As they were creating an offer sheet to Anaheim Ducks restricted free agent Leo Carlsson that would turn the hockey world on its head, the Flyers brass lined the glass at ’67 Arena rink on Friday to watch the rising stars in the pipeline.
They, along with a throng of fans, were entertained by a competitive three-on-three tournament. The squad led by Denver Barkey, who notched two goals in quick succession late in the game to snag the win from Jack Nesbitt and his crew, celebrated by lifting the trophy and banging the glass as they skated by the faithful.
The tournament came less than 24 hours after a five-on-five scrimmage in which players also worked on power play for 10 minutes. Defenseman Luke Vlooswyk, who has five goals in 139 regular-season games in the Western Hockey League, scored the only power-play tally.
Team Brière defeated Team Jones, 4-3, in the scrimmage, after a 16-round shootout in which the very last skater, camp invitee Matthew Desiderio, scored and his team poured onto the ice.
Here’s what else we saw at Flyers development camp:
Orange, white, and boom
There were a lot of confused faces and comments after the Flyers drafted 6-foot-7, 238-pound defenseman Maksim Sokolovskii with the 27th pick in June’s draft. But when he stepped onto the ice in Voorhees, it was easy to see why assistant general manager Brent Flahr called him “a unicorn.”
Although he still is raw and needs to pump up the offense, the big man can skate. And the size is intimidating.
“Yeah, it’s terrible. He mauled me in practice,” defenseman Oliver Bonk, who is 6-2, said with a big grin.
“We were doing little keep-away drills, and I wasn’t ready for it. The first one, I just came up and, like, ‘OK, whatever, this is like a warm-up drill.’ And I go, and he just mauls me. He takes the puck away and … for like 1:30, I’m trying to chase this guy around, arms out.
“I got ready, and the next one, I kind of — I got back at him a little bit — protected the puck a little bit better. But, yeah, he’s going to be a really good player.”
The first 2½ days of on-ice activity at camp focused on power skating and skills. Director of player development Riley Armstrong and Flyers skating instructor Lindsay Tilley noticed Sokolovskii was turning his upper body too much during the skating-only drills.
“When your hips and your shoulders don’t stay in a square, it throws you all off balance,” Armstrong said.
But when they were working with pucks, the Kazakhstan-born, Russia-raised defenseman executed puck retrievals with some deception while keeping his feet moving. Although he had been off the ice for two weeks, there was a smoothness to his skating.
As the games went on in the scrimmage and tournament, he got more confident, especially offensively and with his skating. He used his footwork to get out of trouble and was so vocal on the ice that he could be heard on the perches for media. English is not his first language, but as his junior coach, Rick Steadman, told The Inquirer, as he got more comfortable with the language, his on-ice game ramped up.
Sokolovskii cut off 6-5 center Nesbitt along the end boards and crushed 2025 second-rounder Jack Murtagh, too. The blueliner cut off zone entries at five-on-five and showed craftiness with the puck across the ice. He scored in the three-on-three tournament — and chirped the opposition bench on the way past — and when he had a chance in the shootout on Thursday, there was a big “Awww” when he was stopped.
And the kid who turns 18 on July 12 was doing it all using someone else’s stick with a different blade pattern. It makes his camp even more impressive.
“He’s actually confident,” Flahr said Friday. “We tell him, ‘Just play your game, just go,’ and I think you watch him in drills, and some of the things he can do for a player that size, at his age, are impressive. … His physical tools are immense, and, for us, it’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
‘You’re a firework’
Sometimes an afterthought when names like Barkey, Alex Bump, Porter Martone, and Nesbitt are mentioned, Cole Knuble, 22, put himself at the forefront this past week. The forward whom Flahr has called “one of my favorites” in the pipeline stood out for his aggressiveness, high hockey IQ, and vision, notably when he set up Bump for the game-tying goal for Team Jones.
“I can remember three years ago, right away, [he] had excellent hockey sense and has certainly rounded out his game over the years, and looks like he’s improved every time we get eyes on him,” said Patrick Sharp, a special adviser in hockey operations who works in development.
