The Philadelphia Flyers ended their season with a bang. In their season finale, the Flyers took out the Ottawa Senators, 2-1, and ended their season 23-22-3.
While winning may not be good for the team’s chances in the draft lottery, Saturday night’s win was emotional for Flyers prospect Jason Akeson.
Akeson is my number-one pick for Flyers prospects to watch, which is mostly due to his discipline and focus on the ice. These are two key attributes that the Flyers really need to hone in on with their up and coming forwards.
Akeson got the puck going early by logging the first goal of the night and his first career NHL goal. Logging that goal in his debut with the team was a great way to end his whirlwind of a season.
Akeson pretty much got the shaft from the organization this season. At the start of the season, Akeson who led the AHL‘s Adirondack Phantoms in the previous season was surprisingly demoted to the ECHL‘s Trenton Titans. The Flyers organizations claimed it was due to numbers. With the lockout, they had to send Sean Couturier, Brayden Schenn and Zac Rinaldo to the Phantoms so Akeson was shifted to the lesser team to make room for them.
Akeson persevered mostly through watching his mother fight off a rare form of cancer. He has cited her as his motivation to get back to the AHL and eventually to the NHL. Well, on Saturday his mom was in the stands, cancer-free and Akeson was finally playing for the NHL with his longtime friend Claude Giroux.
How about that for a great comeback story?
To go from being demoted, to playing in the NHL and logging your first goal in the last game of the season is just a great story to tell. Not calling this young and talented player up until now was probably one of the biggest miscues the Flyers management has made this year. He could have had a huge impact on the scoring which could have led to more wins this season.
While this may have only been one game, the Flyers are definitely going to start paying more attention to Akeson this summer. Through all his hard work and dedication, this kid deserves a shot in the majors and he proved that on Saturday night.
Deanna Vasso is a Flyers writer for www.rantsports.com, you can follow her on Twitter, like her on Facebook and join her Google network.
