Bonk’s key to gaining weight, making Flyers roster: ‘Eat until you’re sick’

VOORHEES, N.J. — Oliver Bonk knew getting stronger was a top offseason priority ahead of his first season of professional hockey.

The Philadelphia Flyers defenseman prospect said he put on 15 pounds of muscle, and is up to 200 pounds on his 6-foot-2 frame.

Training with the team’s strength and conditioning coaches helped, he said. There also was a unique diet plan.

“I ate so much Jersey Mike’s this summer, just the giant subs,” Bonk said Thursday, the first day of rookie camp at Flyers Training Center. “I’ll eat one not even as a meal, it’ll be in between lunch and dinner. I’ll have a 2,000-calorie sub, then I’ll go for dinner. So that’s how you do it.

“You just eat until you’re sick. You work out and skate, but it’s more about downing calories, as many as you can. Just non-stop eating, pretty much.”

The result has been the 20-year-old right-handed shot, the son of former NHL forward Radek Bonk, feeling stronger in all areas.

“Skating feels a lot better, the legs got stronger,” he said. “And also in battles, just having extra weight to kind of be able to hunker down a bit and win some battles.”

The workout plan didn’t begin until after Bonk helped London of the Ontario Hockey League win the Memorial Cup on June 1. But forward prospect Denver Barkey, Bonk’s London teammate the past four seasons, said the results are noticeable.

“He got a lot bigger this summer, which is, I think, big for him,” Barkey said. “He looks stronger. He’s harder in the corners to go against.”

John Snowden, coach of Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League who is running rookie camp, said he certainly was impressed.

“I thought he was excellent today,” Snowden said. “His feet were moving. He was involved in the play. I think it’s one more year, he’s getting bigger, he’s getting stronger, he’s aged a year. I think he’s confident, he’s been through this now. He understands what to expect when we get on the ice.”

There was more to Bonk’s offseason than just getting stronger, though. He still hearkens back to the conversations he had with former Flyers coach John Tortorella during training camp last season.

Bonk had two assists in four preseason games, but was returned for another season of junior hockey, with Tortorella saying Bonk wasn’t ready to handle the pace of play at the NHL level.

“I think ‘Torts’ was saying it last year, but just being more of a pro and moving the puck quicker,” Bonk said Thursday. “I know ‘Torts’ talked about that last year with what I needed to work on. I’m pretty good, but I don’t move the puck quick enough. So definitely that was stuff I was working on all season, being able to transition quickly and kind of play a more professional style of hockey.

“That was definitely something to work on this summer and last season.”

Bonk had 40 points (11 goals, 29 assists) and a plus-37 rating in 52 regular-season OHL games last season, a dip from 2023-24, when he had 67 points (24 goals, 43 assists) in 60 games. But as London’s No. 1 defenseman last season, he was asked to focus more on his defensive play and to pace himself to handle a considerable amount of ice time.

He won’t get that type of ice time this season, but Philadelphia believes that could lead to an uptick in his offensive production.

“We see it all the time when we get these players that come from junior to pro, they’re used to playing 25 minutes a night,” Snowden said. “Well, now you have to learn how to play with maybe 15. And what does that 15 look like? You don’t have to save it now, you can empty the tank every shift. You know you’re going to be able to recover, and then you’re going to have better shifts.

“And as he grows, he’s going to get more ice. That’s just the way it’s going to work. … We can go because you’re going to get the recovery time that you’re not used to when you’re playing at the junior level.”

Now it’s just a question of whether that ice time comes in the NHL or the AHL. The Flyers could have an opening for a right-shot defenseman with Rasmus Ristolainen questionable for the start the season, still recovering from March 26 surgery to repair a ruptured right triceps tendon that was expected to keep him out for at least six months.

“He put in a lot of work in the offseason,” Snowden said of Bonk. “The jump for [defensemen] coming from junior or college to pro, it’s the hardest one to make. … It’s a big jump with the reads, the strength, the skill, the speed, the gaps that you have to have, learning when to close plays off, using your stick to disrupt plays, steering plays into different situations.

“I think he’s putting himself in a really good spot. I like where he’s at. I like his mindset. I like where his body’s at right now. I think he’s put himself in a really good spot to have a good [training] camp.”