No reason for Flyers, or anyone else, to worry about Patrick yet

While playing in the Western Hockey League last season, for the Brandon Wheat Kings, Nolan Patrick had 46 points, including 20 goals in 33 games. He missed 35 games, though, because of two sports hernias, both of which caused knife-sharp pain to radiate throughout his lower stomach whenever he skated. He was asked Friday, during the Flyers' development camp at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, how healthy he really was when he did make it on the ice. He estimated 75 at best, 60 percent at worst. Still, the injuries — and his decision to have William Meyers surgically repair one of the hernias on June 13, 10 days before the NHL draft — seemed to have contributed to his descent from the prohibitive No. 1 pick to No. 2, where the Flyers scooped him up.

The drop was understandable. I mean, the nerve of the kid, playing hurt.

"I just didn't want to miss the whole season my draft year," Patrick said. "So I just tried to play as much as I could, and then I just wanted to wait to see what the best options were. I talked to a few other doctors in Winnipeg, and they said Meyers was a top guy in that area. So I just waited to see him. Apparently going into surgery in shape, you recover quicker, so I just tried to train as much as I could. I knew something was bugging me, so I waited to see him and got it done after that."

There was much Sturm und Drang last week when the Flyers made Patrick's surgery public and, in turn, announced that he wouldn't participate in the development camp. Had they drafted a 6-foot-2, 199-pound, 18-year-old pile of damaged goods? Did the New Jersey Devils, by choosing Nico Hischier over Patrick, know something that the Flyers didn't? How far behind would Patrick be by sitting out the camp? The questions were all a bit overwrought. Patrick's surgery was something of an open secret among NHL teams, according to a person with knowledge of the Devils' thinking about the draft, and their belief that Hischier's fast, recent improvement in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League made him, ultimately, a better prospect than Patrick was the driving force behind their decision.

As for the camp, if you're of the opinion that the No. 2 overall pick's career in the NHL will be made or broken by how tightly he curls around cones or whether he gets the better of a stand-in goaltender during a shooting drill, there's probably not much anyone can say to persuade you otherwise. Besides, Patrick said he'll begin skating again next week. "It is not evaluation camp, and they made that clear to us," he said. "We are working on skills and development. Obviously, I am going to put in a little more work than other players after coming back from an injury. I'm ready to do that." The things that Patrick needs to learn to excel with the Flyers, this camp will not teach him.

"For all players at that age, it's the maturity level: getting stronger, working on your aspects of the game, playing at a higher pace, playing against men," said Grant Armstrong, the Wheat Kings' general manager. "Those are things that I think all draft-eligible players need to continue to work on to play at the NHL level.

"Every day is unique with Nolan because he handles himself like a professional. There wasn't much that you would suggest in his game that surprises you. He competes hard and works hard, and there's a moment when he makes a play that makes his teammates better and you go, 'Wow, that's the complete product.' His strength is in the way he sees the game and reads the ice and makes his teammates better."

Assuming he ends up on the Flyers' opening-night roster — "That would honestly be a huge honor," he said  — Patrick will be perhaps the wildest card on a team with questions throughout its lineup. The Flyers are flush with centers: Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier, Valtteri Filppula, Jori Lehtera, Patrick. Lehtera would seem the likely candidate to move out to left wing. He has played there before. Filppula's acquisition at last season's trade deadline allowed Couturier to move back to more of a third-line role and appeared to inspire him; over his final 19 games, he had 17 points and was a plus-18. It wouldn't make much sense to move either of them. And Patrick, who was regarded as the prospect in this draft most prepared to play in the NHL immediately, spent exactly one period at wing in his three years with the Wheat Kings.

How did that period go?

"I got moved to center right after," he said. "So …"

So he went back to center, where he played hurt, sometimes at 60 percent of himself. Training camp starts in late September. The fun of the fall for the Flyers will be the sight of him at 100.