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Flyers' Travis Konecny reflects on an up and down rookie season

As Travis Konecny saw it, this was just another lesson in a season full of them for the 20-year-old Flyers rookie winger.

Konecny was used sparingly after he committed a tripping penalty 42 seconds into Tuesday's 1-0 overtime loss at New Jersey. He played just 10 minutes and 13 seconds in the game and sat for awhile after his early penalty.

"You can't have that happen in the first shift of the game," Konecny said. "It takes the momentum away from the team and puts everything in their hands."

So when coach Dave Hakstol made him sit for a while to think about it and limited his playing time for the game, Konecny got the message.

"I understand what was happening and knew what was happening," he said. "I knew I was going to get another opportunity in the game."

In 68 games, Konecny has 11 goals and 17 assists along with a 0 plus-minus rating. He was benched for two games in early February as Hakstol wanted him to observe the game from the press box. Konecny later missed nine games with a leg injury.

So it's been a bumpy first season for a player selected in the first round (24th overall) in the 2015 draft.  Konecny, however says it has been a great learning experience.

"I think eventually I will look back on these experiences I am going through and can use them, whether on the ice, or off the ice, as life lessons," he said. "Everything you learn in hockey doesn't just contribute to hockey and I know you have to work hard for everything you get."

General manager Ron Hextall was asked if he could turn the clock back and knowing everything that he knows now, would he have kept Konecny on the Flyers in October.

"Great question," Hextall said. "I think I probably would have."

Hextall then expanded on the issue.

"He is 19 years old (at the beginning of the season and turned 20 in March) and you have to be really careful with a 19-year-old in terms of his energy level and stuff which is one of the things that tends to go down as the year goes on, his stayed at a high level," Hextall said. "There are things in his game he has to get better at, but he has been a good player for us. I don't think anybody in our organization is disappointed."