You’ve probably already heard or seen the news by now, but the Philadelphia Flyers sent forward Morgan Frost down to AHL Lehigh Valley earlier today. It’s just another example of how the Flyers have mismanaged Frost during his tenure with the organization. Frost is a player that is incredibly gifted offensively, as he scored 112 points and 109 points in his final two seasons with OHL Sault Ste. Marie before joining the Flyers’ professional ranks. He was a first-round pick in 2017 for good reason, with dynamic playmaking abilities and the way he could create offense with his speed and great hockey sense was something to behold.
Fast forward almost five years later since he was drafted, and the Flyers are continually trying to shove a square peg in a round hole with how they want Frost to play. They want him to focus more on his defense, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing at all. You want players to try and grow their game and become all-around contributors and be key cogs in multiple situations, but they’ve focused on this defensive development too much. It’s gotten to a point where the offensive creativity that made Frost so revered as a prospect has been seemingly sucked out of his game the more that time passes.
The Flyers have mostly used Frost in the bottom-six as a solely defensive and physical checking presence when in reality, that’s not his game and it never has been. Honestly, it never will be anyway. I’m sure this wasn’t the career trajectory Frost or Philadelphia had in mind when he was drafted in 2017, but his selector in Ron Hextall was fired about a year and a half after he traded away Brayden Schenn to St. Louis to get the picks that he’d use on Frost and Joel Farabee, and clearly Chuck Fletcher and his regime have a different outlook on what they expect from the 22 year-old Aurora, Ontario native in Frost.
It’s especially puzzling when you look at Frost’s production in Lehigh Valley compared to his production in Philadelphia. This season, Frost has racked up 5 goals and 13 assists for 18 points in just 20 games for the Phantoms while logging heavier minutes as one of the top forwards on the squad, but for whatever reason, the Flyers have done a complete 180 degree turn on his game when he’s been with the big club, and as a result he has only managed 2 goals and 5 assists for 7 points in 30 NHL contests this year.
Think about Frost’s first foray into the NHL. Remember when he scored on a very nifty move against two-time Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky on the road in Florida in his first NHL game? Remember when he was placed on a line with Claude Giroux and had immediate chemistry with him, including feeding off of him in a multi-point performance in a road win over the Carolina Hurricanes? It’s almost like when you actually put players in positions to succeed, they reap the benefits and actually perform as advertised, if not better.
The Flyers have been notorious for misdeveloping or misusing different players in the past, and hopefully Frost isn’t the next in line for them. Top defensive prospect Cam York is in the same boat as Frost, as he has also been mismanaged in a lost season. He’s looked easily like one of the top-four defensemen in Philadelphia, but the Flyers apparently think him playing in Allentown will somehow help when he’s clearly shown he’s already more than capable of being a successful, full-time NHL player while they’re still willingly employing Keith Yandle, Nick Seeler, and Kevin Connauton at the NHL level.
Apparently Morgan Frost’s abilities are better suited in the AHL as well while lesser players such as Patrick Brown, Zack MacEwen, Derick Brassard, Max Willman, and Isaac Ratcliffe are still in Philadelphia. That’s not a knock on those players at all, but rather the Flyers when they’re choosing to not ice a clearly better player that makes the team stronger and they’re either keeping him buried in the press box or with the Phantoms.
By making him play as a player that is obviously in a role that he has not thrived in, and quite frankly never will, the Flyers have rendered him ineffective for the time being. Frost needs to be involved more offensively to be successful. He needs to be given a legitimate chance to play in the top-six with actual offensive talent around him, he needs larger power play minutes, and he needs an organization that will invest in his strengths and try to develop him properly. Frost’s defensive game will come with time, he’s only 22 and he has the hockey IQ to develop into a well-rounded center as the future comes. He will never be a physical, defensive-minded bottom-six center that the Flyers are trying to mold him into for whatever reason, but he has the tools to become an offensively-gifted two-way presence at his peak.
But the Philadelphia Flyers need to let Frost play to his strengths and what makes him special, or else they’re setting him up for failure, but it will be the Philadelphia Flyers that failed Morgan Frost should that happen.
