Flyers prospects Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee chase NHL jobs as rookie camp begins

The Flyers’ five-day rookie camp starts Saturday morning in Voorhees, and most of the fans figure to be focused on promising forwards Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee, former first-round picks who are hoping to stick with the team at the start of the season.

Frost, who has bulked up to 188 pounds and looks noticeably stronger, will try to make the gargantuan jump from juniors to the NHL.

The Flyers have numerous candidates for the third-line right winger spot, including Frost and Farabee. Both would be making position changes. Frost is a center, and Farabee is a left winger.

“I’ve played some wing before and I’d like to think I can adjust to certain situations,” said Frost, who will have to get acclimated to more battles along the boards. “I think I’m ready. We’ll see how camp goes. I’m confident and I think that’s the way you have to come into camp.”

Frost, 20, has produced 112 and 109 points, respectively, in his last two Ontario Hockey League seasons. If he doesn’t make the Flyers, he will start the season with the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

The same is true for Farabee, 19, who is coming off an outstanding freshman season at Boston University, where he scored 17 goals in 37 games and was named the Hockey East’s rookie of the year.

“Obviously my goal is to make the Flyers, but at the end of the day, if I play in Lehigh, it’s a very good league there,” Farabee said. “I’m excited for whatever happens.”

Farabee has played some right wing in his career. “It’s a little bit harder on your backhand, but I think I can adjust to it,” he said.

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Frost was selected in the first round (27th overall) of the 2017 draft. Farabee was chosen in the first round (14th overall) in 2018. Both were selected with draft picks the Flyers acquired in the 2017 trade that sent Brayden Schenn to St. Louis.

Farabee said he needs to show he is “physically ready to play in the NHL. I have to play physical and have to play hard, and I think if I play my game and play it well, I can give myself a pretty good shot.”

He weighed around 168 pounds last season and is now at 180. “Playing in college against bigger guys, older guys, I think that helped me a lot,” he said, mindful the same challenge awaits him this season, whether it’s in the NHL or AHL.

The camp will have three on-ice days (Friday, Saturday, and Tuesday) from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., an off-ice day of workouts Monday, and a scrimmage against the New York Islanders’ rookies on Wednesday at the PPL Center in Allentown.

The Flyers will have 28 players at their rookie camp —1 16 forwards, nine defensemen, and three goalies. The players:

Forwards: Connor Bunnaman, Mika Cyr, Joel Farabee, Gerry Fitzgerald, Morgan Frost, Maxim Golod, David Kase, Pascal Laberge, Ben McCartney, Isaac Ratcliffe, German Rubtsov, Egor Serdyuk, Matthew Strome, Maksim Sushko, Carsen Twarynski, Mikhail Vorobyev.

Defensemen: Sean Comrie, Josh Couturier, David Drake, Mark Friedman, Robert Michel, Mason Millman, Phil Myers, Wyatte Wylie, Egor Zamula.

Goalies: Roddy Ross, Felix Sandstrom, Kirill Ustimenko.

The Flyers’ veteran camp will start Sept. 13 in Voorhees, with the first group getting on the ice at 8:30 a.m. The rookie and veteran camps are free and open to the public. … Cyr, Fitzgerald, Golod, McCartney, Comrie, Couturier, and Michel are camp invitees; all others were draft picks except for free agents Myers and Zamula.

No. Player Ht. Wt. Pos.

Forwards

82 Bunnaman, Connor 6-3 226 C

89 Cyr, Mika 5-9 178 C/LW

49 Farabee, Joel 6-0 171 LW

70 Fitzgerald, Gerry 5-9 174 C

48 Frost, Morgan 6-0 180 C

77 Golod, Maxim 5-11 174 LW

72 Kase, David 5-10 168 RW

75 Laberge, Pascal 6-1 188 C

83 McCartney, Ben 6-0 174 LW

76 Ratcliffe, Isaac 6-6 208 C

50 Rubtsov, German 6-0 203 C

74 Serdyuk, Egor 5-10 159 RW

78 Strome, Matthew 6-4 211 LW

64 Sushko, Maksim 6-0 190 RW

81 Twarynski, Carsen 6-2 206 LW

24 Vorobyev, Mikhail 6-2 215 C

Defensemen

84 Comrie, Sean 6-0 165

85 Couturier, Josh 6-2 190

71 Drake, David 6-6 195

59 Friedman, Mark 5-10 191

80 Michel, Robert 6-2 194

63 Millman, Mason 6-1 175

5 Myers, Philippe 6-5 218

86 Wylie, Wyatte 6-0- 188

54 Zamula, Egor 6-3- 172

Goaltenders

69 Ross, Roddy 6-3 186

32 Sandstrom, Felix 6-2 204

67 Ustimenko, Kirill 6-3 201