VOORHEES, N.J. – You won’t need a program to identify Maksim Sokolovskii if he skates out onto the ice and plays for the Flyers someday.
He’s the real tall one.
At 6-foot-7, the recent first-round (27th overall) draft pick is one of the tallest players in franchise history.
As general manager Daniel Briere pointed out at last Friday’s NHL Draft, there’s still a lot of work to be done with the towering 17-year-old defenseman.
But the good news is, it sounds like the native of Kazakhstan is willing to put in the time and effort to get the job done.
Currently he’s participating in the annual Development Camp at the Flyers Training Center and getting a feel for what it’s going to be like on the road ahead.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle for him to date is getting a grasp of the English language. It’s getting better but each day there’s a new challenge.
“I understand more,” he said. Asked if this has helped him communicate with his teammates, he quickly responded with a “yes.”
One of the reasons the Flyers decided to draft Sokolovskii was because he played for coach Dale Hunter, a former NHL star, last year on the London Knights, a perennial powerhouse in Canadian junior hockey.
He’s going to play for the Knights in the upcoming season and then it’s on to the University of Maine.
For now, the Flyers just want him to work on the defensive side of the game.
“They told me they want me to play on defense,” he said. “They told me I can’t play in the NHL if you don’t play defense.”
Sokolovskii was a plus-10 with the Knights last season.
Asked if he feels like he’s an intimidating presence on the ice, he grinned and said, “yeah.”
Height seems to be a common trait in Maksim’s family. His dad is 6-foot-4.
Naturally a player of that stature would endure his share of teasing – like “how’s the weather up there?” – as he grew up, and he confirmed that with a “yeah.”
Development coach Riley Armstrong has been impressed by what he’s seen of Sokolovskii so far.
“His skating is probably weak,” Armstrong said. “I felt when we were doing the power skating here, there were some parts that got exposed.
“But then he was doing the puck retrievals and his deception with his feet and moving, I was actually surprised by how fluid he was with that at his size. I think he has a lot of upside to him. When you are that tall, you have a lot of growth to grow into that (238-pound) body at such a young age.”
The physical side of Sokolovskii’s game is already apparent.
“I would probably guess in London (OHL) next year,” Armstrong began, “once he has the ability to start joining the rush more, now they know he can defend and he’s good at it, you see some of the bone-crushing hits and a couple of the fights he was in, I think he’s going to have more space next year, guys will be a little more scared of him.
“I think that’s going to open the offensive side of his game. I’d like to see him put a couple in the back of the net as well.”
>Berglund a limited participant
Jack Berglund, a second-round pick in 2024, has seen limited skating action in camp because, as Armstrong pointed out, he played a lot of hockey this past year for four different teams, including five games with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
“He put a lot of miles on,” Armstrong said. “He wanted to come, he wanted to be a leader. All the young guys coming in, they’re looking up to him. They watch how they manuever around the locker room.”
>Luchanko on the mend
Former first-round pick Jett Luchanko hasn’t been participating in drills. “He’s got a little lower-body thing going on,” Armstrong said. “He should be back skating next week. He’ll be ready for training camp (in September).” Luchanko said he’s had this issue for a couple years but he agrees with Armstrong that he will be ready for training camp in the fall.
>Grundstrom signed
Cross Carl Grundstrom off the list of Flyers’ unsigned players. Just a day before the start of free agency, Grundstrom was inked to a one-year, $1-million contract on Tuesday.
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