uh the games this weekend, obviously the game last night, they win four to three in overtime. I’m curious from your perspective, how important are these rookie games to to you and to the organization in terms of determining NHL readiness? Are they not that important? Are they important? where do they fall on the spectrum in terms of, you know, setting these guys up to have a shot to make the team out of camp? Yeah. Um, you know, I I think we hold a lot of value in these games. Um, I think being able to come here and have the players also see kind of where their path might lead, uh, playing right here at the PPL Center. So, um I I I do feel though you get to see kind of how guys uh I I guess their leadership qualities in in that sense because they’re all coming in and they’re all kind of new and kind of see who kind of takes control of a room. Um how they interact just around the guys and and and things like that. So, um I I definitely look at it, you know, we have so many prospects. Uh we have half the guys that are uh college hockey players are not even here. So, you know, uh the the cupboard is definitely full. Um Danny was making a comment the other day about it and I said, uh you know, we have we have so many prospects. I don’t think I’ll be able to be sleeping at my house this year. I’ll be on the road so much. So, it’s it’s it’s definitely good and um busy, that’s for sure. Who are you seeing, you know, maybe stepping up at this camp into a leadership role? I did see, you know, in the the first day like Hunter McDonald was leading leading the the rushes around the ring, things like that. He’s obviously an older guy, but you know, is he one of them? Are there other guys that you’re seeing, you know, step up into that leadership role? Yeah. Um, you know, Hunter, Ethan Samson, they’ve played here before. Coach has been here before a couple of years now. So, but it’s really cool to walk into the room and having a lot of our guys be able to come up and play games at the end of the year last year. Um, and then also just being at development camp and other camps, they come in and they’re already a team. Like, they’re already kind of poking fun at each other. they beat this team last year and Alex Bumps making fun of Devin Kaplan and you know it it it all kind of stems from all that type of stuff. So um you know you it’s it’s so cool to to see how they all kind of uh mold their own way. So the uh the challenges of this role you say you wear a ton of hats. We this is a team with as you just laid out so many prospects flyers in the midst of a rebuild looking to turn the corner. What are the challenges like with the team in a rebuild that you have in your role? Yeah. Um, you know, I think it’s it’s the patience part and a lot of people, fans included, uh, they don’t have patience and they start to wear thin. Trust me, I have no patience when it comes to my kids. You know, my it’s like this. But when I go out here with the guys and they’re slowly coming along and um you you never want to rush a player and I think we’re in that spot right now where we don’t have to rush anybody into a spot on the third or fourth line and and put them you know out of a hole where they’re not getting those minutes or those puck touches and it allows them to play here and um you know those guys are slowly going to come up and I I think that’s the biggest part and I I know whenever Danny’s talking or Jonesy’s talking they’re always preaching that word. So, it’s uh definitely the biggest one. Yeah, I was going to say, is it is it easier for you in your role when you’re under a guy like Danny and Jonesy for that matter? Although Jonesy’s a little bit a little bit different personalitywise than Danny, but it seems like Danny does legitimately have that patient mentality, different than maybe the way he played on the ice, but as a as an executive, he really does have that patient mentality. Does that really filter down throughout the entire organization? Yes. Um, you know, and he he speaks about it a lot. I, you know, con we’re always in talks and always trying to pick his brain and um I think it’s good for me. I learned so much from him um with kind of how he’s handled uh stepping into this role and and doing a whole rebuild as he stepped into it too, which I think is a pretty big task in itself. So, um you know, I think it uh the the biggest thing from it is is having everybody on the staff being a part of it. Um I felt kind of before there might have been some uh areas of weakness in that and um I think we’ve we’ve kind of turned the corner in our staff too. Um everybody’s on the same page. We’re all working towards the same goal. Um there’s a plan for each player in in in place whether they’re you know in junior college. And I I I definitely think that goes from the top to the bottom. Um and Danny and Jones have done a good job building that. Um, talking about about last night’s game, and this does tie into the patience uh debate or or conversation. Um, the big guy who got a lot of hype understandably out of this game was Denver Barky. We we just talked to John Snowden and he said good chance he’s not going to play in tonight’s game just because kind of like what else does he have to show after how well he played last night? But, you know, he’s a guy where, you know, maybe going into camp most people were like, yeah, he’s going to get time in the HL. Then he plays a game like that and people start thinking is there a chance he could make the team? Is that where the patience has to come in where you have to just take a step back and say what’s right for him long term versus, you know, oh, he just had this great game, maybe we throw him in there for game one. Yeah, I think it it starts here and it’ll trickle into main camp and then you put him in NHL preseason games and then you see how he starts to do against um higher skill, more NHL ready players compared to what you’re seeing out here and you kind of see where his path leads. um right right now if he made it that would be uh he would be ahead of schedule I would say um of of what I’m have planned for him. Um and I I I really do think taking the proper steps um in a player’s development and not jumping ahead and then you know you go up. I I always tell the players cuz they’re in a rush to get there too and you always want a player to go up and then stay. You don’t want a player to go up and then come back and then go up and then come back and then it starts to kind of toy with them up upstairs a little bit. And it’s so important that the players ready when he gets up there. He’s now ready for those games. And um you know that’s us talking to the players as well and having them see the big picture, not just the the closed lens. Big picture-wise like a coach he is judged win and loss record. you see success, failure, players, stat line, he scored, good job for you in your role. What is success like? How do you evaluate yourself? Um, I think having, you know, I I I want every single one of our guys to play in the NHL. Can every single one of these guys play for the Philadelphia Flyers? Probably not. I like we have so many prospects and but my job is to give all these guys an opportunity to play. Um, and it might not be for the Flyers, but for me and when I look at it and I can go out and say, you know, from our staff and say, “Hey, we helped, you know, these these 25 guys get there and some are in other teams and and we always have that relationship with those players, you know, and one day maybe they call and they say, “Hey, thanks. I appreciate that.” You know, a little push here or there. Uh, but that’s kind of where I see it is is making sure each one of these guys are ready. kind of the flip side of that because obviously in your role, you know, you want to be supportive, you want to be, you know, helping these guys, but and maybe you haven’t come across this too much so far, but how do you approach it when a guy isn’t, you know, doing the right things that they aren’t on the path that’s going to get them to where they want to go and maybe they think they are, but you can see from above that they’re not. How do you deal with that? Yeah, we do a lot of video calls with guys. um we always reach out and um whether that’s breaking down some uh film on on them to say, “Hey, this is the player that I think you can be in the NHL.” And then it’s having them buy it, too. You got to be a little bit of a salesman. Um I think I’m pretty good at that. So, I get some guys to jump on board pretty quick. Um but I think the other side of it, too, is also cuz we we don’t coach them uh when they’re away on different teams and it’s always being in contact with their coaches as well. So when they go in for a meeting with their coach, you know, I’m not telling them to do something that