Oliver Bonk and Denver Barkey display an appetite to succeed at Flyers rookie camp

Jersey Mike’s may not be a Flyers sponsor, but it got a ringing endorsement Thursday from prospect Oliver Bonk.

After missing development camp because of bumps and bruises following a long season that ended with a Memorial Cup title on June 1, Bonk was back on the ice as the Flyers began the hockey season with rookie camp.

Confirming that he was 100% healthy, ready to go, and spent the summer working out, the former London Knights blueliner looked strong on the puck and when battling his teammates. He put several Grade A shots on goal, including a big snap shot from the point that found the back of the net.

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“Skating feels a lot better,” Bonk said. “The legs got stronger, and also in battles, just having the extra weight to kind of be able to hunker down a bit and win some battles.”

Bonk said he gained 15 pounds this summer, a good chunk in a short time span. So how does one do that exactly?

“Just eat till you’re sick,” he said. “No, seriously, you do. Then, you just work out and skate, but it’s more about just downing calories, as many as you can. Just nonstop eating pretty much.”

His go-to?

“I ate so much Jersey Mike’s this summer,” said the 6-foot-2 defenseman, who says he is 200 pounds now. ”The giant subs, I’ll eat that for like, not even like a meal, it would be in between lunch and dinner. I’ll have a 2,000-calorie sub and then I’ll go to dinner. That’s how you do it.”

According to a Yahoo! story, the giant sub is 14 inches long and is meant to feed four people. Bonk was eating that as a snack.

And it doesn’t sound as if there was any sharing between Bonk and his friend Denver Barkey. The former London captain, Barkey noted with a grin that his blueliner “got a lot bigger this summer.” He did not know that Bonk had divulged his summer eating habits.

“Yeah, we’ve been crushing those every night almost,” Barkey said with a bigger grin after he was asked if he was also eating 2,000-calorie subs.

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“I get the Italian giant [sub], Mike’s way minus the onions,” the 174-pound Barkey added.

Like their subs, this camp is a giant one for the former Knights teammates embarking on their pro careers.

Barkey is short on stature at 5-10 but big on his drive, heart, and “compete” level. The forward did not participate in development camp because of a high-ankle sprain, but he looked like he was flying again Thursday after rehabbing over the summer.

Expected to start the season with Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League, the 2023 third-round pick is coming off an 82-point season across 50 games. Barkey, 20, will bring grit and finesse to that lineup.

Bonk, also 20, could end up joining him in Allentown but should push for a spot with the Flyers once the main camp begins next week. Criticized a year ago at training camp by then-coach John Tortorella about his pace of play, Bonk looked a step ahead of his fellow prospects Thursday at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees.

“I thought he was excellent today,” said the Phantoms’ new coach, John Snowden, who is running rookie camp and paired Bonk with Hunter McDonald. “His feet were moving. He was involved in the play. I think it’s one more year, he’s getting bigger, he’s getting stronger, he’s aged a year. I think he’s confident. He’s been through this now [and] he understands what to expect when we get on the ice.”

Alex Bump, Jack Nesbitt, and Samu Tuomaala played on a line Thursday. While Nesbitt will return to Windsor of the OHL after camp, Bump and Tuomaala will head to the Flyers’ main camp, with The Inquirer projecting Bump to make the roster.

This is a make-or-break camp for Tuomaala, a second-round draft pick in 2021. The transition to the AHL has had its bumps, and he had a slight slump last year, posting 32 points (11 goals, 21 assists) --down from 15 goals and 28 assists in 2023-24 -- in 46 regular-season games before missing the end of the season and the playoffs with an injury.

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“Obviously, last year he didn’t get to play towards the end of season,” Snowden said. “So I think this is a real big opportunity for him to make a step forward and to really, really sink his teeth into ‘I don’t want to be in the American League every day; I’ve got to make a mark to get to the NHL.’

“And I think he understands that. I think that’s a position where he needs to find himself in, and when he steps in these rookie games, that’s his first step to make sure that you know, everybody in the organization knows that he wants to be an NHL player, and his process is going to get him there.”

While the Flyers’ rising stars were getting on the ice, the current roster was coming off it after putting in some work. Goalie Aleksei Kolosov was on the ice, in advance of training camp, as was new netminder Dan Vladař. … Also on the ice in purple no-contact jerseys were defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen and forward Tyson Foerster. Ristolainen has not played since March 11 and underwent surgery on a right triceps tendon rupture on March 26. He is expected to miss training camp and the start of the season. Foerster has been dealing with an elbow injury and infection. Team president Keith Jones said he expects to see Foerster on the ice for training camp. … Joining the group on the ice was South Jersey native Buddy Robinson. According to a source, he is not expected to be signed to a player tryout agreement, but could be an option for the Phantoms depending on how things fall after camp.