This offseason has been all about Philadelphia Flyers fans wanting to see workout videos from one particular player so that he can bounce back from a disappointing sophomore season. It’s all we really care about as we’re still over a month away from training camp opening up. But what about a different young player in the Flyers organization getting his offseason workouts on video and then shared to social media?
The Flyers’ selection of 6-foot-8 defenseman Maksim Sokolovskii at 27th overall this year has been controversial, since he hasn’t really lit the world on fire yet and hasn’t shown a whole lot other than being able to hit guys very hard for the OHL’s London Knights. But, it is undeniable that he is a punishing force because of that, and if he develops into being an NHL-level player eventually, he’s going to make a whole lot of opposing forwards hate playing against him.
The 18-year-old giant blueliner is working towards that becoming a reality and now we have visual evidence of him doing exactly that this summer.
Thanks to the Knights for continuing to post some posts on Twitter in the dead days of the hockey calendar, and whoever pulled out their phone and hit record, we have Sokolovskii flipping a 1,000-pound tire outside.
All we really have to say is “Hell yeah, brother”.
Sokolovskii is clearly very strong, but as someone who is in their early-30s, just watching him lift that giant tire in that particular way made my back shiver and I could feel a bulging disk starting to form. We’re in no position to criticize anyone’s athleticism, but brother, use your legs a little bit more. But here we are, someone who would have no idea how to even approach flipping a 1,000-pound tire in the first place so maybe we shouldn’t try to give some advice.
Either way, it takes some insane amount of strength to do this no matter what. Just trying to think of one thousand pounds makes your head spin. Are we going to see him pull some cars around next? Maybe chain himself up to a semi and start dragging it around the parking lot of the Flyers Training Center before Rick Tocchet arrives for camp. Big Soko can do some stuff and he feels well on his way to be one of the more consistent contenders to have the workout clip of the summer.
This thing is not new. There are always little clips of hockey players doing some big athletic feat in the offseason that is a little bit showboaty and we eat it all up. Before Kirill Kaprizov arrived in Minnesota, he was notorious for these videos and even has one where he is deadlifting a tire (not one as large as Sokolovskii’s tire) doing a farmers walk with it, along with some other things. Here’s hoping this is a regular occurrence for Sokolovskii so we can look at this giant young man lift some heavy stuff every August and have something to think about other than twiddling our thumbs waiting for training camp.
Sokolovskii training for a massive season in London
It’s an unknown location but it is clearly in North America since there isn’t some burly Russian or Kazakh man behind the camera — or at least it doesn’t sound like it. Sokolovskii’s season will start on September 18, which is just a couple days after the Flyers’ rookie camp finishes, so we have to assume that he’s already over here (somewhere on this continent) getting ready to hit the ground running next month.
This season is going to be a pretty decisive one for Sokolovskii.
The Flyers took him as a long-term project and he really showed that he’s starting from farther back than regular first-round prospects. In 44 games for the Knights last season, he scored a total of two goals and eight points. That’s not what you want to see. But with the context that he was barely playing for the team and wasn’t even really put in any offensive opportunities, then the lack of scoring can be explained.
He was clearly picked because he is a giant man who skates exceptionally well for someone his size, and has some great defensive attributes as a separator and a stopper of some scoring chances. That’s his potential anyway; not his scoring ability.
But if he can be given so many more minutes in London and produce some points at a decent clip while still punishing a whole lot of opposing forwards, all before he eventually heads to the University of Maine for the 2027-28 season, then he can be well on his way to fulfilling some of his potential.
Right now, we’re just seeing him flip over some giant tires, though.