and then the coach is telling them they have that mixed message there. So it’s always being in contact so that when I talk to them, coach talks to them, you know, it registers hopefully upstairs that, oh, they’re saying the same thing. Um, and then it gets them on board a little bit quicker. One more question I had regarding uh yesterday’s game. Um, obviously, you know, we’re up here, we’re paying attention to the, you know, the Alex Bumps, the Denver Barksies, the the the bigname guys, but you know, you know, all of these guys. who, you know, maybe on the lesser known side that fans maybe weren’t paying super close attention to last night, but you were. Did you really like what you saw from him last night? Yeah. Um, I like Matthew Guard. Um, I know he played in a limited role there on the fourth line, but I think his size, his presence on the ice, he made tons of plays all in all three zones. um very smart with the puck and even when you’re not getting the reps or the minutes of, you know, being on the power play and getting touches here and there like those other guys were that you mentioned, he was still able to just keep playing his game. Um and I I I definitely think when you look at the guys we’ve drafted and I I feel we’re pretty weak through the middle, um when you add all the all these guys and plus being 6’5, you know, they’re all looking down on me like this and I’m like this. Um, but I think it’s pretty cool uh for for Gar to come in and I’m uh excited to watch him play tonight. All right, Riley, thank you so much for uh for taking the time for us today. I know it’s a pretty busy weekend, but we really appreciate it. No problem at all. Thanks, guys. Yeah, thanks so much, Riley. That is director of player development, Riley Armstrong, joining us here at the PPL Center as we uh await puck drop on the second of the two rookie series games between the Flyers and Rangers prospects. And this is uh he’s good. Yeah, he’s good. No, he No, Riley is a uh he’s got a really good personality. Honestly, the you know, I wonder if this is a little bit of the Jonesy effect. It seems like they’re bringing in a lot of guys in management who are good talkers. Yeah, we’re uh we we we’re we’re actually getting content from our interviews, which is really great. Some some interesting things though in that one. Um and then we’ll go to an outbreak. Um but we can talk about this after the adbreak. um did think that uh it was interesting that he didn’t completely shut the door on on Barky taking a run at this. He was like, “Look, he’s got it.” That would be wildly ahead of the schedule of schedule. But hey, if if he does what he did last night in preseason games against NHL players, we’re not necessarily going to say it can’t happen. And that’s the like at this game, you have to always remember it is the rookie game. They are out there against it is it’s not as if this is oh yeah, five-year NHL vets that they’re they’re up against. And I guess we do have to temper expectations. I got to I guess I got to call my buddy Rigs and be like, I don’t I don’t know if he’s true, man. Not sure he’s true yet. But may We were just saying before we went live, though. Aren’t we due? Yeah. Aren’t we due for something good to happen? You would you would think the Flyers are due for some good luck. Yeah. All right. Uh and with that, let’s throw it to our next commercial. All right. If you have been watching this show for any length of time, you have heard me explain time and time again. I I am terrible at uh at handling money. It’s it’s just really maybe I need a director of player development. That’s It seems as if Riley was is kind of setting up these guys to be adults. Perhaps that’s what I need. But I have the next best thing. I have Monarch Money. Monarch Money is not just a budgeting app. It puts you in total control of your finances. Monarch. Monarch does the heavy lifting for you. Links all your accounts and minutes. 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If you’re not a member yet, what are you waiting for? Step up your financial game. Swing by one of their 24 branches or visit trueark.com/phy to open an account. Trumark Financial Credit Union is fedally insured by the NCUA. All right. All right. Well, um, just talked a little bit about Denver Barky. We did. thought it was interesting that you know again and part of this too and and Riley Armstrong spoke to this is you know you don’t want to close the door on any of these guys. You don’t he’s managing people. He’s managing people and look Barky probably knows on some level that it’s unlikely he’s going to make the Flyers out of camp. But he also doesn’t want to hear the director of player development saying it’s impossible. He wants to know that hey, if he goes out there and he’s playing in four four preseason games and he scores three goals that he’s got a shot that it’s not a well, no matter what you do, you’re not going to make it. It’s hey, it’s the rookie game. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. You were real good. Great job. But also, you got a lot more to prove. But if he goes out there and proves it, Riley Armstrong’s kind of like, hey, you never know. And listen, that’s that’s the beauty of this time of year. It’s it’s, you know, it’s like training camp. Hope springs eternal springs eternal. Hope falls eternal. Hope autumn’s eternal. Hope fall let’s go fall’s eternal. I feel like another interesting thing that I thought uh that I caught uh Riley saying um and it was it was it was a little aside, but it was interesting when he was mentioning about you know he thinks that now the organization everybody’s on the same page. Um you know obviously didn’t name any names but it’s worth noting that you know they have a new head coach at the NHL level. They also have a new coach at the AHL level. But look, the the the issues with John Tortoella at the end are well documented that it’s clear that Tordella and Danny and Jonesy were not on the same page necessarily. I suspect that things like player development may have played a role in that. I mentioned, you know, he’s not on the team anymore, but I mentioned about Jacob Peltier. I wrote an article about that March in March, a few weeks before Tortoella was let go about, hey, you trade for this guy, you got to at least see what you have in him. And Tors wasn’t playing him. when he was playing he was giving him six, seven minutes a night. You do suspect that, you know, with Rick Tockett as the head coach at the NHL level and with John Snowden, who we just talked to, head coach at the AHL level, these are guys that this regime brought in. These are their guys. seems more likely that from a developmental standpoint, the messaging is going to be more uniform and everyone’s going to be more on the same page than they were before when you had holdovers from the previous regime regime running the two teams that you’re trying to develop guys on. It just makes sense that the guy who hired you gave you your marching orders. There’s not a change of direction. There’s not multiple things in your head. It just makes sense. All right. You know what else makes sense? bringing in yes our AHL correspondent to talk about these rookie games here at the PPL Center. Now joining us it is Maddie Campbell of PHLY and Broad Street Hockey. What’s going on today, Maddie? Not much. Just booked it up here. So I’m still like becoming a person in this space. Glad to be here. I’m glad you found your way up because Charlie had to come get me. I was lost. I did. I I I told Bill I’m at the media. They’re here a lot and Bill’s just like me entrance. I’m just walking down seventh. That’s all I’m doing. I happened to run into where I was supposed to be which was which was uh pretty lucky. But Maddie, you were uh you covered the game last night. You’re here again today. We’ve spent a lot of time talking about Barky. I thought to Amalo and Bump stood out. What were your uh takeaways from last night’s game? I think uh to Amalo was the big surprise for me. um this feels like to me at least like it’s kind of a makeorb breakak year for him just in terms of finding his role in this organization um in a pretty crowded forward group uh in the prospect pool and I thought I mean we sort of joked about it but not really joked that this is the most physically engaged I’ve seen him maybe ever um obviously we still saw the offense coming together nicely for him using his speed and everything kind of the pieces that you would expect from his game, but throwing the body around is not something we’ve seen from him over the last couple seasons and it was nice. Yeah, it’s not his natural game. Yeah, maybe. But, you know, as we talked, me and Bill talked about this before you came on the show that, you know, Brent Flair when I interviewed