By Sarah Berkowitz
Ron Hextall proved once again that he is trying to break the mold of same old, same old Flyers hockey.
Even with an “obvious” need at forward, the Flyers couldn’t pass up the opportunity to select Ivan Provorov with the seventh overall pick at last night’s NHL draft.
Provorov, an 18-year-old who was born in Russia but starred last season for the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings, is considered by many to be the best defenseman in the draft.
Yes, even better than Noah Hanifin, the Boston College blue-liner that Carolina took fifth overall.
Provorov had 61 points in 60 games for Brandon. He’s been praised for his ability to create offense in the attacking zone and beat the forecheck in the defensive zone. Oh, and he’s pretty good at stopping opposing players, too.
“We believe that you build from the back end out, and Ivan is going to be a big part of our defense moving forward,” GM Hextall said. “We’re really excited to have him. Really good all around player, great hockey sense.”
The Flyers’ defense, a weakness since Chris Pronger was forced to stop playing, is going to be very different in the near future. Before today, they already had well-regarded prospects Samuel Morin, Shayne Gostisbehere, and Travis Sanheim. Radko Gudas and Michael Del Zotto, both 25, could also be part of the future group. Plus, they signed Russian Yevgeny Medvedev, and who knows how that works out?
For Hextall, the challenge before next season may be to shed one, two or even more of Mark Streit, Andrew MacDonald, Luke Schenn, Nicklas Grossmann, or Nick Schultz.
