Flyers prospects Oliver Bonk and Denver Barkey cap their junior careers by winning the Memorial Cup
The 2023 draft picks helped London reach the summit on Sunday, one year after the Knights lost in the Memorial Cup final to Saginaw.
Denver Barkey and Oliver Bonk had already had pretty good junior careers. Ending it with a Memorial Cup championship was the cherry on top.
After losing last year in the final to host Saginaw of the Ontario Hockey League, OHL champion London defeated Medicine Hat of the Western Hockey League, 4-1, on Sunday. Barkey notched a pair of goals, and Bonk finished plus-1, as both players skated in their final game before turning pro.
» READ MORE: Q&A: Flyers assistant GM Brent Flahr on prospects Jett Luchanko, Alex Bump, and more
“This is something I’ll never forget,” Barkey told reporters in Rimouski, Quebec. “We worked all year toward this, and this is the tightest team I’ve ever played on. To be able to do it with these guys, it’s so surreal.
“Going to remember this for life.”
Barkey, a third-round draft pick of the Flyers in 2023, gave the Knights a 3-0 lead in the second period after Sam Dickinson, a San Jose Sharks prospect, poked the puck away from Tigers captain Oasiz Wiesblatt at the blue line and right to Barkey. The speedy London captain took off, dipped the shoulder, and scored on the backhand.
Less than seven minutes later, it was Barkey again, this time on the power play. Skating near the Medicine Hat blue line, the forward stopped a clearing attempt, curled, and sent the puck on goal from atop the left face-off circle.
Jacob Julien and Easton Cowan scored the other goals for London.
Barkey, 20, finished tied atop the Memorial Cup scoring leaderboard with teammate and Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Cowan with seven points (three goals, four assists). Bonk, the No. 22 overall pick in 2023, had two assists in the five games. Each is expected to, at minimum, be with Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League next season. Many think Bonk can challenge for a spot on the Flyers’ blue line in training camp.
Including playoffs and the Memorial Cup, Barkey, who missed time during the postseason with a high ankle sprain, finished the season with 37 goals and 72 assists for 109 points in 65 games. Bonk, who is primarily known for his defense and improbably scored 24 goals last season, tallied 13 goals and 43 assists in 74 games overall.
“We knew [Barkey] was small when we drafted him,” Flyers assistant general manager Brent Flahr said recently about the 5-foot-10, 171-pound forward’s game and how it will translate to the NHL. “The reason we thought he had a chance is because he’s extremely smart — he’s a very skilled junior, but he’s extremely smart — and extremely competitive, and he’s got those two features, which are imperative for an undersized player to make it to the NHL."
Gavin McKenna, the consensus No. 1 pick in the 2026 NHL draft, scored the lone Tigers goal.