Jamie Drysdale has rebuilt his defensive game. Now, his immense offensive potential is starting to pop again.

SAINT PAUL, Minn. ― Jamie Drysdale’s game continues on an upward trajectory, on both ends of the rink.

But just how high can the 23-year-old rise? It’s hard to gauge at this moment in time, but for Rick Tocchet, there’s a guy on the Minnesota Wild bench that the coach believes the Flyers defenseman can model his game after, in Quinn Hughes.

Standing in the bowels of Grand Casino Arena, formerly the Xcel Energy Center, Tocchet called the gold-medal-winner Hughes, whom he coached the past few seasons in Vancouver, “driven,” “a difference maker,” “a hockey nerd,” and someone who ”defends with his brain, his quickness."

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“The one thing I love about him, he’s a high-wire act. There’ll be a winger on him, and somebody will come flying at him, and most [defensemen] will just reset the puck. He’s like, nope,” said Tocchet, adding that of Thursday’s 15-minute pre-scout meeting, probably 12 will be spent on containing Hughes.

“He’ll take him on, like a basketball guy, and he’ll beat somebody. That’s a quality that is hard to find, right? He just doesn’t defer to throw it away. He goes, OK, I’ll go around you then. And then, when he goes around you, he’s got a free lane to the net.”

Does he see Drysdale, who was drafted two years after Hughes, developing in the same vein?

“He has the ability to do that ... Jamie is like Quinn in the obsession to do that or to work on that, yes, he does have that in him,” Tocchet said.

Drysdale is putting in the work. He’s often spotted on the ice after practice wraps up to work on his game.

And it has paid off.

After posting a minus-32 rating last season, Drysdale has improved to minus-6 in a season when he has notably taken significant strides with his defensive game. But now, the Flyers blueliner, who has long been known for his high-end skating and puck skills, is building back up his offensive game, too.

On Wednesday, Drysdale tied his career high, set last season in 70 games, with his seventh goal in Game 61. The tally came after the puck popped off the stick of Noah Cates, when he tried a wraparound, to Drysdale.

The defenseman showed patience, confidence, and a high hockey IQ by creating space by walking the line and skating laterally before firing the puck past Washington’s Logan Thompson.

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“I think guys are real good at getting in the lanes in this league, and it’s not fun hitting their shin pads all the time,” he said after the game about moving to create a lane. “So, got to figure out a way to get through.”

There has been pressure on the Flyers, and especially their defensive corps, to get more shots through to the net. Entering Monday’s game against the New York Rangers, the Orange and Black hadn’t topped more than 17 in three of the previous four games.

Tocchet reiterated that on Monday when he recalled that his team was last in the NHL in shots from the point.

“I think it’s just having a shooting mindset, not looking for perfect plays. We’ve been resetting a lot of pucks, which is fine, but it kind of just brings you back to where you were before you got the puck,” Drysdale said.

“So, staying in the middle, in between the dots, just being in places where you can get shots through and shots on net and just having a shooter’s mentality.”

Always calm, Todd Reirden must have been thrilled on the bench watching that goal by the young Canadian defenseman. It’s what the assistant coach has been stressing with his group of late.

“Todd’s really working with them on creating shots with lanes and feet position, when a team swarms down, try to be more in the middle of the ice than by the boards,” Tocchet said Monday.

Now the idea is to find a happy medium with Drysdale, where he is playing a well-rounded game and being a force at both ends of the ice. Four of his goals this season have come in the last 10 games.

“When you talk about [Cam York] and Jamie, yeah, we want them to shoot the puck more ... but they’ve been really defending well,” Tocchet said. “So it’s just, it’s just baby steps with those guys, and I think they’ve done a terrific job at five-on-five.”

Dan Vladař (20-11-6, .903 save percentage) is expected to start in goal Thursday against Minnesota after Sam Ersson was between the pipes on Wednesday. ... Former Flyers forward Bobby Brink, who was traded to the Wild on Friday for defenseman David Jiříček, is a game-time decision after taking a nasty hit earlier this week.

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