When the Philadelphia Flyers shipped Scott Laughton and a pair of draft picks to the Toronto Maple Leafs in March, fans lauded general manager Daniel Briere for fetching a 2027 first-round draft pick in return.<\/p>\n
But also included in the return for Laughton was forward Nikita Grebenkin, who is quickly stealing the hearts of Flyers fans everywhere.<\/p>\n
Grebenkin, 22, is a solid prospect. In 50 games between the Toronto Marlies and Lehigh Valley Phantoms last season, the Serov, Russia native compiled 12 goals and 28 points, then went on to play a key role for the Phantoms in their playoff run.<\/p>\n
The 2022 fifth-round draft selection fits the mold of an everyday NHL player. He\u2019s big, standing at 6-foot-2 and weighing in at 210 pounds, isn\u2019t afraid of getting his hands dirty in front of the net, and even has that classic hockey smile only a mother can love \u2014 he lost one of his central incisors in a fight while he was playing in Russia.<\/p>\n
But while his on-ice play is intriguing, it\u2019s his infectious personality that\u2019s charmed the Flyers fan base.<\/p>\n
After making his NHL debut with the Maple Leafs last November, Grebenkin, who\u2019s still getting a handle on the English language, set social media ablaze with one of the most legendary quotes in recent hockey memory.<\/p>\n
Backcheck, forecheck, paycheck, baby.<\/p>\n
Now with the Flyers, Grebenkin\u2019s happy-go-lucky energy hasn\u2019t lost its shine.<\/p>\n
Prior to Friday night\u2019s rookie game against New York Rangers prospects, Grebenkin dropped yet another memorable bar, simply delivering a quick message of positivity to the media.<\/p>\n
Hours later, Grebenkin went on to score the game-winning goal in overtime to give the Flyers a 4-3 win over the Rangers.<\/p>\n
Not too shabby.<\/p>\n
Training camp is set to begin next week, and Grebenkin will be battling for a spot on the Flyers\u2019 opening night roster. Widely regarded as a dark horse to make the team out of camp, his chances aren\u2019t totally nonexistent. His nose for the net would make him a welcome addition to a Flyers power play that\u2019s ranked 30th or worse in the NHL in each of the last four seasons. And given his lighthearted nature, he\u2019d likely serve as a magnetic presence in the locker room.<\/p>\n
Regardless of whether he begins the season as a Flyer or a Phantom, though, Grebenkin is sure to be a fan favorite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Philadelphia Flyers shipped Scott Laughton and a pair of draft picks to the Toronto Maple Leafs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-155947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}