Odd Man Rush: Injuries testing Hextall's plan

Oct 26, 2014 - 3:54 PM Philadelphia, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - Halloween is right around the corner and Philadelphia Flyers general manager Ron Hextall is already seeing an unwanted "Ghost."

That would be 21-year-old defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, whose nickname is synonymous with the specters that decorate houses around this time of year.

Ever since Hextall was elevated to Philadelphia's GM role in May, he has preached not rushing his young prospects to the NHL level for the sake of keeping the Flyers borderline-competitive.

However, he was left with no choice to turn to Gostisbehere and summon him from the minors following news on Friday that defensemen Braydon Coburn and Andrew MacDonald would miss about a month each with lower-body injuries. Suddenly, he was tasked with finding a replacement for players expected to log 20 minutes a game.

So, with little cap room and no exclamation point-worthy external option, Hextall reluctantly turned to one of his more exciting prospects.

"In a perfect world, you let the kid stay there and play, but we don't live in a perfect world," Hextall told Philly.com. "You know, you come up with a plan and vision and sometimes you have to adjust and be flexible. Assuming we don't make anything happen real quick here, we'll call up one guy and get through Saturday and go from there."

Gostisbehere, a third-round pick by the Flyers in 2012, became a talked-about prize after he helped Union College to an NCAA title last season while being named the Frozen Four's most outstanding player.

That's big for any college player on its own, but the accomplishments carried an added bonus for Gostisbehere as the Frozen Four took place this year in his own adopted backyard of Philadelphia.

Gostisbehere did, in fact, make his NHL debut on Saturday versus the Detroit Red Wings. Overall, he did nothing much to either impress Hextall or leave him regretting his decision in a 4-2 win.

The blueliner logged 12 minutes and 27 seconds of ice time, the fewest of any Flyers defenseman in the game. He saw action for 2:47 on the power play and had a shot on goal with a minus-1 rating.

The goal allowed on his watch may have been bad luck, but it also showed just how fast things can happen in the NHL. Gostisbehere lost his stick in the neutral zone and the Flyers ended up failing to clear the puck. Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk then got behind both Gostisbehere and defenseman Mark Streit, scoring a goal less than a minute after Philadelphia had gone ahead.

"I would say it's a lot faster," Gostisbehere said of the NHL level. "I was going to think the preseason was definitely a little step down. The guys had an extra gear out there and the sticks are incredible, quick sticks and stick on pucks and everything."

Said Flyers coach Craig Berube of his young defenseman, "I thought he was fine. Took him a few shifts to get out there with the power play, but when he got out there and settled down he did some good things. I thought he moved the puck well, got up the ice, was aggressive when he had to be. I thought he was fine. He looked fine to me."

Fine won't keep you in the NHL too long and Philadelphia is out of action until Tuesday when it welcomes the defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings. That starts a modest span of three games in five days, so there stands a chance that Ghost may stick through Halloween unless Hextall can make a quick move before facing the Kings.

"Yeah, he told me it's not a perfect world, things happen, injuries happen of course. He told me not to try to do too much out there just get some quality minutes and it's a great learning experience, and take everything in," Gostisbehere said of his talks with Hextall.

Kudos to Hextall for wanting to stick to his plan, but Philadelphia already came into the season with a glaring weakness on defense thanks to the loss of veteran Kimmo Timonen to potential career-ending blood clots.

Coburn, arguably the Flyers' top defenseman, has not played since opening night and now MacDonald is out as well.

If there is a silver lining, it is that Hextall has been given no choice but to play his young guy. Philadelphia isn't built this season to win a championship, so why not let Gostisbehere get seasoned now?

Should Philly continue to be mediocre down the road, Hextall may eventually submit to temptation and give fellow young prospects Mark Alt and Robert Hagg a look as well.

Few would blame him and he shouldn't be spooked out of rolling the dice a bit with his youth.