Category: Sports

It’s the best time of the year, the holiday season, and for hockey fans, that also means the annual gift of the International Ice Hockey Federation’s World Junior Championship.

The premier under-20 hockey tournament in the world, which starts the day after Christmas each year, showcases the next wave of NHL superstars, many of whom have already been drafted and others who won’t wait long to hear their names called come June. This year’s tournament is in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., and runs through Jan. 5. Here are four reasons that Flyers fans should be tuned in to NHL Network and ESPN+ over the next few weeks:

1. Porter’s house

Let’s not bury the lead here. Porter Martone is the biggest reason for Flyers fans to watch this tournament, as the 6-foot-3, 208-pound power forward will be counted on as one of the key cogs and the captain for heavy favorite Canada. Martone, the No. 6 overall draft pick in June, looks poised to be a pillar of the Flyers’ future and should be ready to make the jump to the NHL next season.

The winger, who tore apart the Ontario Hockey League last year with 98 points in 57 games, has been just as dominant as a freshman in the NCAA, as he leads No. 3 Michigan State with 11 goals, 20 points, and 58 penalty minutes in 16 games. With a rare combination of size, skill, playmaking ability, scoring touch, and snarl, Martone projects as a front-line winger at the next level. Martone’s skating, while hardly a weakness, remains a work in progress, but Flyers assistant general manager Brent Flahr recently told The Inquirer that he thinks Martone “has a chance to be a special player” and that he has the “it factor.”

Martone has been playing on Canada’s top line with Michael Misa and Tij Iginla but has also seen time alongside Gavin McKenna. The World Juniors can serve as a launching pad for future NHL stars, so don’t be surprised to see the Flyers prospect have a huge tournament.

2. More Flyers prospects

While Martone is the unquestioned headliner, the Flyers will have six prospects lacing them up in the Twin Cities, including Martone and Jett Luchanko (Canada), Shane Vansaghi (United States), Jack Berglund (Sweden), and Heikki Ruohonen and Max Westergård (Finland).

Luchanko and Berglund will draw the most attention, especially with the Flyers badly needing one or two of their young center prospects to pan out. The speedy Luchanko likely will play a third-line/checking role — he’s been used some on the wing in preliminary games — with Canada, but Flyers fans will want to see him utilize his playmaking skills with better players around him. Since being traded to Brantford of the OHL last month, Luchanko has two goals and eight points in six games. The Flyers want Luchanko to continue shooting the puck more, and it will be interesting to see how he’s utilized a year after Danny Brière said he wasn’t happy with his deployment at this tournament.

Berglund, meanwhile, probably is the least-talked-about prospect in the Flyers system. A big, strong centerman listed at 6-4 and 209 pounds, the Swede will have the responsibility of captaining his country at this illustrious tournament, something Emil Andrae did in 2022. After impressing at Flyers development camp and the World Junior Summer Showcase, Berglund will look to continue his momentum. The early signs are good, as the 19-year-old recently scored twice against Canada in a preliminary game. The question with Berglund will always be his skating, but Flahr believes it has steadily improved and says that Berglund’s size, strength, and details project him to be a valuable player at the next level.

The bruising but skilled Vansaghi figures to be a depth piece for the Americans, while Ruohonen, a Harvard man who also impressed at the World Junior Summer Showcase, will play in a top-six role with Finland. Westergård, 18, also earned a spot on the roster after a strong first half in Sweden at the under-20 level.

3. Eyes on the prize

While McKenna has long been viewed as the prize of the 2026 draft, the Penn State phenom no longer seems to be a lock to go No. 1. Two of the players challenging for that spot also will be playing in the tournament: towering Canadian defenseman Keaton Verhoeff and exciting Swedish winger Ivar Stenberg.

While the Flyers, who currently are in a playoff spot, don’t look to be genuine contenders for McKenna, Verhoeff, and some of the others at the top, they surely will be scouting the tournament with a close eye. Sweden’s Viggo Björck (C) and William Håkansson (LD), USA’s Chase Reid (RD), Canada’s Carson Carels (LD), Finland’s Oliver Suvanto (C) and Juho Piiparinen (RD), and Czechia’s Adam Novotny are among the other draft-eligible players to watch.

4. Team USA three-peat?

USA Hockey only won its first World Juniors gold in 2004. It has won the tournament seven times, including the last two years. So can the U.S., which had never won two in a row before last year, make it three straight?

It will be a tough task as Canada brings a star-studded roster headlined by McKenna, Misa, and Martone, not to mention a new head coach in Dale Hunter who knows what it takes to lead a group of young men to gold.

