Flyers defense prospect Wyatte Wylie was a late riser last season on the 2018 NHL Draft radar. Playing in the Western Hockey League (WHL) for his hometown team, the Everett Silvertips, the Washingtonian was especially good during the playoffs for a team than fell two wins shy of claiming the WHL championship. 

Wylie parlayed his strong second half and playoff performance into being selected by the Flyers in the fifth round - 127th overall. 

Although primarily known as a solid defender who was a regular on the Tips' penalty kill, the righthanded shooting defenseman emerged as an all-situations player for his team last season. Wylie's fluid skating is an asset, and he can move the puck up ice and chip in periodic offensive (31 regular season points in 72 games, eight playoff points in 22 games). He plays well within structure and maintains good gaps. Physically, while the 6-foot-1, 192-pound defenseman would never be described as an "old-school crusher," he is sturdy and does not back down.

"His makeup is he's a solid, steady guy. He's a pretty good defender with a nice compete level and he has the ability to make the simple play going forward, so there's nothing really flashy but he's a pretty effective guy," Flyers western-based amateur scout Mark Greig said after the 2018 Draft.

Top Flyers goaltending prospect Carter Hart played behind Wylie for the last two seasons in Everett. He said that his now-former (and potential future) teammate is the type of teammate that goalies in particular appreciate because they help make the netminder's job a little easier. 

The Philadelphia Flyers will take on the New York Islanders in a "Prospects Game" on Wednesday, Sept. 12 at Northwell Health Ice Center, the Islanders official practice faculty, at 6 p.m.

The game marks the unofficial end to Rookie Camp which leads into main Flyers Training Camp and is the third straight season the two clubs' prospects will face off against each other.

Last year, the Flyers hosted the Islanders in a rookie game in front of a packed house at the Wells Fargo Center. The Islanders earned a 4-3 comeback win in overtime to exact revenge on a 4-0 loss in the 2016 game in New York. 

The National Hockey League and NBC today released the national broadcast schedule for the 2018-19 season. The Flyers will be featured on national television 17 times, up one from a year ago, including two of the league's and NBC's signature games of the season - the 2018 Discover Thanksgiving Showdown on Friday, Nov. 23 vs. the NY Rangers, and the 2019 Coors Light NHL Stadium Series game vs. Pittsburgh on February 23 at Lincoln Financial Field. 

Those two games are among four the Flyers will play on NBC this season. The other two are on consecutive Sundays in March - the 24th at Washington and the 31st vs. the NY Rangers. 

The other 13 games are scheduled for NBCSN, three of which are part of the network's Wednesday Night Rivalry series. Overall, three of the four games against three different Metropolitan Division rivals - the Rangers, Pittsburgh and Washington - will be nationally televised. The Flyers will also play five games against Atlantic Division teams on the networks - two against Buffalo and one each against Boston, Detroit and Tampa Bay. 

Three Western Conference games round out the national schedule, beginning with the season opener on Oct. 4 at Vegas, the home opener against San Jose on Oct. 9, and Winnipeg's visit to Philadelphia in January. 

The Flyers' local television broadcast schedule will be released later this summer.

Unseen to the public and media last year, the Philadelphia Flyers organization completed a behind-the-scenes overhaul of its training complex home base at the Virtua Flyers Skate Zone in Voorhees, New Jersey. The training facilities, typically off-limits to all but Flyers players, prospects, coaches and executives were fully operational by last season.

During Development Camp in July and Rookie Camp in September, Flyers prospects make extensive use of the facilities. In the meantime, a significant number of current Flyers and Leigh Valley Phantoms spend portions of - or the entire - summer in Voorhees, working out in the complex.

Modeling his same routine from last summer that set up his best NHL season to date, Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere has again spent the entire summer working out in Voorhees. 

The 2018 World Junior Summer Showcase (WJSS) in Kamloops, BC, closed out on Saturday with Team Canada edging out Team USA, 6-5, and Sweden overcoming a pair of one-goal deficits to defeat arch-rival Finland, 5-3.

From a Flyers' standpoint, what made the final day of the tournament notable was that prospects drafted by the organization stood at the forefront of both games. 

In the Canada vs. USA game, four of the five U.S. goals were scored by Flyers draftees (two by Jay O'Brien and one apiece for Joel Farabee and Noah Cates). In the Sweden vs. Finland game, shutdown defenseman Adam Ginning got into the scoring act with what proved to be the game-winning goal.

