What I Saw from Flyers Rookie Helge Grans in His NHL Debut

The Philadelphia Flyers have an injury problem on defense. A regression to the mean, if you will, after surviving nearly unscathed until March of last season. As a result, top defense prospect Helge Grans made his NHL debut against the Colorado Avalanche in a 3-2 loss on Monday night.

Grans, 22, played 16:11 in his NHL debut, recording a secondary assist, two shots on goal, a plus-2 rating, a penalty, and logging 26 shifts. By the start of the third period, head coach John Tortorella moved Grans up to the top defense pair next to Travis Sanheim with the Flyers in need of offense.

So, how did Grans look?

“He didn’t look out of place,” Tortorella said after the game. “He played good.”

The one thing that was apparent with Grans right away was his willingness to move up in the play. Both of his scoring chances came from ideal shooting locations, and though he didn’t score on either, his shot is definitely NHL-caliber in terms of power.

Tortorella decidedly saw Grans as one of the Flyers’ best puck movers, which is why he ended up with Sanheim after only two periods.

The 22-year-old rookie did have one gaffe in the first period, hesitating to pinch along the right wall and getting beaten in transition as a result. Grans doesn’t have the greatest straight line speed out there, but this is the Colorado Avalanche he was up against.

The young Swede does, however, have above-average agility and four-way mobility, especially for a guy of his size. At 6-foot-3, 200 pounds, Grans has a long reach and isn’t easy to get around when he keeps plays in front of him.

It did appear that Grans has room to get stronger as he was a little inconsistent in his puck battles on the boards, but there could also be a level of adjustment there jumping up to the NHL level like he has.

What the numbers say about Helge Grans, Flyers

Helge Grans played 5:07 against superstar defenseman Cale Makar at 5-on-5 on Monday night. The Flyers had 10 shot attempts to the Avalanche’s four in that time, scored a goal, and generated four scoring chances to the Avalanche’s zero, per Natural Stat Trick. Is that good?

Okay, but Makar is a defenseman. What about the Avalanche’s star forwards?

With Mikko Rantanen on the ice against Grans, the Flyers led shot attempts 9-1, scored twice, and generated seven scoring chances to Colorado’s zero in 3:16.

In 3:42 against Nathan MacKinnon, the Flyers edged the shot attempts 4-3, scored once, and had two scoring chances to Colorado’s one.

We can’t say that Grans is the Flyers’ next superstar after playing third pairing minutes in an NHL debut that ended in a loss, but there is a lot to love about his performance.

If Grans can do it again against the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday night, it might be time for the Flyers to have an honest conversation with themselves. Fellow rookie Emil Andrae was proving indispensable before he suffered his injury. If Grans does the same, what do you do?

Sending either of the two back down to the AHL after stud performances would perceivably send the wrong message. The jury is still out on Egor Zamula and Jamie Drysdale, too, and Cam York and Travis Sanheim aren’t going anywhere.

At 22 years old and heading into restricted free agency, Grans has made a monumental first step in advancing his career after nearly 200 games in the AHL. Now we wait and see if he keeps it up.