Shayne Gostisbehere is not the most highly touted of the Flyers’ young defensemen — Ivan Provorov and Travis Sanheim are generally thought to be better prospects— but he is one of the Flyers’ young defensemen. That’s important.
The first of the group to surface in the NHL, it’s not a small deal that Ghost Bear is manning the point on the first power play unit and ripping pucks past Jonathan Quick:
“I feel comfortable,” Gostisbehere said after scoring his first NHL goal in a 3-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings. “It’s the guys around me. They build me up, they give me all of the confidence in the word, they let me go bombs away there.”
Those guys that Gostisbehere is talking about include established stars like Claude Giroux and Jake Voracek. Most of the veterans had high praise for the 22-year-old’s game, as did the Flyers head coach.
“You know, there was a lot of good in his game tonight,” Dave Hakstol said. “Obviously he had an impact for us offensively and played very confidently. You know we just need to continue building all the areas of his game.”
Especially in the three-on-three overtime, you could see what an excellent skater Gostisbehere is. Despite suffering a torn ACL last season, he can still turn on the jets and do things like this:
Mark Streit, who Gostisbehere replaced on the blue line, wasn’t having a very good year (44.6 CF%) before going on the shelf for six weeks. For a team that appeared to need an infusion of youth and some added energy, he could be exactly what the doctor ordered.
When Gostisbehere was sent down to Lehigh Valley during training camp, Hakstol said he needed to work on his game without the puck. He will continue to do so, but now it will happen in the NHL.
The Flyers’ future isn’t quite here yet, but it’s coming.
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