It’s Time to Talk About Morgan Frost

The 2017 NHL Draft was seen as a major catalyst in curating the exciting future of hockey in the city of “Brotherly Love”.

The Philadelphia Flyers had jumped from 13th to 2nd in the NHL Draft Lottery, ensuring one of the consensus top two prospects in Nico Hischier or Nolan Patrick. As we all know by now New Jersey would end up going with Hischier, leaving Ron Hextall and company with an easy decision to take Patrick second overall.

As a result of trading Brayden Schenn to the St. Louis Blues on draft night, the Philadelphia Flyers grabbed another first round pick at 27th overall – where they chose forward Morgan Frost from the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the OHL.

With the additions of Nolan Patrick and Morgan Frost, the Flyers seemingly elevated their prospect pool towards the top end of the league. The latter was named an OHL All-Star in the midst of a 112-point season with the Greyhounds and the former recorded 30 points in his rookie season as a 19-year-old.

Although Patrick’s career as a Flyer was derailed by a plague of head injuries, Frost remained a promising youngster for fans to look forward to.

Frost entered the NHL early on in the 2019-20 season, scoring his first career goal in his debut against the Florida Panthers. Despite early success, his 20-game stint was mostly unimpressive and he found himself back in the AHL before the new year.

The COVID-19 pause and a season-ending shoulder injury in just his second game of the shortened 2020-21 campaign played a massive role in the setback of Frost’s development.

Following a summer of rehabbing his shoulder injury at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees, most expected the 22-year-old to crack the opening night roster. Surprisingly, Frost was cut and assigned to the Phantoms  and would go on to record 15 points in his first 16 games.

Meanwhile things were falling apart for the Philadelphia Flyers up in the majors.

Season-altering injuries to Ryan Ellis and Kevin Hayes decimated the lineup which meant Morgan Frost would find himself back up with the big boys.

The Aurora, Ontario native played 55 games over the course of the 2021-22 season. In a rock bottom year where management was challenged and fingers were pointed everywhere, Frost was a bright spot over the last batch of games. He showed glimpses of the potential that everyone had seen when he was selected in the first round just five years prior. He gave the fans something to keep an eye on moving forward.

By signing a one-year “prove it” deal at just an $800,000 cap hit, 2022-23 was the time for the former Greyhound to prove not only to management, but perhaps even himself, that he was a legit NHLer.

In an electrifying season opener, Frost potted an absolute bullet past Mackenzie Blackwood along with an empty netter in a 5-2 Flyers victory.

🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶#FueledByPhilly | @_morganfrost_10 pic.twitter.com/zD0TICyNfk

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) October 14, 2022

Recording just one point over the next 13 games, it seemed to have been another fluke start for Frost- with some fans suggesting it may be time to move on.

Two four-point games and a highlight reel between-the-legs beauty later, Frost has emerged as a consistent young player that the Flyers can rely on to generate offense. The natural skill is elite, and there is still high end upside to his game.

nice between the legs finish for morgan frost
type of sick goal you’d love to check out again & again on the bench with the old iPad pic.twitter.com/mxX77rXP2b

— Liam McHugh (@liam_mchugh) January 18, 2023

The road to becoming an NHL regular has not been easy for 23-year-old Morgan Frost and there is still a lot of room left for improvement. However, the raw talent and growing consistency under John Tortorella is something all Philadelphia Flyers fans should be excited about.

Paul Jackson is a Contributor for HW Hockey
Photo: Heather Barry ©
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