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Connor Bunnaman Has a High Ceiling

Voorhees – – Connor Bunnaman scored 37 goals last season. Some may be shocked. I wasn’t. I’ve seen him develop at a high rate the past two seasons. He’s always extracting items from development camp that have helped him in the following season.

“I was doing pretty well out there,” said Bunnaman. “Just learning what Riles and the guys out there are telling me. Just playing big, using my body and protecting the puck.”

The 6-1, 207-pound pivot looks like he’s been able to speed up his wrist shot after a few days of drills. There’s less lag time and that could equate to more goals down the road.

“Obviously I want to score more goals any way that I can. Coming in here, doing a lot of shooting drills, it’s great learning from Riles (John Riley, Flyers Player Development coach),” he said.

Saying a player can be a power forward is one thing but there’s little doubt the Flyers are pushing Bunnaman to be that type of player. What’s he going to work on this summer?

“More power stuff. I have to build my speed a lot more. Getting my speed is huge. So in the gym I do little things to try and work on my speed. Going on the treadmill. Do my conditioning,” he added.

The Guelph, Ontario native may be the most important player in Kitchener this season and he’s ready for that.

“It was a good season. We had a pretty good team, a young team. I had a bit of a leadership role and I liked that,” Bunnaman said.

Bunnaman and Bracco piled up the points as linemates. It’s hard to pin down the best part of Bracco’s game but Bunnaman took a crack at it.

“Oh yeah. Braccs is a funny guy. And he’s really good at hockey. He’s a magician out there,” he stated. “His hands. He can feed you the puck from wherever he is. A lot of times when I’m on the ice with him he gives me the puck where I never thought I could get it from him. His skating too. Those little 10 and 2’s. He can get around guys pretty quickly. I think he’ll do well in the NHL someday.”

Leafs fans can now see why Bracco and Auston Matthews were such a good tandem and could be at the NHL level in a few seasons.

Flyers fans should be excited about this prospect. He’s not grabbing headlines out of camp but he will draw a lot more attention this season.

Russ_Cohen
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