Therien's Take: The Niskanen Effect

Training camps are now just about a week away as the NHL and the Flyers look to restart their unfinished business that was halted just shy of mid March due to the global Covid-19 pandemic. Lots of things have been talked about and as the NHL prepares to name their two hub cities but, for the players all fcouse will turn back to hockey once the plan is finalized and approved.

What key factors are going to be of premium importance when and if the league resumes play? The first one that jumps out -- and I will not delve too far into it here -- is goaltending. As I see it, 21-year-old Carter Hart is perfectly suited for a summer hockey tournament. Having young legs will be a huge benefit in getting quickly back into game shape. His youthful exuberance will be a huge part of what the Flyers will try to do and just how far they will go.

To me, the most important job outside of the goaltender is that of the defense corps. It's going to take time for players' hands to come back and power plays will need to recover a rhythm. But teams that play strong team defense -- from the blueline out -- will give themselves a chance to win right off the bat at a time where there isn't much margin for error.

Teams rely heavily on their top defense pair under any circumstance, but having a stabilizing top pair will be especially crucial now. Matt Niskanen is the Flyers' biggest stabilizing force on their current blueline, and has been an outstanding partner for young Ivan Provorov.

Both Niskanen and Provorov had strong regular seasons, and Provorov played some of the best hockey of his career in November and from January onward.. The Russian defenseman is the one who gets most of the public accolades, and the one who gets focused on in the media.

However, it is veteran partner Niskanen -- who has Stanley Cup winning experience as a minutes-eating, all-situations defenseman -- who is the glue of the Flyers blueline. The same is true with the way that fellow veteran Justin Braun stabilizes the "third pair". The rest of the D corps is comprised of younger, less experienced talent. Come playoff time, having an accomplished veteran defenseman or two with warrior mentalities is critical.

I expect that Provorov will win the Barry Ashbee Trophy when the Flyers announce the award winner next Thursday. Don't get me wrong: it's not a bad choice.

Nonetheless, my pick for the Ashbee Trophy this year is Niskanen. HIs acquisition has brought out the best in Provorov and it has enabled Alain Vigneault and Mike Yeo to slot the defense pairing and defensemen's ice time distribution in a more desirable manner than with Flyers teams of the recent past.

This may not be a popular opinion but I will give it straight and I hope it's not misconstrued: On an individual basis, I think Provorov is not yet on the level of a bonafide franchise defenseman.

By this, I mean that he is not a perennial Norris Trophy candidate on the level of Chris Pronger or Scott Stevens or Ray Bourque or Nick Lidstrom or Mark Howe. That's not a slight. We're talking about Hall of Fame players.

Provorov is still just 23 years old. He's already very good and not in his prime years quite yet. The Flyers can look forward to many strong seasons to come.

Can Ivan take his game even higher and get that Norris-type level? Yes, if he continues to build on some of the things he's done in two of the last three seasons, I think he IS capable of year-round excellence but isn't there quite yet as an individual player. He's the Flyers' No. 1 defenseman by minutes and by role and would be on many other teams. But would he, for example, be regarded as the No. 1 defenseman on Tampa Bay over Victor Hedman? Not yet.

Provorov certainly has in spades a commitment to physical conditioning, and he's a competitor. His "A" game is clearly of elite caliber, but I'd like to see him dominate games in "beast mode" just a bit more frequent. The consistency of excellence is what differentiates the year-in and year-old Norris contenders from the rest of the crowd.

The perennial Norris contenders are the pinnacle. The next half-step down are the All-Star caliber players. Then come the very good defensemen who could play on the upper portion of any team's blueline. That's the level where I'd put Provy right now, and he's on the brink of moving up to the second-highest category.

What am I getting at in terms of my Ashbee Trophy vote? I believe that Provorov is still at a point in his career where he clearly benefits from having a high quality complementary partner who adds components needed to bring out the very best in his game.

Niskanen is not a superstar but, rather, an outstanding complementary partner for a talented but still young defenseman. He's above average in most areas of the game, and very strong in terms of savvy and poise.

When things get chaotic on the ice, who is the most likely Flyers defenseman to restore order? Who will get the puck out of the zone when you absolutely, positively cannot afford a failed clear?

When there's a loose puck near the doorstep and players are scrambling, who is the defender who is most likely to keep his wits about him and keep it out of the net? Who is the one who might not have the most hits or the most blocks but seems to come up with them?

Who is the one when teammates are starting to yell and curse in frustration and the other team is gaining momentum who re-installs a sense of calm? Who is the one who has seen and done just about everything there is to do at the NHL level; not just in the regular season but also under playoff pressure?

All of these questions can be answered correctly with the name "Matt Niskanen." For those reasons, I'd pick Niskanen for the Ashbee Trophy this season. When I can answer those questions -- each and every game -- with Provorov's name, I'd vote for Ivan for the Ashbee most every season.

Individually speaking, Niskanen is not quite as good as Eric Desjardins or Kimmo Timonen at the height of their careers, but he brings the aforementioned intangible factors that were also among Rico and Kimmo's greatest strengths.

My own career benefited greatly from having Desjardins as my partner for the vast majority of my time with the Flyers. I played on the top pairing but I wasn't a "first-pair defenseman" on an individual basis. Rather, I was a good complementary player and I had good chemistry in tandem with Rico.

Let's be honest here: Eric would have excelled in Philly regardless of his partner, but we were in sync with each other. I kept things simple, focused on my own zone and brought a combination of size and ability to play at whatever pace Rico set. That's why we remained together, head coach after head coach.

Anyway, I will get back to the current Flyers team. When out on the ice together, Provorov and Niskanen are an excellent pairing. That's what matters the most. But it's the combo of his own solid play, the impact he's had in helping Provorov to elevate his game on an increasingly frequent basis and the overall effect he's had in stabilizing the Flyers' pairings that make Niskanen my personal pick for the 2019-20 Barry Ashbee Trophy.