There was some hope that after Ivan Provorov signed that the Philadelphia Flyers would put all their attention on their other unsigned restricted free agent, Travis Konecny, and hopefully getting him to training camp as quickly as possible. Instead, that hasn’t happened yet, with Philly.com’s Sam Carchidi reporting that no progress was made between the two sides on Saturday.
Philadelphia Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault expressed his disappointment that Konecny isn’t in camp yet, as he will be missing valuable time learning the new coach’s system. Vigneault said after his first practice leading the Flyers, via NBC Sports’ Jordan Hall:
“I’m very disappointed that T.K. is not here. It’s the start of a new era, a new group, I felt that it was very important for everybody to be here. With my time in the NHL, my experience, anybody that falls behind — whether it’s injury or in T.K.’s situation not coming to camp — usually it takes them a little bit of time to get back at it, especially at this time with a new coaching staff and new way of doing things. It’s unfortunate, but I’m going to work with the players that are here and going to work extremely hard with those players.”
Konecny could also find himself sliding down the lineup if he can’t get back to camp quickly. On day two of training camp, Vigneault used rookie Joel Farabee (in place of Konecny) with first-liners Sean Couturier and Claude Giroux, with the rookie faring quite well and getting praise from Vigneault.
“He showed that he belonged there,” said Vigneault.
Here's more from the Metropolitan Division:
- With a three-game suspension hanging over Evgeny Kuznetsov to start the season for inappropriate behavior, Washington Capitals head coach Todd Reirden suggested that Kuznetsov is likely to get a lot of exhibition action during the preseason to make up for the three suspended games, according to Washington Post’s Isabelle Khurshudyan. NHL.com’s Tom Gulliti adds that Kuznetsov’s $7.8M AAV will not count against the Washington Capitals' salary cap during the suspension. That could be a benefit to the team, which is currently over the cap.
- The Athletic’s Josh Yohe writes in his most recent mailbag column that the Pittsburgh Penguins' most valuable and likely trade chip is forward Bryan Rust. The 27-year-old scored 18 goals and 35 points last season and is a key depth option, but at $3.5M per season, Rust is the perfect candidate to solve some of the team’s cap issues, although the Penguins’ preference is to find a team that would be willing to take on Jack Johnson and his four years at $3.25M AAV contract.
- The Carolina Hurricanes revealed that they don’t expect defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk to be ready for the start of the season, according to NHL.com’s Michael Smith. The 28-year-old van Riemsdyk underwent surgery on his left shoulder in May and has been cleared to begin skating without contact after team practices. “I don’t expect him to be ready for the start of the season,” Hurricanes President and general manager Don Waddell said. “It just depends on how things go for him. There’s no reason to rush him back in game one or game two. It’s a long season. If we’re going to go deep, we’re going to need him. We’ll be very patient.”
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