him a couple weeks ago made it clear to me that look, if Tam if Sam Tamala makes it on the Philadelphia Flyers, he’s not playing above Maui Mishkov. He’s not playing above Travis Knekney. he’s going to be a long-term Philadelphia Flyer. He’s probably going to be lower in the lineup. And if he’s going to play lower in the lineup, he’s going to have to have some sandpaper. And what we saw last night, like that shows me that this is a guy who wants to make it work here because that’s the kind of game he’s going to have to play if he wants to get that promotion at the NHL level. Absolutely. And we’re still going to need to see some more from him. you know, throwing the body around is not the only thing you need to do uh to get comfortable in more of like a checking type role, but you know, it’s a good first step. So, I’m pretty optimistic about where he’s at heading into the season. So, uh early last night, cuz I have been singing the praises since last year’s rookie game of Carson Bjornson, and early last night, it was like, oo, yeah, it seemed like he rounded into shape as as the game went along. Little rusty. I mean, it’s been on the ice with these guys. Short period of time. It really stands out when a goalie’s got rust cuz puck comes his way. It’s one nothing like, oh yeah, a guy missed an assignment. No one notices. When the puck goes in, oh, goalie’s fault. What did you think of uh Bjorn last night? I agree. He definitely seemed to settle in nicely as the game went on, but it was a little rough there to begin with. But, you know, it’s been a really long time since he’s played in a game. Um, he hasn’t been in since the WHL playoffs. He didn’t get in for well he dressed but didn’t play for the Phantom. So that’s a long layoff and you know you can practice you can do your summer skates but you know it’s hard to replicate the game intensity uh particularly for goalies. So it looks a little scary but you know when you wind it back a little bit you’re like okay you know he’s going to need a little bit of time to knock off that rust probably more than some of these other guys. So happy with where he was at by the end of the game. So, I’ll I’ll take that. Yeah. And it sounds like based on what he said after the game, he’s going to get the first half of this one. I wonder if that was possibly a reaction to his slow start where it’s like, “Okay, you shook the rust off. We’re going to give you a little bit more time.” Also, one thing that just popped out of my head, and I honestly forgotten about this because we talked about how BJ was really good at last year’s rookie games, and he was one of the most impressive guys. One thing that I guess he had going for him last year is that he played in the junior summer showcase. So maybe he wasn’t as rusty in the rookie games because he was really impressive at the World Junior Summer Showcase last year. Didn’t have the benefit of that this year. Yeah, a little bit more momentum, more momentum last year for sure. Um, anybody else uh that you would say stood out to you significantly in the game? I guess aside from the obvious ones, I think we can all agree that you know guys like Barky and Bump were were good, but anybody else popped to you? Um, I really liked Grabben’s game. Um it seemed like he’s a guy you kind of expect is going to look good in these types of games as a slightly older, more physically developed player, but you know, I liked the pace he was playing with. I liked how he was getting himself to the front of the net and just sort of parking himself there. Like he wasn’t pushed off too easily by the defender. So he got a couple really nice looks right in front of the net. I made a note of. So, um I know he’s a guy who seems like kind of has an outside chance on a lineup spot in, you know, coming out of camp, but um I think he’s in in a good spot. I I would agree. I think he he put himself in a good spot. Um obviously has the dramatic game-winning goal. Yeah. Um he was great in interviews uh back in in Vorhees and on Friday morning. The Flyers have been posting clips of that on on their social media. He just seems like a genuinely delightful person. So delightful. just really really funny and really outgoing and gregarious. Um, kind of moving towards, you know, more of a a negative side though, not for Gerbankin. Gerbankin was great. Were there any players because I I I tossed this question to Jean Snowden and he he dodged it as as one would expect. Lappy usually would give you an answer. You would say, “Yeah, this guy and this guy underwhelming.” But were there anybody any players in last night’s game that you know maybe weren’t terrible but that maybe you wanted to see more of and you’re maybe hoping play better today? Um I think Kaplan had one really good shift setting up the goal. But I think other than that he got a little lost for me. So I think I’d like to see a little bit more from him. I uh I was pretty impressed with Jack Nesbbit. Now I thought they put him in a really good position. Alex Bump, NCAA player. We expect him to maybe make this team out of camp. And Samu Tuamala, veteran of the AHL, but I thought he did a really good job in his role last night. What did you think of Jack Nazbet? Pleasantly surprised for sure. That feels a little bit mean, but well, listen, he’s we just were told, you know, he’s going to be a long-term project. He really needs to work on the skating. We’re not expecting him to be a pro anytime soon. Certainly not on the fast track to the NHL. Yeah. And it’s Oh, okay. So, this is this might be a little janky, and it wasn’t. Yeah, I The skating definitely still needs some work, but um I agree. Better than I might have expected to see in a in an actual game situation. He looked pretty good in the scrimmages though at camp. He did. He did. He played well very much at the end of the camp. Beginning of camp when it was the drills, it was more obvious the skating cuz like that’s what you see. But then when game situations came into play, he scored the I think he scored the game winner in the uh I guess was the five on five scrimmage. It was in overtime. He looked pretty good at development camp, I would say. And yeah, I I I liked what I saw from NEST last night, and I’m hoping we get to see him again tonight. Seems like we will. Yeah, I I liked that line as a whole, so I would like to see a little bit more of it. I noticed uh Hunter McDonald getting a little bit of time on the right side last night. Now, you cover the Phantoms much more closely. Maybe that’s something they’ve been crossraining him to do, but uh did you notice that and what did you think? Um they haven’t really had to use him on that side with the Phantoms just like with the personnel that they have at their disposal. Um I thought he had a a pretty solid game though. I didn’t notice him a whole lot, but he had a couple of nice sort of activations in the offensive zone that I remember making a note of. um which is kind of the the sneaky side of his game that I think we don’t talk so much about, but I think he’s got a little bit of little bit more offense than we maybe give him credit for. Um so it was nice to see that sort of coming out. Yeah, I’m I’m interested to see, you know, and obviously we’re still waiting on final uh final confirmation from this, but it does seem like based on what Jackie Spiegel tweeted out a few hours ago that Oliver Bon might be back in the lineup. It seemed like the plan was to put McDonald with Bonk and that would seem to make a lot of sense. You know, you let Bonk do more of the uh the puck moving and more of the aggressiveness and let McDonald focus on clearing the crease. Then obviously Bon can’t play and suddenly McDonald’s has to sort of carry a pair, you know, with I think he was playing with Blick for a lot of the game. You know, we’re talking about a guy who is a late round pick just drafted. So, I’m I’m hoping we get to see McDonald with Bonk. Number one, because I want to see Bon. Yeah. But also because I want to see what McDonald can do with a more developed player beside him. Absolutely. Um, I wanted to ask about the newest member of the organization, Tucker Robertson. I don’t know if I had really any idea of what kind of player he was going to be. You look at his stats and through the AHL, you go, “All right, this was kind of just Avon for him. We’re going to swap guys. Maybe change scenery.” But I thought he was he showed me a little more than I was expecting based on just like having looked at his elite prospects page. Yeah. Um he had one play early on I think that kind of made me laugh where he it seemed like he got the puck and was skating it in and it looked like he was waiting for somebody else to catch up. Like he was going past the whole way like oh my god don’t make me shoot this. Like you could see