New Flyers Forward Ryan Poehling Says He’s Ready For ‘Something Special’ In Philly

Ryan Poehling said he saw in the Philadelphia Flyers an opportunity and challenge he wanted to tackle.

“I always, throughout my life, just wanted to be part of something special,” Poehling said. “Being part of something that starts from the ground up. I think this is an opportunity to do just that.”

The Philadelphia Flyers are undertaking a rebuild. Poehling is cool with it.

The Flyers announced Poehling’s free-agent deal Saturday. The former Penguins forward’s contract is for one year and $1.4 million. He was mostly a third-line and fourth-line center in Pittsburgh.

“I just want to prove myself,” said Poehling, 24, who’s from Lakeville, Minn.

“I think that’s the biggest thing, is you can never bet on yourself too much. I’m excited for the challenge. For me, it’s just doing what I do best, and that’s competing hard, playing hard, and trying to become better every single day.

“But that’s just not myself. I think that’s the team aspect that we’re going to have moving forward, too, so I’m looking forward to all of those things.”

Character Guy

Flyers general manager Daniel Briere is impressed that Poehling is willing to bet on himself. He sees many ways the speedy and versatile Poehling can help. For Poehling, the Flyers represent an opportunity for ice time and an expanded role. In Pittsburgh last season, he averaged 11:46 of ice time per game. His four-year average for ice time is 11:40. By comparison, Scott Laughton averaged 18:17 per game and Owen Tippett averaged 17:26 last season.

“I think the opportunity that he’s facing here, he has a chance to move up and down the lineup depending on how he plays,” Briere said.

“I think the type of person he is, he’s a character guy. Obviously he showed it by betting on himself. Shows the type of character that he didn’t take the longer, secure deal.

“He wants to earn it. I think he’ll have that chance with Torts [Flyers coach John Tortorella]. Torts is fair.

“What I like about him is he can kill penalties. He can play the middle. He brings us speed. An area that we wanted to improve on also in our bottom six. He hits a lot of points and obviously the age factor made it a no-brainer.”

Fast Style Of Play

Montreal selected Poehling with the 25th overall pick in 2017. In three seasons with the Canadiens, Poehling played 85 games and scored 13 goals and nine assists. He scored three goals in his first game with Montreal.

Last season was his only one in Pittsburgh. He scored seven goals and seven assists in 53 games. In the Black Friday game in Philadelphia, he scored two goals in a 4-1 Penguins victory.

“I think Pittsburgh was kinda the same way, where we played fast, we play hard,” Poehling said.

“I think that’s a good style that fits my game. I love getting the puck deep and getting to work and putting pressure on the other team and then using my speed to create offense.

“I’m definitely excited forward for it. I heard he’s [Tortorella] hard and he’s fair. That’s all you ask for out of a coach.”

‘Weird’ Injury

Poehling missed games last season with what he called “a weird injury” that officially was an upper-body injury.

“I had a lot of time off and I took my health seriously,” he said. “It’s still a battle that I’m kinda working through. Not saying I’m 100 percent healthy but I’m working through in a sense that I just need to stay on top of my body.

“Honestly, in retrospect, in the long term, it’s helpful because you realize I need to do better things in order to stay healthy and I felt great this summer and it’s been a big part of what’s made me feel so good.”

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