Flyers sign prospect Noah Powell to entry-level deal out of Arizona State
Powell, 21, has turned heads at the last two development camps and will report to Lehigh Valley. The winger, who is hearing impaired, is known for his shot, energy, and hard-nosed style of play.
With the NCAA men’s hockey season winding down, the college signing watch is well underway, and the Flyers are expected to be busy.
While the Flyers will have to wait a little bit longer to sign top prospect Porter Martone, who will participate in the NCAA Tournament with Michigan State, they inked forward Noah Powell to a three-year entry-level deal on Wednesday. Powell will join Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League for the remainder of the season.
Powell, 21, spent this season at Arizona State, where he tallied seven goals and 12 points in 34 games for the Sun Devils. A fifth-round pick of the Flyers in 2024, Powell split last year between Ohio State and the Oshawa Generals of the Ontario Hockey League.
The 6-foot-2, 215-pound winger has turned some heads at the last two development camps, showcasing his scoring touch, a nose for the puck, and a willingness to throw his body around as a disrupter. During this year’s three-on-three scrimmage, he scored a goal and destroyed Alex Bump with an open-ice hit in a strong showing.
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A prolific goal scorer in the United States Hockey League — Powell had 43 for Dubuque in his final year before being drafted — he projects as more of a bottom-six energy guy/forechecker if he is to make it at the NHL level.
“First of all, he’s got a great attitude,” Flyers assistant general manager Brent Flahr said of Powell in 2024. “He came in, great shape, very strong. But you can see how he can score goals in juniors because of his strength, his strength on the puck, his ability to shoot the puck, and his willingness to go to the hard areas and get his nose in there. Real determined kid and he’s just one of those players that the puck just follows. Whether it’s hockey sense or whatever it is, the puck follows him and he gets his looks at the net and he’s willing to pay a price and get his nose in there to score goals.”
Powell, who was born with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, wears hearing aids and reads lips to understand, and has never let his hearing impairment get in the way of his dream of playing pro hockey. In 2024, he formed a connection with a local boy named Howard James, then 7 years old, who plays for Snider Hockey and is also hearing impaired.
“The way I used to look at it and explain was just glasses for your ears,” Powell said of his hearing aids. “Just like a simple way to put it out there because it’s not something you see every day. So, yeah, I understood [James’] mom’s questions because my mom had the same questions. And sometimes, we didn’t really have the answers, so it’s unique to be able to give someone the answers and hopefully, he’s in a better spot than I was at his age.”
With Powell signed, eyes will turn to Notre Dame’s Cole Knuble and Boston University’s Owen McLaughlin, both of whom play in their conference tournaments on Wednesday. With neither player’s school expected to make the NCAAs, both could be in position to sign as early as Thursday with a loss.
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Knuble, the son of former Flyers fan favorite Mike Knuble, was recently name-checked by GM Danny Brière in an interview with The Inquirer as an underrated prospect to watch. A fourth-round pick of the Flyers in 2023, the centerman had nine goals and 31 points in 35 games this season as a junior.
The Flyers will have more of a decision to make with McLaughlin, who has had a so-so season with Boston University after transferring from North Dakota. The Phoenixville native, who turns 23 later this month, is an older prospect and has stagnated a bit since being selected in the seventh round by the Flyers in 2021.
Martone and his Michigan State teammate Shane Vansaghi are two other prospects who could sign with the Flyers before season’s end, while the Flyers could also look to add a player or two from the college free agent pool, as they did last season with Karsen Dorwart.
The NCAA Tournament regionals begin on March 26, so the earliest Martone, and potentially Vansaghi, could sign would be then. The Frozen Four will be played in Las Vegas from April 9-11. If Michigan State makes the Frozen Four, the Flyers would have only two or three games — depending on whether the Spartans won or lost their semifinal — remaining in the season for Martone to make his NHL debut.