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Quick Hits: September 4, 2024
1)This week on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com, we are wrapping up the profiles in the Offseason Spotlight series. First up is Travis Sanheim.
Sanheim is coming off his second Barry Ashbee Trophy as the team's top blueliner. In 2023-24, he put a down year from the previous campaign behind him to have arguably the best overall season of his NHL career to date. By default, he's the Flyers' No. 1 defenseman on the depth chart although frequent defense partner Cam York is closing in on that designation.
2) Up next in the Offseason Spotlight series is Egor Zamula. Last season, in his fourth pro season, Zamula became a semi-regular in the Flyers starting lineup. He led Flyers defensemen with nine power play points and ranked tied with Travis Konecny for second on the team (Morgan Frost led with 11 power play points in that category).
Later this week, this year's Offseason Spotlights will conclude with looks at Scott Laughton and Ryan Poehling.
3) Today in Flyers History: 1976 Canada Cup
The inaugural edition of the Canada Cup tournament opened 48 years ago this week with eventual champion Team Canada destroying an overmatched Team Finland, 11-2, in the opener and the Soviet Union getting upset by Czechoslovakia, 5-3, the next night (Sept. 3, 1976).
Flyers captain Bobby Clarke, by now a three-time Hart Trophy winner, served as the captain of Team Canada. He was joined by his Philadelphia linemates Bill Barber and Reggie Leach, as well as defenseman Jimmy Watson.
In the deciding game of the best-of-three championship round between Canada and Czechoslovakia (Sept. 15), the Canadian side trailed 4-3 with time ticking down in the third period. At the 17:48 mark, Barber scored to force overtime. Clarke and Leach earned the asssists. Earlier in the third period, Clarke tallied on the power play to give Canada a short-lived 3-2 lead before the Czechs scored the next two goals.
Toronto Maple Leafs star Darryl Sittler, who became a Flyer during the latter stages of his career and had a 40-goal season for Philadelphia, ended the series with the championship-winning goal at 11:33 of overtime.
4) Today in Flyers History: On Sept. 4, 1979, a long-forgotten but interesting mini-saga in Flyers history came to an end when the organization traded forward Dennis Sobchuk to the Detroit Red Wings for a 1981 fourth-round pick (Dave Michayluk).
Five years earlier, Sobchuk had been one of the most dominant players to come down the pike in Canadian junior hockey. Boasting a combination of good size (6-foot-2) and good hands, he tore apart the Western league for 123 points at age 17, 147 points at 18 and 146 points at 19. Under the NHL Draft rules of the time, players could not be drafted until they were 20.
The fledgling World Hockey Association, looking to gain any competitive advantage it could get in its uphill (and ultimately failed) battle to compete with the NHL, tried to get the jump on the NHL by signing top underage players who were not yet eligible to be drafted by National Hockey League teams. The most notable examples from an historical standpoint were Wayne Gretzky, Mark Howe (who was joined by his father, Gordie Howe and brother Marty Howe on the Houston Aeros), and Mark Messier. However, the first underager to sign in the WHA was Sobchuk, who signed with the Phoenix Roadrunners.
If not for his unavailability, Sobchuk would have been an NHL first-round pick when he finally became eligible for the NHL Draft in 1974. Instead, he slid down to the fifth round. The defending Stanley Cup champion Flyers rolled the dice on being able to pry Sobchuk away from the WHA and selected him with the 89th overall pick.
Flyers general manager Keith Allen had an excellent track record of getting the players he wanted, and for preventing WHA teams from signing away Philadelphia players. The one guy he couldn't get was Sobchuk, whose WHA career began with seasons of 32, 32, and 44 goals along with 77, 72 and 96 points for Phoenix and the Cincinnati Stingers. For several years, Allen and the Flyers tried unsuccessfully to bring Sobchuk to Philadelphia.
Sobchuk's career path leveled off after an injury, however. After a couple of ineffective seasons, the Flyers' interest cooled off on him. Nevertheless, after the NHL merged with the WHA, the Flyers exercised their draft rights to the player in the 1979 Reclaim Draft. By now, the intent was not to keep the player but to get something back for him.
After reclaiming him, the Flyers left Sobchuk exposed to the 1979 Expansion Draft, but added him to the protected list after Bernie Johnson was taken off the roster. The Flyers then subsequently traded Sobchuk to Detroit. He went on to play 35 NHL games for the Red Wings and Quebec Nordiques, posting five goals and 11 points.
5) September 4 Flyers Alumni birthday: John Vanbiesbrouck (1963).
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