the panic forming and I was like that was a little dodgy but I I liked the rest of his game. He had that really nice setup on I’m thinking on whose goal in the goal. The barky goal. The barky goal. Yes. So definitely kind of evened out, but yeah, I he’s still a guy that I’m kind of figuring out. Also, I don’t really know where he’s going to fit in on this Phantom’s team, but cautiously optimistic. Yeah, we we talked we we talked about that though when we had our show. when we were trying to figure out the lineup and I think we were having trouble finding figuring out where Avon would fit and now Avon’s gone. I think in large part because they didn’t know where he’d fit, but they bring in another guy who also they’re going to have to find a place for him to fit. So, you’re solving a problem maybe for J.R. Avon, but now Robertson has the same problem of how is he going to get games. So, we uh we were talking with Snowden earlier and just about the challenges of like, yeah, there’s there’s some phantoms out there, but you got a whole bunch of dudes who’ve never really played together. Like, did you notice some disconnection last night? Like, you mentioned the Okay, I I’m looking for a pass and there’s nobody with me. Like, how how prevalent do you think that was last night? um more early than later in the game. And I more felt like that was just everybody hasn’t played a real game in a while. So, they’ve got to kind of get their timing back. Um but yeah, I think the the mix in development level and all that is going to come into play as well for sure. But, um I would be more willing to write that off as just rust. Maddie, in the uh the article you wrote for us uh this morning for all phy.com, you went into a little uh detail about um maybe not quite systems, but more just philosophy of of Jon Snowden and the way he wants the team to play. Um I think our listeners probably would find that really interesting. Like what did you see about what you think and this probably goes into what you heard from Snowden at the uh the press conference as well about the way he’s going to want the Phantoms to play and what maybe what hints of that maybe we saw last night. Yeah, I think he really kind of mapped it out in that introductory press conference, but you know, he wants his guys collecting the puck quickly, making a quick breakout pass or skating it out um themselves and they want to, you know, play with pace through the neutral zone, get up ice with control. I think he made a a pretty strong point about that post game is he wants controlled entries. Now, you know, you’re gonna have to forche. You’re gonna have to chip it in sometimes. And I think they did a pretty good job of winning those battles, winning the races to those pucks, getting the retreat when they needed to. But I think they looked their best when they were skating it in and getting their rush game going. Um, so it seems like that’s going to be a point of emphasis for this Phantom’s team based on what he said, like we said. But um yeah, it seems like they’ve got some personnel who can work well with that. So nice little preview for what we’ll be seeing with the Phantoms, I think. Yeah, this is not a uh and I guess we’ll see how the Phantoms roster ultimately shakes out with who makes the team, the big club, who doesn’t, but this does not seem like a Phantom’s roster that’s going to be lacking for skill. Absolutely. Um I was looking at the roster recently and I think this is the most skilled roster that I’ve covered in however many years. Many years. How long have you been covering the Phantom? It’s been quite a while now. Yeah, five or six seasons, I want to say. So, yeah, this is this is going to be an exciting year for sure. So, we talked about we expecting Samutu to stand out. We’re expecting Bump to stand out. They did. Who do you think like improved their stock? Like, you thought one thing of them last night and suddenly it’s, oh, there might be a little bit more there. Um, I think it was honestly Barky had kind of a not that I wasn’t expecting him to do well, but you know, it’s a whole new level for him pretty much. Um, and he he didn’t play in the rookie games last year. Not last year. He had the mono last year. He did play in the rookie games two years ago and he was good. Yeah, I I think it was more of like I didn’t really know what to expect from him in this setting and really pleasantly surprised me. Um, definitely a high compete game. Um, so, you know, it’s he’s in a an interesting spot where, you know, like I don’t know that he’s going to be forcing anybody’s hand in the uh the main camp roster battles, but, you know, getting himself into a good spot heading into his first pro season, which was always going to be a pretty steep jump for him. He has excelled at every level every time we’ve seen him. No ma maybe it just keeps happening. Uh what do you make of this blue line as a whole that we saw last night? There’s a lot of different levels of uh as you mentioned, you know, guys different places in their development. Hunter McDonald is got a full season and had a cup of coffee the year before, but and Oliver Bon, we haven’t seen him yet. But overall, what do you make of uh of the blue line, this group of prospects? I think it was okay. Um even like Ethan Samson, I made a couple of like type plays. Um, I think they’re probably the group that’s a little bit being, you know, having to fight off that like we’re such a mishmash here. Um, more than the forward group. Um, yeah, it it sort of is what it is for me. It kind of it kind of feels like the forwards at least we have pieces that fit. Yeah. And we’re figuring out like I am looking forward to maybe more a little bit more cohesion now that some of these guys have played together. They have a game. They know where each other might be. Perhaps we’ll see a little bit of that tonight. I think we’re going to see a tighter game than we did. Yeah, that would make sense. And also, I mean, we and we’ve talked about this this summer. The Flyers, the strength of the Flyers prospect pool now is the forwards. You know, they they have a few defensive prospects they’re very high on. Obviously, they’re very high on Oliver Bon. And maybe that made the Blue Line Core look weaker that the one guy who we were all excited about didn’t play. But beyond him, you know, you’ve got guys like Spencer Gil. Carter Miko’s in college, so he’s not here. So, it’s not the deepest on defense anymore. They have a lot of youngish guys at the NHL level. You know, Emil Andre graduated. Cam York is is still on the young side. Um, so they they it’s not like they’re old at the position organizationally, but it does seem like if there’s a weak point in the prospect pool, it’s probably the defense. Would you agree? Yeah, definitely. I just want to say Luke Flu Luke Vuzwick a lot. Great name. It’s it’s that’s really good stuff. Fantastic hockey name. So, what are you focusing on tonight, Matty? Like, if you’re obviously the game will unfold, you’ll come up with an article. Right now, it’s like in your head I am writing about X. Oo. Um, I want to see a bigger game from Alex Bump. I think like it seemed like he was getting some looks, but not the bounces just yet. I’d like to see some of them start going for him. Um, yeah, he he needs to needs to get it going, but like it would be nice to see him, you know, take another step in this game, really springboard into main camp with that momentum. All right, Maddie, we uh really appreciate you making some time for us today. It’s Thanks for having me. Yeah, we I know we had to move your schedule around a little bit. Thanks so much for being We appreciate you uh you being versatile for us. For sure. See you guys around. Maddie Campbell, our AHL correspondent here at PHLY. And of course, what Maddie, what’s your role at Broad Street? You’re the managing editor, right? Managing editor. Editor. I wanted to say managing director, and I knew that wasn’t right. You know what? I the managing editor of Broad I only worked there for like 5 years, you know. That is Maddie Campbell. Read all of her stuff at broadstrehockey.com and of course at allphy.com. If you’re not a diehard, I don’t know what the hell you’re doing. Charlie and I were talking before the show. Nobody covers this stuff the way PHLY does. We have Charlie here, Philly’s number one beat writer. We have our AHL correspondent here. We’re doing a show live. We are bringing you the head coach, the director of player development. We’re going to have uh Rob Brooks, the Phantom’s owner, joining us in just a few moments. Uh we are hoping to get Patrick Sharp on the show. Like come on, be a die hard. It’s that easy. And while you’re at it, if you’re not, okay, you’re not looking to spend the money. I understand not everyone’s a payw