Offseason Spotlight: Ryan Poehling
With 2024 Rookie Camp starting and the Flyers' main camp just a week away, the final installment of our Offseason Spotlight series looks at one of last season's pleasant surprises: center Ryan Poehling.
By Bill Meltzer @billmeltzer philadelphiaflyers.com
With 2024 Rookie Camp starting and the Flyers' main camp just a week away, the final installment of our Offseason Spotlight series looks at one of last season's pleasant surprises: center Ryan Poehling.
Last summer, Poehling's NHL career was at a crossroads. An unrestricted free agent after the Pittsburgh Penguins elected not to tender him a qualifying offer, Poehling signed a one-year, $1.4 million deal with the Flyers. His strong overall play during the season earned Poehling a preemptive two-year extension ($1.9 million average annual value) that kicks in for the 2024-25 campaign.
Now 25 years old, Poehling seems to have found a home with the Flyers organization. He will enter 2024 camp with a secure roster spot, the trust of head coach John Tortorella, and a now well-established line combination with veteran Garnet Hathaway.
In fact, down the stretch last season, there were multiple games in which Poehling's line was used as Philadelphia's de facto second line in terms of usage at 5-on-5. While their widest use over the course of last season was as the backbone of the fourth line, Poehling in particular showed versatility in being deployed in different situations without altering his identity as a player.
"I felt comfortable here almost right away," Poehling said in an Exit Day interview with Flyers Daily. "The group we have, the identity we have when we play our game, it's been a good fit."
Originally selected by the Montreal Canadiens in the first round (25th overall) of the 2017 Entry Draft, Poehling's hat trick in his NHL debut game may have set expectations a little too high at the outset of his career. SInce that time, he's shown hints of some offensive upside (including 11 goals and 28 points for the Flyers). Hathaway, for one, opined after last season that he thinks Poehling's offensive contributions can grow further.
"I see at practice a lot and during games [that] Poehls has skills," Hathaway said. "He can check, obviously, but he has an offensive game, too. I think he's a very easy linemate to play with."
At its root, however, Poehling's combination of above-average size, speed, fundamentally sound foundation to his game and strong worth ethic have found him a niche in the National Hockey League. He came to Philadelphia last year highly recommended to Tortorella by Pittsburgh head coach Mike Sullivan for these exact reasons.
"Right from the get-go, I was impressed that Poehls signed a one-year 'prove it' deal to come here," Tortorella said on January 26, "He bet on himself. In terms of his game, yeah, he has good feet as well as size. He plays the right way and he's one of the players a coach doesn't have to worry about in that way."
Last season, Poehling established new NHL career highs with an average 15 minutes of ice time per game (which increased further over the final month of the campaign) and his first career double-digit goal season. He was a regular on the penalty kill (including three shorthanded goals) Poehling even saw sporadic power play duty stationed near the net.
Poehling has shown that is particularly effective at using his 6-foot-2 frame and agile feet to take the puck from the perimeter and cut inside the hash marks. On several occasions last season, Poehling even turned such moves into goals by elevating a bar-down shot over the goalie from the dot down.
Poehling posted a 49.1 percent mark in the faceoff dot for the Flyers last season. This marked a career high to date. However, there's still room for improvement. Poehling has the potential to land on the positive end of the break-even mark draws as he hits what should be his prime years as a well-rounded NHL role player.