Ducks forward Ryan Poehling ‘forever grateful’ to the Flyers for helping him ‘fall in love with hockey again’

ANAHEIM, Calif. ― Ryan Poehling was on his way to the doctor after coming home sick from a trip with one of his buddies when he saw Danny Brière’s number pop up on his cell phone last June.

“I’m like, ‘Oh boy,’” Poehling recalled on Wednesday. “So I just answered, and I was like, ‘Where am I going?’ And [Brière] laughed. At that moment, you’re freaking out, you don’t really know where, and when he said Anaheim, I was fired up.”

After two years with the Flyers, Poehling was traded to the Ducks with a 2025 second-round pick and a 2026 fourth-round pick for Trevor Zegras on June 23. Poehling will take on his former teammates for the second time on Wednesday (10 p.m., NBCSP).

» READ MORE: Trevor Zegras returns to Anaheim for the first time at the top of his game. Now, can he master playing center?

The centerman has fit in nicely for the Pacific Division-leading Ducks with eight goals and 29 points in 60 games. Since the Olympic break, he’s been on a tear and is tied for fifth on the Ducks in points with three goals and seven points in 11 games. Dating back to Jan. 19, he’s fourth with 14 points in 19 games.

“Was I surprised? [More like] I’m definitely pleased,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “I’ve seen him do some good things. I think there’s more consistency to his game, but we rely on him.”

“Poehls has had a really good year for us,” added Quenneville, who is in his first year with Anaheim. “I think he had an ordinary start ... but as the season’s gone on here, the more he’s played, the better he’s played. ... He’s added to our special teams, possession game, defensively he’s been reliable, but his speed is the part that he’s really added a nice dimension to our team.”

The Flyers’ best bottom-six pivot the last few years, Poehling brought speed, scoring ability, and defensive prowess after signing a bet-on-himself, one-year deal with the Flyers in the summer of 2023. He earned himself a two-year extension in January 2024 and posted career highs in goals (12), assists (19), and points (31) last season.

The 27-year-old has taken that same skill set of being a smart, two-way center to the Ducks, where he ranks second on the team with three shorthanded points (one goal, two assists) and is first among forwards in average ice time on the penalty kill.

On March 5, Poehling signed a four-year, $15 million extension with the Ducks. A bit of a journeyman before landing in Philly, he is appreciative of the Flyers giving him a chance and helping him find consistency at the NHL level.

“So much. Honestly, it’s not even just a chance. The guys, and the people, the organization, I’m just forever grateful for them. They really made me fall in love with hockey again,” said Poehling, who is enjoying the weather in California and had dinner with some of his former Flyers teammates this week.

“My time in the pro league was just so up and down; I was playing good and then not playing good, or this and that, and just constantly, your head’s all kind of whacked out.

“So going to Philly made me fall in love with the game and just enjoy being around the rink with the guys and being able to play the game you love and play well, I owe them so much.”

His time in Philly also taught him about Public Enemy No. 1: former Flyers draft pick Cutter Gauthier. The funny thing is, the two are now linemates.

“When I was in Philly, I told Cutter, we all hated you,” Poehling said with a laugh. “That’s how it was. And now, getting to know the guy ... he’s a great hockey player, but he’s a better human, and I enjoy playing with him.”

» READ MORE: The Flyers’ power play is last in the NHL again. Here are three suggestions for how they can fix it.

Alex Bump is starting to open eyes in Philly and across the NHL for his puck possession and goal-scoring prowess. Ducks forward Tim Washe has long known what the winger can do.

“I consider him the best player I’ve played with at school,” Washe said. “I was there for five years, and what he did his first two years is so hard to do, especially in college and [in] our conference as well. He’s just so impressive, what he can do on the ice.

The forwards were teammates for two seasons at Western Michigan. In his first collegiate season, Bump was named to the National Collegiate Hockey Conference’s All-Rookie Team and was a finalist for the NCHC Rookie of the Year Award after tallying 36 points (14 goals and 22 assists) in 38 games.

Last season, donning an “A,” Bump leveled up to 23 goals and 47 points in 42 games as the Broncos won the program’s first NCAA men’s championship.

“The puck’s always finding him. It’s always on a stick,” said Washe, who was Western Michigan’s captain last season. “He’s able to shield defenders off, and he’s got a big frame. He just makes a lot of great plays with the puck.

“[At] the Frozen Four, all the other teams are focused on him, and that takes pressure off other guys. So he was always playing against the other team’s best players, and he always handled it really well.”

Washe always knew that Bump, who was a fifth-round pick by the Flyers in 2022, would make the NHL. He’s kept an eye on the winger’s first five NHL games — in which he has two goals, an assist, 13 shot attempts, and seven scoring chances — and knows it will be a tough night against his ex-teammate.

» READ MORE: Alex Bump’s inner circle and inner belief have fueled his fast rise with the Flyers

“He likes to shoot. He’s got a great shot. Playing against that, you want to get in lanes and be on him early, right? So we can’t get those off, but playing with him, you just try to find him.

“He can play in all areas of the ice, and he’s able to get the puck for himself, too, if he’s not getting it, but he just finds ways to get in the right areas and get those shots.”

According to a team source, Owen McLaughlin, a Flyers seventh-round pick in 2021, has signed a deal with Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League. McLaughlin, who hails from Spring City, Chester County, lists Brière as one of his favorite players growing up and spent his childhood skating at Oaks Center Ice and West Chester’s Ice Line. A North Dakota transfer, he just wrapped up his senior year at Boston University with five goals and 17 points in 34 games while splitting time between center and wing.