wall person. Hit the like button. Hit the freaking like button. It’s completely free. It costs you nothing. It takes less than a second. I can’t imagine an easier way to support us than simply hitting the like button. It’s just do it. It makes us all feel good. You’ll support us. And uh maybe think about donating to the uh Big Brothers Big Sisters while you’re at it. Do it right in that chat box. All right. And now we will be joined by the Phantoms owner Rob Brooks joining us. Yes. Uh thank you so much for joining us today. This is uh this is really cool as we are awaiting awaiting puck drop for night two of the rookie series. Fourth year in a row here at the PPL Center. How are you today? Oh, doing great. Thanks guys. Thanks for coming out. Yeah, absolutely. No, it’s uh it’s awesome to be here. Thanks for letting us do a uh do a live show prior to the uh the rookie games. Um and thanks for everything you do for uh you know for the Phantoms and for the Flyers organization. Um, just to just to kick it off, you know, as Bill said, this has been a thing for quite a few years. How big of a of an event is this for you guys? I guess how proud are you guys that you’re able to do this year after year? It’s great. And, uh, you know, the way it all came about, too, is is really neat. You know, the the American Hockey League, we have our governor meetings in the summer in Hilton Head. So we all kind of go there for a week and and we’re encouraged to bring our families and which is great because we get to to meet each other and get to know each other more in the personal and the business level. And then but it also gives us time to just you know talk to each other and come up with ideas that can further our our league and in hockey too. And it was a time we were talking with the Flyers and and Ryan Martin with the Rangers and we talked about what happens at rookie camp, right? and and the rookie games and and they said, “Wouldn’t it be great if if we could have that game in front of fans and have that experience for the guys, these young guys and and we were talking and they knew uh you know, our building of course they they they both come and so strategically located. We have a hotel here and it’s a nice setup and our fans are are great and and so uh we said this would be a great place to do it and uh I think everybody’s been really happy with the process so far. I know we are. community really appreciates it and and I know both the Rangers and the Flyers do too. That that’s something I wanted to ask about because it’s four years in a row and it’s not like you’re alternating, you know, with the Harford Wolfpack or anything. It’s here. Was that a negotiation of some sort or is it just this is the convenience spot. It’s a beautiful building. It was all those communications, right? is communications when we’re talking and and and we’re we’re together and and we come up with things that are are good for our our league and and good for our our players because it it’s strategically colllocated for both teams, right? They can both get here quickly. Both the New York right in the middle of New York City and Philadelphia. Um, Rob, wanted to ask you a question because I think this is something that, um, a lot of fans don’t quite understand about the Phantoms is that, you know, a lot of fans look at like, oh, the Phantoms are the Flyers and and they’re not. You know, you guys are separate from the Flyers organization. You are an affiliate, but I was hoping you could just explain kind of how that relationship works because you guys obviously have the long-standing partnership with the Philadelphia Flyers, but you’re not the Flyers. You’re your own thing, right? We are our own thing, but but we’re part of the family, right? So we feel like we’re part of the Flyers, right? So, you know, we we we we we bleed the the black and orange, right? So, you know, I think and it’s always stem back from the beginning, right? We bought the team from the Flyers, right? And and uh people tell us, “How long have you owned the the team?” And because some people think it still is the Flyers, right? and and uh you know it’s easy for us for me to to remember how many years because uh you know Peter Lucco at the time sold us the team and we were having a press at least here a press announcement here and my my wife’s water broke right when we were doing it wow he actually drove me to the airport on his way back to Philadelphia I made it just in time so I so it’s easy to know it’s 16 years and it’s hard for a lot of people to to believe that many years so it’s a great relationship that’s yeah because I uh that just because I grew up going to Phantom’s games at the Spectrum I was there the night they uh they win the cup in 98 and so I I’ve always really loved the Phantoms and in my head it’s oh yeah it’s they just moved to Lehigh Valley like they were in Aderandac for a little bit and but it’s it’s been a while. It’s been a while and uh you know you know we went up to uh Aderandac while the the building was being built here and you know but it that was something that we’re proud of too because we helped grow hockey in and keep hockey in that Aderond Aderandac region and they still have hockey there today. So, um, it makes us feel good to to to leave that legacy up there for them, too. So, it’s now been, as as you mentioned, 16 years since you guys have, uh, have owned the Phantoms. Um, some of your favorite memories uh, from that time, whether it’s, you know, players that have come up and become impact NHL players, whether it’s events you guys have had, you know, what really sticks out in your mind as your favorite memories since uh, since owning the team? Oh, there’s just so many. It’s uh, what a project. Uh, you know, yeah, we, you know, that the arena being built here is feels so good because it’s revitalizing the downtown, the third largest city in Pennsylvania, right? This is the catalyst for revitalization. But on the hockey side, there’s been so many great things and and and some relationships that you’ve carried through. You you think of guys like Travis Sanheim, right, and how he played with us for parts of three years, and now he’s the player he is, right? And one of the best defenseman in the league. Might be at the Olympics. Yeah, that’s great. And if we feel we had a little bit that to help help them with that is great, you know, and if you’ve been in the locker room and the different parts of the arena here, you know, we really we want to help these guys reach their goals. And I think that so when we see guys like that, Scott Lton had to, you know, change his game down here and and he changed it for longevity at the NHL, right? So that feels good. And uh and then you see guys that maybe aren’t with the Flyers anymore like Stallars or Nick Cousins or Alex Lion having success at the next level and then seen a couple of those guys raise the cup. It makes you feel good, right? So, uh you know, we care a lot about these guys and uh we want them to to succeed. Well, you have a new head coach now. It’s not as if this is a brand new person. Uh Snowden’s been in the organization, but now he steps into the big seat. What are your initial impressions of John Snowden now that he is uh he’s running the show? In terms of coaching, uh, Snowy’s great and like you said, he was our assistant for the last couple years, so we got to know him and he’s a good person and, uh, we have a little bit in common with him, too. He cut his teeth in the ECO like we did. And so, you have to wear a lot of hats, right, when when you’re there and but he’s a winner. He won at that level. He he’s a great He’s a smart guy. He’s strategic and uh, you know, and he what we love in our community is he lives here. He, his wife, his three kids, they they live in our community year round and they go to our schools and and and and Snowy helps out with the the youth coaching and he’s helping to grow hockey in our community here and and that really means a lot. So, we appreciate him. So, going into this season, we were just talking, we had Mattie Campbell on our our PHA phantoms correspondent. We’re talking about the uh the talent that you guys are going to have on this team. Now, we don’t know the exact players. Some guys may make the NHL team out of camp, some guys might not. But regardless, it seems like this team has some serious skill up and down the lineup. What are your expectations, you know, for this season? You’re right. You watched the game last night and you see speed, you see skill, right? And it’s uh it’s pretty exciting. And uh so we’re going to be a young team, right? You know, depending on who who’s here, but we’ll be young. And uh we have uh you know, we have some veteran leadership that helped these guys. We probably have the best captain in the American