Philadelphia Flyers prospects Denver Barkey and Oliver Bonk played instrumental roles for the London Knights out of the OHL as the club claimed their first Memorial Cup championship since 2016 with a 4-1 win over the Medicine Hat Tigers on Sunday night.
The Knights were an absolute juggernaut once again in 2024-25 as they claimed the J. Ross Robertson trophy for a second straight year with relative ease as OHL champions. They ran through the playoffs in 18 games in 2023-24 and somehow bested that with a 17-game run in 2024-25, which included 3 straight sweeps to kick things off.
They qualified for the prestigious Memorial Cup, which pits the three Canadian Hockey League champions against one another for national supremacy. The Rimouski Océanic automatically qualified as the hosts and were followed by the Knights, WHL champion Tigers, and QMJHL champion Moncton Wildcats.
The Knights came agonizingly close last year but were defeated by the Saginaw Spirit in the final round. They vowed to reclaim the Memorial Cup in 2024-25 and came through with flying colours as they were led by Barkey, Bonk, Easton Cowan, and Sam Dickinson, among others.
Barkey, who was named captain of the club earlier in the year, dealt with a few injuries throughout the year but managed to pull together 25 goals and 82 points in 50 games in the regular season and an additional 9 goals and 20 points in just 10 postseason contests. He also tied Cowan for the tournament lead with 7 points in the Memorial Cup.
Barkey has been nothing short of sensational since being drafted by the Flyers in the third round back in 2023. He improved from 22 goals and 59 points in 61 games during his draft year to 35 goals and 102 points in 64 games the following year. He was also clutch in the playoffs, adding 51 points in 38 games between both seasons.
It didn’t stop there either as he scored two key goals in last night’s championship game to further their lead in the second and third period.
The Newmarket, Ontario native is poised for a major role with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms this upcoming season barring an impressive camp that would see the 20-year-old crack the Opening Night roster. A season down in Lehigh Valley would do wonders for his development and with a new coaching staff in line to take over, Barkey could be in for a monstrous season.
As for Bonk, it wasn’t necessarily the season that he was hoping for after claiming 24 goals and 67 points in just 60 contests in 2023-24. With Dickinson taking over as the top-pair defenseman and power play specialist, Bonk took a back seat of sorts but still managed to put up 40 points in 52 games. He added 14 points in 17 playoff games and 2 assists during the Memorial Cup and was a tournament-best +7.
The former first round pick doesn’t have the show stopping abilities that some of his counterparts possess, but there was a “safety” to his selection that satiated the front office. Bonk is expected to be a consistent top-4 defenseman in his career with power play quarterbacking abilities that should become an instant boon for the Flyers whenever he finally cracks the roster.
Similarly to Barkey, Bonk is expected to make his way to the Phantoms barring an outstanding camp and fine tune his game to be NHL-ready. At 6’2” and 210 pounds, holding a right-handed shot, and smooth skating abilities, he has the makings of a solid defenseman that the Flyers desperately need to help with their offensive woes.
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