But the U.S. boasts a strong roster of its own led by James Hagens, Cole Eiserman, and Max Plante. While the depth or star power might not be at the level of past U.S. teams, the Americans will go into this tournament as the two-time defending champions and have home-ice advantage. The U.S. also is sure to have a chip on its shoulder, especially given all the “dream team” talk surrounding Canada. All the pressure is on Canada to win gold and atone for last year’s shocking quarterfinal upset. That could work to the Americans’ advantage.

CHICAGO ― Garnet Hathaway’s path to the NHL wasn’t a typical one.

He called it a “roundabout way” to The Inquirer two years ago, during his first season with the Flyers. The kid from Maine was signed as a free agent by the Calgary Flames organization in 2014 after playing four years at Brown University, and has agitated, banged, and fought his way to 639 NHL games.

But now he’s facing a new battle: Hathaway has been a healthy scratch for the past two games and will sit out a third in a row on Tuesday.

Before this spell, the last time Hathaway watched from the press box when healthy was Feb. 23, 2023, when the Washington Capitals held him out for trade-related reasons. He was traded that day to the Boston Bruins.

“It’s an opportunity to look at my own game. Find out what I can be doing better to help the team more,” he said while sitting in the Flyers’ locker room at Xfinity Mobile Arena after the team’s morning skate on Monday.

“I don’t want to put a reset word on it. I think it’s an opportunity, and there’s two ways I can take it, and I want to use it positively. I want to use it to be more impactful and help us win more games.”

To say it’s been a difficult season for Hathaway would be an understatement, as he has no points and is a minus-8 in 33 games. But Hathaway, 34, knows his game isn’t judged by how many goals or points he has. After all, he only has 75 goals and 160 points in his NHL career.

What he brings is an unwavering commitment to the team — whether it’s throwing his body in front of high-velocity slap shots or being a leader in the room — and effectiveness on the penalty kill, which he prides himself on.

“I know when I’m successful and how to be successful. So I think, rather than talking about the things that haven’t worked [this season], it’s talking about things that I need to do to be successful,” he said.

“I play my best when we get the puck below the other hashmarks, when we hold possession, when we create chaos with the other defensemen, make them turn, create physicality, and really just have the puck in their end.”

Chaos is a good way to put it. Hathaway is a grinder. He’s a throwback to guys like Dave Schultz, who may not have the flashy goals or the high point totals but play a critical role on and off the ice.

Since his NHL debut on Feb. 29, 2016, for the Flames, he is third in NHL hits (2,046) behind former Flyers defenseman Radko Gudas (2,442) and current San Jose Sharks forward Ryan Reaves (2,131). For the record, Gudas has played 35 more games than Hathaway and averages almost seven more minutes a game.

Hathaway ranks ninth in penalty minutes (705) in that time frame, but more importantly, he is also ninth in penalties drawn (275). The nine guys above him include some of the game’s top agitators — Nazem Kadri, Matthew Tkachuk, Brad Marchand, Tom Wilson, and Brady Tkachuk — and the best players who draw all the attention — Connor McDavid, David Pastrňák, and Nathan MacKinnon.

“When he plays fast, he’s really good, and I think sometimes that line’s played a little bit slow, puck possession-wise, and I think that has affected him. … He knows he has to play better,” coach Rick Tocchet said. “But I also think we have to put him in a situation where he’s playing a faster game; I think that’s when he’s at his best.

“… It’s tough for guys like that. He’s a predictable guy. He’s got to know where the puck’s going. That’s when he’s at an effectiveness, right? He’s a good F1, a good forechecker getting in there, and then obviously, a PK guy when he’s on. So I think, he’s frustrated in his game, but he knows what he’s got to do.”

According to Natural Stat Trick, when Hathaway is on the ice at five-on-five this season, the Flyers have 43.24% of the shot attempts and have been outscored 10-2. It’s not the lowest Corsi For percentage of his career — that came in his 25 games with the Boston Bruins — but it is the second lowest. And it’s his second-lowest expected goal share at 41.87 and lowest scoring chances for percentage of his career (39.18%).

The interesting thing is that Hathaway’s individual shot attempts have dropped considerably. He is at less than one per game (30 in 33 games), when he averaged 1.90 shot attempts per game across his first 606 career games.

But he is right there with his hitting (tied for eighth in the NHL with 117) and drawing penalties (16th in the league with 2.31 penalties drawn/60).

“A lot of what we talk [about] is predictability,” said Hathaway, speaking about himself and the coaching staff. “I strive on predictability. I think for me, I need to get below the hashmarks in the other zone, and the fastest way we can get there, the least time we can spend on our zone.

“That’s what I look back in my career and highlight when — points or not — I’m being a contributor to a successful team. It’s moving fast through the zone and possession, but keeping the game in that end each and every shift, the majority of the time, rather than it flip-flopping or being a little too short for the time you need. “