Hockey League with Garrett Wilson. Young players love him and he’s there for them, right? He helps uh nurture them and protect them and uh so I think I think we’ll see what you see with a lot in this league. uh you know if you if you’re very young then maybe you that kind of takes a little while to get going but then when you do these young guys that they really get used to this level because this is a really good level here in the American Hockey League and some don’t know it until they play here right so so those are your expectations on the ice a lot of fans very excited to get to see some Phantom’s games this year off the ice though in the building what are you excited to uh to present to fans this season oh it’s great we always uh you like to present some new things at every year. And this year we have some some extra new things right with you know a new coach. We had some new players coming in, some exciting uh talent, but uh we also have uh the video board and uh some of the the visual new sound system and uh new food beverage item just things. It’s so important. This is such this building is such an asset for our for our region and we have such a great region and but we want to we want to make sure it’s always current. So, we all have to always you want to stay on top of that. We we we very proud of our fan engagement here. We love our fans. So, we want to always produce the best fan engagement we can. All right. Well, we really appreciate you uh you engaging with us for a few minutes. It’s it’s always great to hear from the brass and uh this was this was great. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you very much. Thanks so much, Rob. All right. That was Rob Brooks, Phantom’s owner, joining us here at the PPL Center. just uh what just a little under two hours before puck drop. Yeah. Uh be before game two of this rookie series game. And uh it’s it’s cool that this is its own like organization that it’s a Yeah. It’s not a Comcast subsidiary. They have their own thing, but there is still such a collaboration with the Flyers. He said we’re part of the family. Yeah. And and they definitely are. you know, you have to be if you’re going to be a successful affiliate because you can’t be you can’t have two, you know, the big club and the affiliate at loggerheads or then the that team isn’t going to be the affiliate for much longer. The fact that it’s now been, as Rob said, 16 years, you know, it’s clear that that they work very well together and he’s clear he’s very excited for for the future, not just of the team, but of the team in Allentown and what it means for the city. I uh I didn’t get the chance to ask if he could ever just for one night bring back Flex. Oh, love Melvin. Love Melvin. It’s just, you know, I’m nostalgic for for my childhood. The the That was a wild costume. It was But I do love like the uh like it’s still the Phantoms. It’s still that awesome logo. Like the branding was great from day one. And it’s like that has stayed the same for what was inaugural season 96. I think that’s right. It’s been 30 years almost. Um God, we’re getting old. I don’t love it. I mean, my the first the first game I ever went to, first hockey game I ever went to was a Phantom’s game at the Spectrum and probably in 1997. Yeah, I definitely went to a few in the inaugural season and then for my birthday the following year got the season tickets and then that was like, all right, now I’m a Phantom fan, I guess. Like, well, now I have a career. I love Oh my god. Is that the thing that got me? Yeah, fam. What hotel I am? Well, I mean your favorite player is Frank Blo. Yeah, that’s true. Just lunatics at the Spectrum. Like the place I got burned with a cigarette. That’s the other thing. Um it’s a much more familyfriendly environment. Like it is not the uh it’s not like the Jerry Springer show like it was back in the day. This is much more of a uh family the prices were familyfriendly back then, but now the actual presentation is as well. It It’s not literally a mad house like the spectrum truly was. People who are like, I want the bullies back, so I’m just going to go watch this cross between hockey and pro wrestling, honestly. Yeah. Well, so were you when you got into when you started going to Phantom’s games? Were you already a big pro wrestling fan or do those things kind of happen simultaneous? Probably around the same time. Yeah, like nine or 10. Yeah. I Well, I wasn’t sure if this is a situation where you already pro wrestling. You’re like, “Oh, this is the sport that’s most like pro wrestling. I’m all in.” I guess, yeah, I guess the two things did happen simultaneously. That’s something I should probably unpack at some point. Uh, so here we are, Charlie. Uh, and we’ve, uh, we’ve got about 15 minutes here left in the show. What is the thing tonight’s game? Yeah, we watched last night. We talked about who we really liked. Who are you looking forward to maybe change your opinion or step up after last night? Yeah, I I agree with Maddie. I want to see we we got the signature game from Denver Barky last night and we got a good game from Alex Bumpum last night. I would like to see the signature game from Alex Bum to really solidify his standing as the favorite of the prospects to make the team out of camp. I it’s not that I think he has to score a goal or two to solidify that that place. The Flyers really really like him and he was good last night. But if there’s something tangible behind it, it’ll just seem like it’s more possible that he can win his way onto the team rather than him getting through these rookie games with zero goals and zero points. And you’re like, “Okay, well, he looked good by the eye test.” I’d like to have some some cold hard evidence to be like, “No, this guy is real close to being ready.” That would be fun. That’s I can’t remember whose goal it was, but last night you you know you talked about okay yes player X gets goal but it was the setup that was incredible set up and it was like all right sometimes you get a goal and it’s the result of someone else’s work and you were in the right place and credit to you being in the right place is like half the game. Sure. But we saw a lot of doing the right stuff at a bump. Now it’s cash in, man. Like we think you’re an NHL player. Yeah. You showed you’re as good or better than anyone out there, but we need you to we need to put that puck in the net. And he had opportunities to be sure. There were multiple times he got the puck in a scoring area in a dangerous area and either just missed the net or it got stopped. And I Sometimes you get stopped. You don’t score 80 goals. Exactly. But my point is that I think if he gets three or four of those opportunities again tonight, I have to believe he’s going to finish on at least one of them. And I appreciated John Snowden telling us like some of that stuff for him or anybody. It’s like it’s day one. Yeah. We don’t have the feel for the puck that we will in January. You know, when you have four goals in five games, it’s because you’re feeling it. It’s because you’re comfortable. And this is more I am playing with two linemates I just met. You know, I I I think the other thing I really want to see, and again, crossing my fingers, I really want to see Oliver Bonet again. I want to see him play. I want to see what he can do because he did like to me maybe more than anyone, like he was the guy who popped to me on the the first day of practice because he just looked so much bigger. He looked more assertive. And I want to see how that translates to game situations. And it’s it’s a good place to see it in a rookie game because he might struggle in the preseason games just because he’s against NHL players and it’s real tough to be a defenseman going up against NHL players, especially when you don’t have a lot of pro experience. This would be the opportunity for him to really shine to show that, you know, the the 15 pounds of jersey Mike’s muscles really are giving him an added boost. you weren’t there yesterday, but I actually my my guess as to why Bon wasn’t in the lineup was some bad Jersey mics. I’m glad that wasn’t the case. I would hate to disparage the great the great name of anything with Jersey in it. I’m in. I’m glad I’m glad that wasn’t the case. I hope he’s not injured. I actually I I was I was debating because when I wrote the article about it, I originally framed it as like a local staple. Then I then I I went back and I put quotation marks cuz they’re not really local anymore. They are a big company. They have national commercials with Danny Devito in them, you know, but they got Jersey in the name. It’s Jersey, baby. All right. Uh, Brena tells me we actually have a super chat. So, we want to get to that today. Uh, and it is Marco Belchure fivehole. And he says, uh, Brew