Philadelphia Flyers

Flyers Sign Vecchione, Read Injury, Willie O'Ree Skills Weekend
March 31, 2017, 10:47 AM ET [166 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
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FLYERS SIGN VECCHIONE TO ELC

Hobey Baker Award finalist Mike Vecchione has chosen the Philadelphia Flyers among the many NHL teams courting his services. The team announced today that it has signed the 24-year-old free agent to a one-year entry level contract.

Vecchione will join the Flyers this season, although he will not play in Saturday's game against the New Jersey Devils. according to Flyers general manager Ron Hextall. What this means: Vecchione will be a restricted free agent this summer and a longer-term deal will be negotiated with the Flyers. He is exempt from the NHL Expansion Draft.

"It's one of those things when a guy is in demand," Hextall said of the team's willingness to immediately burn the player's ELC. "You want to get in the game or get out of the game. If you're not going to bring him right in, you're out of the game."

The player, who attended the Flyers' Development Camp last July but previously attended camps with other organizations, said that he did not need much persuading from former Union College teammate Shayne Gostisbehere to opt for the Flyers.

Vecchione also noted that he prefers to play center. If that's the plan with the Flyers, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare could be moved to a wing because the first three centers (Claude Giroux, Valtteri Filppula and Sean Couturier) are set in their spots.

Although Vecchione is listed at 5-foot-10, he is no pushover. He plays with some feisty competitiveness to his game and is deceptively strong. His primary assets, though, are his speed, hockey sense and all-around game. Flyers fans need to be realistic about setting point total expectations for the player at the NHL level, but he is someone capable of chipping in various ways including offensively.

The Flyers also announced that Matt Read, who suffered an upper-body injury while blocking a shot late in Thursday night's 6-3 win against the Islanders, will miss the rest of the season and is on a six-to-eight week rehabilitation timeline. He finishes the season with 10 goals, 19 points, a plus-three at even strength and eight penalty minutes. Read is signed for one more season.

In place of Read, either Roman Lyubimov or Nick Cousins (if ready to play) will start for the Flyers on Saturday against the Devils. More interesting is to see where Vecchione fits in the roster plan over the summer. Oskar Lindblom is expected to be part of the NHL lineup next season. It is also likely the organization would like to re-sign impending unrestricted free agent Jordan Weal, who has looked like he belongs in the NHL moving forward.

Could the Flyers buy out Read? They could, but then they'd have a one-third cap hit for two years instead of just riding out the final season of his contract. It will also be interesting to see how Michael Raffl, Cousins, Scott Laughton and Taylor Leier fit into the off-season planning both from an expansion draft exposure/ protection and from a roster planning perspective.

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WILLIE O'REE IN PHILADELPHIA FOR SKILLS WEEKEND

When Jackie Robinson broke the Major League Baseball color barrier, he had been handpicked to do so by Branch Rickey not only because of his athletic skills and competitiveness on the field but also for his intellect, commitment to his principles and perseverance. Often called the "Jackie Robinson of hockey," Willie O'Ree embodies all of those same traits.

In Mr. O'Ree's case, however, the legacy as the NHL's first black player was never highly publicized until many years later. The Fredericton, New Brunswick native's driving ambition as a young man was simply to become a professional hockey player, not a societal trailblazer. That is, however, exactly what he did become, and his tireless post-playing career work in providing opportunities, inspiration and guidance for underprivileged and at-risk youths has been even more extraordinary.

Quite simply, Willie O'Ree is a living legend because he is such a compelling, humble and approachable man. The fact that he successfully played his entire two-plus decade pro career blind in his right eye (without ever letting anyone know) would be an amazing story in its own right. Add this to his historical stature, charisma, and the plain-spoken eloquence of someone who speaks from authority and it is easy to see why he captivates whomever he meets.

This weekend, from Friday through Sunday, Mr. O'Ree is in Philadelphia in conjunction with his work with Hockey Is for Everyone and the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation (for whom he serves as a member of the executive board). Fifty-five youth hockey players from inner-city backgrounds around the country are here to participate in the Willie O'Ree Skills Weekend, which emphasizes character-building and commitment as much as physical skill development.

O'Ree said that programs such as Snider Hockey, Ice Hockey in Harlem and Hockey Is for Everyone have been succeeding in their collective goal of not just providing introductions and opportunities to play hockey to young people who never otherwise would had access to the sport but in using hockey as a vehicle to build skills and commitment to succeed academically and in the game of life.

"Once we get the kids on the ice, I've never had anyone say, 'This isn't for me, I'm not coming back.' If they can't skate, we [teach] them. That's a first step to learning... You have to set goals, because goal-setting is vital to success," O'Ree said.

"You can do anything you set your mind to do,’ but you have to feel strongly within your heart and within your mind. If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you’re right.

"Hockey is a path of self-discovery. Everyone is three different people: the person who you think you are, the person who others think you are, and the person who you really are. You have to find that person you really are, set goals that are meaningful to you and then be committed to meeting those goals no matter what it takes. That's how you succeed."

O'Ree said that the kids who participate in these programs and take the goal-setting message to heart -- through finding their own inner strength, by identifying positive role models and mentors, embracing opportunities and simply by having fun and enjoying being part of a team working toward a united goal -- have been flourishing. They take pride in their education, find productive outlets for their energy. They forge positive bonds and steer away from the all-too-common paths that lead to entrapment in drugs and gangs.

Mr. O'Ree himself is such an inspirational figure -- not just to hockey players from minority backgrounds and not even just to hockey players in general but to anyone who is familiar with his life story -- that it is easy to see why people can't help but gravitate toward him. Even in his 80s, he is energetic, lucid and ambitious. His triumphs and ethos are humanist and universal, not political or racial. To Mr. O'Ree, hockey truly is for everyone and this most team-oriented of sports that also requires tremendous amounts of self-discipline ultimately is more than just an athletic pursuit. It is a vehicle for bettering ourselves as human beings.

Below is the schedule for some of the highlight activities of the Willie O'Ree Skills Weekend:

Friday: On-ice sessions at the Laura Sims Skate House in West Philadelphia, welcome banquet and program at the National Liberty Museum.

Saturday: Trip to Outward Bound to participate in outdoor group bonding, physical challenge and problem-solving activities, on-ice evening session at Laura Sims Skate House, pizza party.

Sunday: Wells Fargo Center on-ice and off-ice program, screening of "Soul on Ice" documentary.