Flyers At The World Juniors

The World Juniors tournament turned out to be pretty good for the Flyers this year. Seven Flyers were rostered in this year’s tournament. This year’s champion, Finland, defeated Russia for the gold medal, sadly none of the Flyer’s seven prospect were on team Finland. The Flyers did have 2 prospects on the silver medal winning Russia, Ivan Provorov and Radel Fazleev. Fazleev finished the tournament with a goal and two assists for three points, appearing in all seven games, to go along with a plus-minus rating of plus-3. Ivan Provorov, the Flyer’s seventh pick in the 2015 draft, finished his second World Junior tournament with eight assists in seven games to tie for Russia’s lead in scoring, as well as rank third among all defensemen in the tournament.

Ivan Provorov sets up tying goal with 6.9 seconds left in gold medal gamehttps://t.co/XXIpBQIRGt pic.twitter.com/tH8PLXjNVL

— Sons of Penn (@SonsofPenn) January 5, 2016

The Flyers also had two young prospect playing for Team Sweden, forward Oskar Lindblom and goaltender Felix Sandstrom. Oskar Lindblom posted an assist and Felix Sandstrom got his second start of the tournament, making 21 saves, but Sweden fell short to the United States in the bronze medal game losing 8-3. Despite losing the bronze medal game, Oskar and Felix still had a strong tournament. Lindblom finished this year’s World Juniors with six points (3 goals and 3 assist) in seven games, while Sandstrom ends his first World Junior tournament with a 1-1-0 record.

Team Canada did not have a good showing because they didn’t utilize Travis Konecny, who ended his tournament with a goal and an assist in five games, while defenseman Travis Sanheim recorded one helper in five outings for Canada. Both Sanheim or Konecy didn’t get as much ice time as they deserved which could be the reason why Canada struggled in the tournament.

Travis Konecny a wrecking ball once again for Team Canada today. #WJC2016 pic.twitter.com/uvZtD9KnJA

— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) January 2, 2016

David Kase didn’t really shine for the Czech Republic, the Flyers fifth round pick in this year’s draft finished his second World Junior with one assist, going scoreless in the quarterfinals as the Czech Republic fell to Team USA, 7-0.

All told, the Flyers had a franchise record seven prospects, all draft picks in the last two years, appear in the tournament. The seven players were tied for the most any NHL sent to the tournament this year. Even though not all of the Flyers prospects performed well in the stat column, they did play well and showed that they have potential to play in the NHL. The Flyer’s youth movement makes this team an exciting follow in the near future.