Daddies after the game. I’ll buy you guys the first round. Brew Daddies across the street. Really good brewery. We were there. We were there. Uh we were there last year when we had um kind of a bigger event when we gave away the tickets, did all sorts of stuff and we had a meet up there and it was the service the beer delicious. Everyone who worked there super freaking nice. Uh we ava and I ended up going after the game on night two though. You’re back. I was like yes I want more of those beers. They’re freaking delicious. Uh so make sure you go and check that out. But uh yeah uh I I’ll see you there, Marco. I’ll see you there. Yeah. I mean I I have a lot I got to do. Maybe I’ll be able to shortly after James is still working whereas that’s the problem whereas we got to do an article whereas I am done work 10 minutes my day my day ends and uh but it is not over yet in fact we have a pretty awesome guest joining us joining us right at this moment it is the uh I want to I it is Patrick Sharp joining us it is great to see you of course uh Patrick Sharp the special adviser to hockey Ops rejoined the organization a few years ago. Uh, there we go. Are you guys pranking me here or something? What’s going on with this? I do not know how that happened here. Let me take a look. We have the It’s working. It’s working. It’s all good. I might look stupid, but I don’t hopefully don’t sound stupid. You’re fine. You’re fine. Uh, Patrick, thanks so much for uh for joining the show. Yeah, thanks for having me. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, obviously, uh, you are now working for the Flyers, but you of course had a an illustrious career playing, mostly not for the Flyers, but for a little bit with the Flyers. Um, but it’s h it’s really awesome to have you uh you back with the Flyers organization, and I know Bill in particular has a lot of questions about uh about about your your blanker. I I just really it it fascinates me because Patrick Sharp it’s this name like you’re the reason we’re all afraid to trade young players. Like do do you feel but now you’re a human being sitting in front of me like do you feel the do you know that you’re the one who got away for us? Uh I don’t know. I’ve heard that a few times. Yeah, I was going to mention Justin Williams. He was a good one as well. uh maybe a few others, but um you know, looking back on that time, uh I did have a short time in Philly, but it was a very important time in my career. I played most of that uh era with the Phantoms, which was actually in Philadelphia in the same building with the Flyers. And uh I learned a lot. I learned how to compete every day. I learned how to be professional. I developed from a third round pick to uh eventually graduating to be in the NHL. And my last game uh with the Phantoms was hoisting the CER cup over my head. I learned how to be a champion. So I learned a lot uh of things that served me well later in my career. Uh probably sad for Flyers fans listening that it didn’t happen here in Philly, but I’m back and I’m working with that same age group, that same uh time period in a lot of our players careers, hoping to get those guys to become champions as well. And did that, you know, because what you always hear, you know, from from former players, from former Flyers is the I figured it out. There we go. Okay. Um is is how special it is, you know, being part of the Flyers family and you know, you maybe didn’t play for the big club for that long, but even in that small period of time, did did you feel it? And did that play a role into why you’re you’re back now? Yeah, big time. Um, I loved living in New Jersey is where I lived during my Phantoms and Flyers era. Uh, I loved being a part of the Flyers organization. I definitely felt the uh the family aspect of it all. Um, I’ll be honest, I kind of lost touch with it uh in the bulk of my career playing for a different team in the Midwest, but reconnecting with Keith Jones at the NBC desk uh shortly after I retired, uh, we talked a lot of Philly. It brought back a lot of memories and um and now working in my third year with the organization. I definitely know what it’s like to be a flyer. Brad Marsh does an excellent job with our alumni and he’s got a quote, I’m not sure if it’s his quote, but he uses it all the time is once a flyer, always a flyer. And I think I’m a perfect example of that. Don’t have a ton of games played with the Flyers, but I was drafted by this team, developed, and uh certainly proud to be one right now. You mentioned being on the NBC desk and with Jonesy at that point. remember watching those broadcasts and I think the general consensus was, “Oh yeah, Sharp has it.” Why this instead of TV? I missed it. I missed being a part of the team. I missed being in the fight. I missed uh being on the ice really. Uh done a lot in the six or seven or eight years that I’ve been out of playing uh as far as my post uh playing career. Uh spent some time at the broadcast booth, at the studio desk for uh for both the local team in Chicago and then the national desk with NBC. um done some hockey management stuff. Learned a lot from Danny and his staff and continue to do that every day. But it feels like uh the longer I’m in this role, the more I’m drawn to being on the ice with the guys and maybe behind a bench or uh in the role that I’m in right now as a development coach, as a mentor for these young guys. I’m really enjoying it. I love it. Uh learning a lot from Riley Armstrong who’s done a terrific job as uh director of player development. So uh I’m in a great spot. I think the team is in a great spot. The game yesterday was was a good example of that. I got the lineup from yesterday. Just looking at it when you uh you compare it from a couple years ago when I was at my first game. Uh the team and organization’s done an excellent job of kind of stocking the cupboards and there’s a handful of guys that aren’t on this team right now that could be. They’re playing elsewhere. So, it’s an exciting time for Philly and I’m happy to be a part of it. So, you mentioned uh you went into a little detail about about what you do for the Flyers, but your title is special advisor to hockey ops, and that is a uh an incredibly vague title. When people look at it, it could be anything. I like the special part. There you go. Um but but I’d love it if you would go into some detail of, you know, what specifically your role is and where you fit into to the puzzle here in the front office. Yeah, I think day one the the idea was just join the organization and kind of have a broad title that uh encompasses everything and and that’s what it’s really been the first couple years was I got a chance to learn uh a little bit of the amateur scouting side from Brent Flair. Uh talked to a lot of our pro scouts about their daily role with the team. Uh former coach uh coach Torch gave me a great opportunity to to hang around his group with the NHL guys. Same thing with Lappy here uh in Lehi. And uh it seems like I’ve landed with the player development group under Riley Armstrong. And uh it’s been fun. It’s been a blast. Uh I enjoy working with those guys uh with the staff, but I really enjoy seeing the young kids come to Philly and and have the uh the wide eyes and they just want to wear that logo and and play in the NHL. It’s their lifelong dream. I can relate in every single way. Uh it feels right. It feels natural and I’m having a great time doing it. So is that a lot of uh like relationship building on your side? you know, kind of being the uh the shoulder they can lean on when they’re struggling and and pump them up when they’re uh when they’re doing well, things like that. Yeah, absolutely. I live in Connecticut, actually. That’s where my wife is from, so it’s about three-hour drive from Borhees, uh where the training facility is, a little over three to get here in Allentown. Uh so, any given week, I’ll be in either building. Uh or I might just be anywhere in North America, uh tracking one of our prospects. We got a few guys playing in Boston at Boston University. We got another one at Harvard. We got a bunch in the Midwest at Michigan State. Uh we have Noah Powell at Arizona State. I bring him up because I’m more than willing to go out to Arizona and visit him a few times, but take these guys out for lunch, watch their games, break some film down with them, but basically be a a big brother to them, a mentor, and and kind of prepare them for what’s coming next. Did your experience being, you know, having short time in the NHL in this organization before going to Chicago, being with the Phantoms? Does that experience kind of inform how you build these relationships? Like, do you wish you had a U back then? Uh, yeah, I kind of did. Uh, it was the head coach, John Stevens, at the time. He