said during Wednesday\u2019s media availability<\/a>. \u201cAnd he\u2019s played that way. The Carolina game he was outstanding, I remember that game and he really took off. And obviously yesterday he was an impact player. He wants to be an impact player. I told him today, he\u2019s playing against the top teams and their top lines. I don\u2019t really see his size being a problem because he\u2019s quick, he\u2019s winning his battles. On that power play goal he attacks and then he goes right to the net and scores. He did that the other night too. It doesn\u2019t matter the size, it\u2019s really the attack mentality that he has.\u201d<\/p>\nBrink has been one of Flyers\u2019 best forwards<\/p>\n
Brink isn\u2019t the biggest player in the league. And usually with small players, one of two things happen early in your career. You either stand still like a deer in the headlights and end up getting routinely pasted by bigger players, or you try and find a way to survive knowing that, unless you have generational talent, you\u2019ll have to work every day to stay with the big club. It seems that Brink turned that corner a bit last year when he was paired with Foerster and Cates. Since then, he\u2019s been a solid, two-way player.<\/p>\n
And the numbers seem to back that up. Although the season will officially be just 10 games old for Philadelphia after Thursday night\u2019s tilt against the Predators, Brink\u2019s 2025-26 is looking to be possibly one filled with career highs. His share of possible ice time this season (26.9 percent) is higher than last season\u2019s (24.3 percent). <\/p>\n
His production thus far is also strong considering just 12.4 percent of his shifts start in the offensive zone. Perhaps the biggest jump in Brink\u2019s play has been his willingness to go into corners. Thus far he has 10 hits to his credit; two seasons ago in 57 games he had all of 36 hits to his name. And so far he has zero giveaways in the defensive zone, something some other Flyer forwards can\u2019t exactly lay claim to. So clearly something\u2019s changed in his game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s understanding the system,\u201d Tocchet said of Brink\u2019s play both away from the puck and in the defensive zone. \u201cHe\u2019s stopping in the areas where he\u2019s supposed to. He understands if he\u2019s the low guy where he\u2019s supposed to go. Obviously it\u2019s a work in progress with our team, but I think playing with Catesy and Tyson there\u2019s a chemistry thing. It\u2019s a natural thing where if somebody does something then right away he knows where to go. Sometimes, in the chemistry of lines, it sometimes takes a while, like if I don\u2019t know where he goes, where I go. It\u2019s like those three guys, they each know where the other is going. That helps you offensively and defensively.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brink was also lauded by Tocchet for the fact he doesn\u2019t really care who he might be standing up against when it comes to the board and corner work. The crosschecks to the back and\/or the leverage some bigger defensemen might have on Brink doesn\u2019t seem to deter him from battling. Even knowing he\u2019s going to take a big hit to make a play is something that he\u2019s accepted as coming with the territory. That work ethic is paying off in terms of his offensive production. Again, while it\u2019s early and there\u2019s still over 70 regular season games left to play, Brink\u2019s metrics in 2025-26 are quite surprising. <\/p>\n
SeasonxGoals\/60Goals\/60Assists\/60Points\/60Shooting %% of Unblocked Shots that Missed NetHigh Danger Unblocked Shot AttemptsCF%2025-26 (9 games)1.181.21.62.818.823.85582024-25 (79 games)0.720.611.492.111.43415542023-24 (57 games)0.720.840.921.7613.628.91354Statistics via Natural Stat Trick.<\/p>\n
Brink is having a great season so far by those numbers, but what\u2019s also impressive is he has five High Danger Unblocked Shot Attempts through nine games. All of last year he had just 15. So clearly one of two things (or possibly both) are happening. One would be he\u2019s willing to get into the areas where he\u2019s probably going to get hit in order to take a high danger shot, something that wasn\u2019t really part of his game just two seasons ago. The other is some of those high danger quality chances are coming from simply outworking and outhustling the opposition, whether it\u2019s bruising blueliners or power forwards who have no issue trying to drive opponents through the end boards. What it says is Brink is putting in the work and never short-changing himself nor the team on every shift.<\/p>\n
Brink gets compared to Caufield, Kaprizov<\/p>\n
Tocchet acknowledged part of what\u2019s working for Brink is his hockey IQ and simply knowing how to use his body to win battles. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think you look at players around the league, the Caufields, the Kaprizovs, they are smaller guys in stature\u00a0but they play bigger,\u201d the coach said. \u201cTheir attributes are that they are good with their body and body position. And Bobby knows that. You either go in the corner and out-quick a defenseman or you go in their with your body position. Because if you go in there and your body position is not there and you\u2019re not expecting something, then you\u2019re probably going to get outmuscled.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou got to use your brain, those young guys, those little guys, they use their brain. The players I just mentioned, they are smart players. And Bobby, you can tell he\u2019s a smart player, he knows how to get in and out of a pile. There will be a big pile up and somehow he gets to the puck and gets out of it. So I think that\u2019s the stuff that he\u2019s getting really good at.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, while nobody will soon forget the shootout goal Brink had against the Penguins that simply paralyzed Arturs Silovs, or the speed he showed on a nearly end-to-end dash against Carolina earlier in the season, Brink is doing damn near every little thing correctly. <\/p>\n
Part of that might be attributed to just how stellar the line he\u2019s on has performed the last year. But a large share is due to Brink making the adjustments in his game to stick around. He probably won\u2019t be scoring 40 goals on the horizon or leading the Flyers in points. He will be one of the hardest workers among the forwards on a team that has professed the importance of a hard work ethic the last four seasons dating back to John Tortorella\u2019s first year.<\/p>\n
It\u2019ll be interesting to see what this season holds for Brink, who is in the final year of a contract that has a $1.5 million AAV. A career-high season would most likely see a bump in salary, but it\u2019s possible Flyers general manager Danny Briere would extend him for another short-term, two-year or three-year contract as he\u2019s a restricted free agent. <\/p>\n
Regardless, Bobby Brink has gone from a guy who looked to be part of nearly any speculative trade package being shipped out, to a guy who a lot more fans and followers of the team would hate to see go anywhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flyers winger Bobby Brink began his National Hockey League career as an offense-generating player. He wasn\u2019t one known…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-262798","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\/262798","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=262798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}