ANAHEIM, Calif. ― Ryan Poehling was on his strategy to the physician after coming residence sick from a visit with certainly one of his buddies when he noticed Danny Brière’s quantity pop up on his mobile phone final 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 decide and a 2026 fourth-round decide for Trevor Zegras on June 23. Poehling will tackle his former teammates for the second time on Wednesday (10 p.m., NBCSP).
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The centerman has slot in properly for the Pacific Division-leading Ducks with eight objectives and 29 factors in 60 video games. Since the Olympic break, he’s been on a tear and is tied for fifth on the Ducks in factors with three objectives and 7 factors in 11 video games. Dating again to Jan. 19, he’s fourth with 14 factors in 19 video games.
“Was I surprised? [More like] I’m definitely pleased,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville stated. “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’s in his first 12 months 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’ greatest bottom-six pivot the previous couple of years, Poehling introduced pace, scoring skill, and defensive prowess after signing a bet-on-himself, one-year deal with the Flyers in the summer time of 2023. He earned himself a two-year extension in January 2024 and posted profession highs in objectives (12), assists (19), and factors (31) final season.
The 27-year-old has taken that very same talent set of being a sensible, two-way middle to the Ducks, the place he ranks second on the staff with three shorthanded factors (one objective, two assists) and is first amongst forwards in common ice time on the penalty kill.
On March 5, Poehling signed a four-year, $15 million extension with the Ducks. A little bit of a journeyman earlier than touchdown in Philly, he’s appreciative of the Flyers giving him an opportunity and serving to him discover consistency at the NHL degree.
“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,” stated Poehling, who’s having fun with the climate in California and had dinner with a few 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 additionally taught him about Public Enemy No. 1: former Flyers draft decide Cutter Gauthier. The humorous factor is, the two are actually linemates.
“When I was in Philly, I told Cutter, we all hated you,” Poehling stated with fun. “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.”
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Tim Washe on Alex Bump
Alex Bump is beginning to open eyes in Philly and throughout the NHL for his puck possession and goal-scoring prowess. Ducks ahead Tim Washe has lengthy recognized what the winger can do.
“I consider him the best player I’ve played with at school,” Washe stated. “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 as much as 23 objectives and 47 factors in 42 video games as the Broncos gained the program’s first NCAA males’s championship.
“The puck’s always finding him. It’s always on a stick,” stated Washe, who was Western Michigan’s captain final 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 all the time knew that Bump, who was a fifth-round decide by the Flyers in 2022, would make the NHL. He’s stored a watch on the winger’s first 5 NHL video games — through which he has two objectives, an help, 13 shot makes an attempt, and 7 scoring probabilities — and is aware of it is going to be a tricky evening towards 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.”
Breakaways
According to a staff supply, Owen McLaughlin, a Flyers seventh-round decide 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 certainly one of his favourite gamers rising up and spent his childhood skating at Oaks Center Ice and West Chester’s Ice Line. A North Dakota switch, he simply wrapped up his senior 12 months at Boston University with 5 objectives and 17 factors in 34 video games whereas splitting time between middle and wing.