had a a number of hats that he had to wear as the head coach. it since kind of evolved from then that we got a lot of guys that are willing to help out and we have a big staff. But he was a guy that um I would say was was very hard on me for a reason. I think he saw the potential in me and he realized a few things that I needed to do to reach that potential and um I have a lot of positive great things to say about him and and how much uh how helpful he’s been in my individual career. So, yeah, it would have been nice to have uh Chris Stewart and Riley Armstrong and Sammy Mo and all these great guys, Wayne Simmons hanging around telling stories and and helping me out, but um 25 years ago, it was John Stevens and some great leadership uh on the team as well. Do you think that the uh going back to to your career and and you’re certainly not the only one who who falls into this bucket, but you obviously had a fantastic NHL career and so did a lot of the guys in the uh in the development staff that that you guys put together, but it wasn’t necessarily linear. you know, you had even somebody like Johnlair who’s in, you know, US Hockey Hall of Fame, like it took him time to become Johnlair. Does that help you guys with these young players that, you know, it wasn’t necessarily that, you know, you got drafted first overall and were a superstar right off the bat that that it it took some patience, it took some trial to get to where you got to and then you can say, but hey, it all paid off when I was lifting the Stanley Cup. Yeah, absolutely. You look at the people uh on the development staff right now. We uh we just kind of added Mark Reky quietly in the middle of the night. And you look at his stats. He’s got 1500 points, top 10 all time in the history of the game. Uh what a great wealth of resource and knowledge we have from him. Johnlair, USA Hockey Hall of Famer. Uh Sammy Moran has a story to tell. First round pick, uh career derailed from some injuries. You know, he’s got a lot of knowledge that he can uh spread to the young kids on the team. Chris Stewart played a role in the National Hockey League. A tough one. He had to fight every day of his life to stay in the league and had some great years. Uh did what he could to to be a great pro. Wayne Simmons has another story to tell and I think I have one also. It wasn’t always Stanley Cups and great seasons. It was a lot of time of doubting myself and wondering if it was all worth it, but at the end of the day, I believed in myself. I had a great group surrounding me and that’s what we’re trying to do with our young guys now. All right. The power play. Okay. That’s why I’m here. Now, now you’re going to hit me. You had an awesome career. Fix the freaking Now, thank you so much for your time today. We really appreciate you making the time to uh to let our to inform all of our listeners about what what it is going on. Guy right there. Riley, he’s the man. He’s keeps it fun every day at the rink. I’m laughing every day I’m around Miley. He does a great job with the kids and uh he’s jealous of me right now because I’m on camera. I know he wants to be on with us. [Laughter] It’s D. It seems like it’s a it’s a really good culture uh in this organization. Seems like it’s fun to come to work every day and it’s making it fun to cover the team. Thank you. Thanks for being here. We’re having fun uh doing what we do. So, look forward to seeing you guys around. I really appreciate you taking the time today. Thanks, guy. That is development coach and uh special adviser to hockey operations, Patrick Sharp, joining us. And he won, you know, like three cups along the way. It’s a pretty well Calder Cup during the lockout. You know, that was an NHL team on that ice. That was insane. I do want that is, you know, they win it in the lockout. Yeah. Do you think it’s totally different if that never happens? Like he has this breakout and he’s in the NA like I don’t know. That’s an interesting question. Yeah. It’s it’s one of those things where like you don’t have time. There’s no there’s no may maybe it would have played out the same way, but we don’t have access to the alternate universes. No, but thinking back that that team Yeah. that was and we were all starve for hockey. So everybody, you know, I I grew up a Flyers fan. I was a god I wasn’t even in wasn’t even in high school yet for that team. But yeah, we were we had nothing else to watch. Of course, we’re going to watch that team. That was that was it. And uh that’s pretty much it for us today. I do want to hit a couple of things. I mentioned the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America just a few minutes ago, but if you have a couple of dollars that maybe you usually put towards our super chats or, you know, your daily cup of coffee, why not donate it to a great cause? You can do it right there, right below the chat box. or as much as they need your money, they need your time as well. If you have the time and inclination, go to bbbs.org, look into becoming a big a big brother, big sister, if you think you could serve a role as a mentor in a young person’s life and just give them that little bit extra, whether it’s, you know, mentor, friend, teacher, whatever it is someone might need if you think you can do it. Uh, listen, we just talked to a whole bunch of people who are basically playing mentorship roles in the Flyers organization. And maybe you want to do that for not a professional hockey player, but someone who could use uh just a little bit extra attention in their life. bbbs.org. We would greatly appreciate it as we celebrate Big Brothers Big Sisters Month here at PHLY and all across all city. Also want to tell you about the supporters club. You got to check out the supporters club. Whether you do the $5 a month tier, which gets you all sorts of uh fun stickers and emojis for the chat and you get a badge next to your name, basically a badge of honor being one of the first I’m calling it die hard for YouTube members. Uh one of our first supporters club members or you go for the VIP level and you get we’re going to be producing all sorts of behind thescenes uh footage vlogs we’re going to post just for supporters and experimental content. We’re going to have some fun. We’re going to have a good time this season as will all of our beats. Check out both of those things. I think that just about wraps it up, Charlie. Yeah. Hour and a half show. Had a ton of guests. This was a really good time and hopefully we’ll have a good time watching the game in about an hour and a half. Yesterday was the 2-year anniversary of PHLY and we are kicking off the next however many years here at the PPL Center. Hope you enjoy watching the game. Uh it’ll be streamed on the Flyers website again, I assume. Uh they did it yesterday, so why wouldn’t it be again today? Uh so make sure you check that out and make sure you hit that freaking like button. Follow us right here on the PHLY Sports YouTube page. Set that reminder bell so you get notifications whenever we go live. Make sure you follow us on all the socials. We’re phy_flyers on Twitter and follow the podcast wherever you get those. Just search phylliers. That is it. I am Bill Matz. That is Charlie O’ Conor. Thank you all for listening. Thanks for hanging out. Be excellent to each other. [Music] [Applause] [Music]
We’re live from PPL Center, home of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, for the Flyers Rookie Series! Hear from Phantoms ownership and head coach John Snowden, Flyers Director of Player Development Riley Armstrong, Special Advisor to Hockey Operations Patrick Sharp, and more!
Plus, Bill and Charlie recap Game 1 with Madeline Campbell and what to look forward to tonight for Game 2.
00:00 – Intro
2:08 – Big takeaways from last night’s 4-3 OT win
10:40 – Phantoms Head Coach John Snowden joins
22:32 – Recap of Snowden interview & lineup updates
24:29 – Phantoms roster
27:06 – Flyers’ Director of Player Development Riley Armstrong joins
41:57 – Recap of Armstrong interview
45:25 – PHLY Contributor/Broad Street Hockey’s Maddie Campbell joins the show
1:01:49 – BECOME A DIEHARD! HIT THE LIKE BUTTON!
1:02:53 – Phantoms owner Rob Brooks joins the show
1:11:50 – Recap of Brooks interview
1:14:38 – Looking ahead to tonight’s game
1:18:16 – Super chats
1:19:15 – Flyers’ Special Advisor to Hockey Operations Patrick Sharp joins the show
1:30:15 – Big Brothers Big Sisters of America month at ALLCITY
1:31:17 – Supporters Club
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3 comments
I enjoyed the set of interviews in this show. Good job!
Hi Charlie and Bill. Lookin Good😊
Good guests. Well done, but when Maddie writes articles does she type (giggle giggle giggle) after each sentence? Is she a laughing gas junkie? Was she drugged against her will?