Knuble, who signed his entry-level contract and joined Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League after his junior season at Notre Dame, skated in seven games with the Phantoms, which included time at center.
He played down the middle during the five-on-five scrimmage and showed off his ability to be a gnat on the ice. He was everywhere, showing the improvement in his skating, and was a player the Flyers have said has a good motor.
“Growing up, I kind of realized, like, that’s the way I’m going to be able to make it, a guy that’s going to go [in] every battle,” Knuble said Monday. “I think, growing up, the emphasis was not goals or assists; it was always, ‘Did you win your 50-50s, and did you stick your nose in there?’”
That emphasis came from his dad, ex-NHLer Mike Knuble, who played five seasons with the Flyers: “He used to say, ‘If you have 12 eggs in your pockets, they should all be broken.’”
Let freedom ring
Carter Amico, 19, was held off the ice at last year’s development camp as he continued his recovery from a fractured patella that required two surgeries.
He said he still feels some of the aftereffects at times, but nothing concerning, and after splitting this past season between Boston University and Muskegon of the United States Hockey League — he’ll be returning to BU in the fall alongside Murtagh — he came to camp healthy and showed why the 2025 second-rounder is a top prospect for the Flyers.
“From a year ago to now, he’s just come a million miles. I thought it was a great decision, going back to [the USHL and to] Muskegon, with all the time lost, and they were great with him,” Flahr said of Amico, who also previously played for the U.S. National Team Development Program. “They played him a ton. He played in a lot of offensive situations, and they really freed him up. You can see the confidence, the size, the skating is all coming. To me, he’s got a tremendous upside.”
Watching his smooth skating this week, you wouldn’t know that he missed almost the entire 2024-25 season.
He used his body and size to attack offenses and get away from defenders, noting he worked last week with Sam Morin, an ex-Flyers defenseman who now is working in player development. Morin, who stands 6-6, an inch taller than Amico, dealt with severe knee injuries that ended his career. They focused on “accepting the contact instead of going away, talking about driving your legs into the guy, and separating and creating space,” Amico said.
Keep your eye on
Bonk, 21, to push for a job come September. The blueliner looked like a seasoned pro in the games against the prospects, which is why Flahr said, “I think he’ll challenge at camp.”
Brek Liske, 18, taken in the second round by the Flyers, showed why he is a versatile, all-around defenseman who needs to continue to work on his game. He can skate well — he made a nice spin move in the offensive zone — and play with confidence and smarts in his own end, with a nice poke check on Murtagh. But he did get fooled pretty well by Bonk as he put on the breaks at the half-wall in the full-ice scrimmage. “I think his strengths are his puck game, obviously the way he sees it. He’s mobile, he’s very confident, has swagger,” Flahr said. “… In order to handle box-outs and things down low and around the net, he’s going to have to get stronger, which he’s well aware of. He’s a hockey player, though, loves to play the game. He’s got some swagger.”
Last year, Noah Powell, 21, was all about the boom. After getting some time with the Phantoms following the end of his season with Arizona State, he brought a well-rounded game to development camp. Powell, played confidently, showing off spin moves and smart passing, and was quick on the puck and with his release. “I think I want to really show more of my offensive side,” said Powell, mentioning he worked with assistant coach Terrence Wallin and Sharp on his shot. “I feel like I kind of got a good bearing in the physicality, the hitting, and the gritty side. … Something the coaches and I have talked about is being a little more calm. Sometimes, it’s hard to turn that switch off; you go from trying to hit guys to then try to make skill plays.”
The two Czech goalies — and childhood friends — selected in the 2026 draft, Marek Sklenička, 17, and Martin Psohlavec, 18, played well, with Psohlavec putting on a show in the five-on-five scrimmage. He had a rare shutout, showing off his ability to square up to shooters, read plays, and flash the leather. He was injured during the three-on-three tourney but mentioned that he was excited to be drafted by Philly because of the culture and, as someone who loves basketball, the 76ers.
