Flyers rookie camp takeaways: Nikita Grebenkin and Alex Bump look NHL camp ready, Denver Barkey a top dog

Nikita Grebenkin bounded into the press room in Voorhees on Friday morning.

With a mop of brown hair and a grin the size of the Ben — with a few teeth missing, of course — he sat down. Though he said his English isn’t great, he showed off his positivity and good vibes.

“I enjoy every day, every time,” he said.

The thing is, on the ice, the Russian winger is a bit of a menace.

“He plays with a ton of bite,” said John Snowden, the coach for Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League who ran Flyers rookie camp. “He’s a highly skilled player, but he is not easy to play against at all. He’s going to whack you when you come off the bench, he’s going to cross-check you, he’s going to stick his nose in there. He wants to take contact and create his space.”

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Across a pair of games against the New York Rangers rookies, the 22-year-old showed why he was the key piece in the trade that sent Scott Laughton to the Toronto Maple Leafs at last season’s trade deadline. He has a high “compete” level, poise with the puck, and the ability to drive through the defense and create space for himself and his linemates.

On Friday, Grebenkin said that, compared to the previous summer when he was always in the gym, he didn’t focus on building up muscle this offseason and dropped a few pounds. The Flyers have the 6-foot-2 winger listed at 210 pounds on the training camp roster, which has helped with his endurance and energy, he said.

Known for having a good shot and playmaking skills, Grebenkin notched the overtime game-winner, taking a pass from Karsen Dorwart after he came off the bench on Friday, and added primary assists on each of the Flyers’ goals on Saturday.

When The Inquirer projected Grebenkin to make the Flyers’ top 12 out of camp in July, it was before Tyson Foerster’s status was elevated to being expected to play in the season opener. That doesn’t knock him out of contention because, as general manager Danny Brière said Tuesday, they could carry up to two extra forwards — and Grebenkin is one of the players he said looked good at rookie camp.

Here’s what else we saw at Flyers rookie camp.

Like development camp in early July, Alex Bump was a noticeable player on the ice in September. Although he didn’t get a point in the rookie series — a reminder that he didn’t get a point in his last four games for NCAA champion Western Michigan despite being the best player on the ice — the winger, whom The Inquirer projected to make the opening night roster, once again put on a show, especially on the first night of the rookie series.

“Right now, what I’m seeing in him is that his pace looks pretty good,” Snowden said. “He’s jumping into the holes when he needs to be there. He’s always attacking the interior of the rink; he’s not afraid to go there. So what we’ve talked about, the constructive criticism, the teaching points that we had for him, he’s really trying to make sure that he’s got an effort.”

While he wasn’t as noticeable Saturday until the third period, Bump proved Friday why he is someone to watch during training camp. Skating on the top line with Samu Tuomaala and 2025 draft pick Jack Nesbitt, he displayed high-end stickhandling in tight spaces, coming off the wall with spin moves, cutting to the middle, and using his legs and active feet to drive down the wall to generate several quality scoring chances for himself and his teammates.

At the end of last season, a criticism of Bump was that against bigger teams, like the Hershey Bears, whom the Phantoms played in the second round of the playoffs, he was, well, bumped off the puck easily. The 21-year-old Minnesotan is focused on making the big club and said he spent the summer working on getting bigger and stronger. It was evident in his puck possession.

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“I was kind of looking for that over the weekend there, and I thought he did a great job,” director of player development Riley Armstrong said Monday. “He wasn’t down, that I saw, like that Hershey series at the end of the year last year. And it’s crazy the amount of pucks that he comes out with. He gets hit, looks like he might fall down, stays on his feet, pulls the puck through a guy’s legs.

“I was telling him today, I said, ‘I hope my son plays like you when he’s older.’ He’s a heck of a hockey player. I’m so excited for him to get his feet wet in his first NHL camp right now, and show [Rick] Tocchet and his staff what he’s all about, too.”

As the saying goes, it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog — and Denver Barkey has a ton of that, plus grit and moxie.

Sure, at just 5-10, 174 pounds, Barkey is at a disadvantage compared to the size of the players that litter NHL and AHL rosters. But in the only game he played in the rookie series, the way he drove through players and got in their faces showed that he should not be discounted.

The former London captain in the Ontario Hockey League is known for having more determination and will than anybody. Barkey opened eyes, however, with his speed, hockey IQ, puck possession and patience, and high-end passing ability. Looking completely healed from his high-ankle sprain, Barkey used his quickness, leverage, and ability to win pucks to beat the Rangers defense at every turn.

Called “a heck of a hockey player” by Snowden, the guy who crushed a ton of Jersey Mike’s over the summer to add good weight with his good friend Oliver Bonk notched a goal that cut the Rangers’ lead in half Friday off a nifty cross-ice pass out of the corner from the newly acquired Tucker Robertson.

“I call him like a little mini [Travis Konecny],” Armstrong said of Barkey. “He’s all over the puck. He’s grimy when he doesn’t have the puck. He’s always working to get the puck back. He’s really good with his stick picking pockets, transitioning, and his eyes are up; I don’t think a little guy like that skating around, his head down, is going to last very long in the game. But when you watch him go into corners, and he’s not afraid of that, he’s quick to get in, he’s quick to get out.”

The rookie camp attendees will be sticking around for the Flyers’ main camp, and this is a big one for Samu Tuomaala. Once touted as a potential call-up, he is coming off what he called a frustrating season marred by injury and sickness. Focused this season on staying healthy and to “just take the next step and make the Flyers at some point,” he played well on the top line and even dropped the gloves, shocking everyone. “Whenever he is engaged in the games, he gets more chances to score, his skill pops out a little bit more,” Armstrong said. “And when he’s not playing like that, he kind of just turns into an average player. So it was good to see him come out hitting guys, finishing checks, being on the forecheck.”

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After flying around development camp, Karsen Dorwart kept his speed up among the rookies. With quickness and strength, he used his legs to set up Alexis Gendron for a short-handed goal and weaved his way around the Rangers’ zone before hitting Grebenkin for the overtime winner on Friday. Dorwart’s goal is, of course, to start the season like he ended the last one: on the NHL roster.

Although the expectation is that Nesbitt will return to Windsor of the Ontario Hockey League soon, Armstrong says not so fast. “Kind of see what happens to him, but I really think once he gets out there [at training camp] and starts playing … he’s going to give himself the best opportunity,” he said. Nesbitt, for whom the Flyers traded two picks to snag at No. 12 in June, has looked impressive. Using his 6-4, 192-pound frame, he showed he can be a puck mover, maintain possession, make smart passes, has a big shot, drives to the net and the dirty areas, and does not shy away from physicality.

As Brière noted, there will be internal competitions and several AHL players could make pushes when training camp opens Thursday. Jacob Gaucher, who made his NHL debut last season, Gendron, and Ethan Samson all played well during the series and lit the lamp. Gaucher’s goal was set up by Devin Kaplan, who made several nice plays for the setup, and Samson scored on Saturday after walking into the left face-off circle for a precision shot. It’s a critical year for all three, who will be restricted free agents next July 1.