Caveat: The WJSS is merely an early August exhibition series, and a small sampling of games. There are no medal awarded and no roster spots won or lost. What it does, however, is to provides some early hints about how rosters and roles may play out down the line. It gives players an introduction to the coaches and an early measuring stick about the competition they'll face come December.

With that in mind, here's a look at how each of the eight Flyers prospects in the tournament performed.

Only time will tell how many future NHL players the Flyers produce from their 2017 NHL Draft crop. What we do know at present is that, among the nine picks that Philly made last year, five have been signed to NHL entry-level contracts: Nolan Patrick, Morgan Frost, Isaac Ratcliffe, Matthew Strome and Maksim Sushko.

The four 2017 draftees who are not yet under NHL entry-level contracts all made significant strides in their development during their draft-plus-one year, flying under the mainstream radar while advancing their potential to eventually sign NHL deals. None are currently ready to play North American pro hockey, but all four are names worth watching over the next year or two.

Over the last five years, general manager Ron Hextall and assistant general manager Chris Pryor did not oversee a painstaking process to bolstering the organization's farm system in an effort to earn praise from pundits. Nevertheless, it is a nice bonus when a major media outlet recognizes the organization's prospect pool as one of the deepest across the National Hockey League.

Last year, the Flyers took the top spot in ESPN's ranking of NHL farm systems. This year, Philly ranked second in the The Hockey News' annual "Future Watch" issue as well as The Sporting News' just-released rankings. 

Only the Buffalo Sabres ranked higher than the Flyers in the Sporting News ranking. Their top-spot designation was partially on the strength of landing highly touted Swedish defenseman Rasmus Dahlin with the first overall pick of the 2018 Draft, Casey Mittelstadt with the eighth pick of the 2017 Draft and Alexander Nylander with the eighth pick of the 2016 Draft. 

All eight participating Flyers prospects at the 2018 World Junior Showcase in Kamloops, British Columbia will be there for the duration of the tournament. On Wednesday, Flyers prospects Joel Farabee, Jay O'Brien and Noah Cates of USA Blue learned that they had made the 28-man roster for Team USA for the rest of the tournament.

Team Canada Red members Morgan Frost and Isaac Ratcliffe will be part of the main Team Canada roster for the rest of the tournament. Hockey Canada did not make any cuts from the Canada Red and Canada White split squads and will instead rotate players from the two rosters into the lineup over the remaining three games of the tourney.

On Tuesday, Finland earned a 4-3 shootout win over Sweden, while both halves of the Team USA split squad (USA Blue and USA White) defeated the two halves of the Team Canada split squad (Canada White and Canada Red). USA Blue beat Canada White by a 3-2 score. In a match featuring five Flyers prospects, USA White defeated Canada Red, 7-5.

Joel Farabee scored back-to-back goals in the second period for USA Blue, turning a 2-2 tie into a 4-2 lead. 

The Philadelphia Flyers announced today they have re-signed defenseman Robert Hagg to a two-year contract extension, according to general manager Ron Hextall.

Hagg recently completed his rookie season with the Flyers. Below are news & notes on Hagg's career:

Philadelphia Flyers PowerPlay Hockey, the power wheelchair hockey affiliate of the Flyers' National Hockey League organization, recently won the 2018 Powerhockey Cup championship. The team defeated the Michigan Mustangs, 11-4, on July 18, to capture the Cup. Held every two years, the Powerhockey Cup features power wheelchair hockey teams from across the United States and Canada. 

The Flyers adopted the team, formerly known as the Philadelphia PowerPlay, as an official affiliate in Sept. 2017. The affiliation, the first of its kind among National Hockey League organizations, was created as part of the NHL's "Hockey is for Everyone" initiative. However, the team's journey to the North American championship of its sport goes back 19 years, to the time its foundation by the late Pat Hilferty.

"When the Flyers affiliated with our team, the players on the team were excited, and the parents of kids on the team cried tears of happiness because we knew what it meant for our team and for the sport. As a team, we saw things building, year by year, both on the court and off the court. This season was something very special and very emotional," said Susan Lee-Miller, the mother of 20-year-old Flyers PowerPlay captain Liam Miller.