Flyers prospect Devin Kaplan and West Chester’s Jack Page eye an NCAA title with Boston University
Kaplan, a 2022 third-round pick, is focused on developing as a power forward with the next level in mind.
ST. LOUIS ― Devin Kaplan is heeding the message from the Flyers.
“They’ve been telling me to just worry about the season,” he told The Inquirer on Wednesday. “Worry about where I am. Stay where my feet are, be present. Just focus on the season and try to do my best to win a national championship, and we’ll focus on anything else after that.”
It’ll be easy for Kaplan to focus. The Boston University junior, who is playing in his third straight Frozen Four, hopes to finish the job this time in Saturday’s NCAA title game against Western Michigan (7:30 p.m., ESPN2).
But it hasn’t been the easiest season for either the 6-foot-3, 200-pound forward or his team. There have been “ups and downs,” he said Wednesday after practice at the Enterprise Center, but he’s doing his best to find consistency.
Kaplan notched 23 points in 40 games as a freshman and another 23 in 37 last season. After picking up an assist in Thursday’s semifinal win over Penn State, the 2022 third-round pick now has 17 points (10 goals, seven assists) in 37 games this season.
At Flyers development camp in July, Kaplan focused on building his game around being a power forward. He wants to be reliable around the net and below the hash marks, someone who can hold on to the puck to create opportunities for himself and his teammates. He has applied that this season at BU.
“I think the big thing I’ve been talking about with my coaches [is] net front, when the puck gets run down, just keeping guys on my back and kind of holding them off and slowing down at my pace, so I can make plays,” he said.
“Playing below the goal line, below the tops of the circles, just things like that. Because I feel like I’m good at holding guys off and making plays under pressure. So just kind of fine-tuning that and working on that.”
Kaplan talks often with the Flyers’ player development staff. From director of player development Riley Armstrong to special advisers Patrick Sharp and John LeClair, he gets feedback and tips on developing his game for the pro ranks.
“Sharpie likes to just keep it simple, and just tells me to have fun, shoot pucks, things like that,” he said. “And then John will kind of get more into the nitty-gritty with hockey, give me some more negative feedback, and things I need to work on. But I appreciate that a lot because it helps me. So it’s really cool to have them both, two NHL legends, just around all the time. So it’s pretty cool.”
Joining Kaplan at the Flyers development camp in July was BU teammate Jack Page.
Page, the son of former Wells Fargo Center president John Page, was invited by general manager Danny Brière when the team needed an extra defenseman.
“They gave me a lot of pointers, whether it’s just simple stuff, like having good sticks, reading off the rush, but I think they also helped me get a lot of confidence as well,” Page said of the Flyers coaches.
» READ MORE: Does Penn State’s Frozen Four berth mean the hockey program has arrived?
At the time, the 6-foot-4, 197-pound blueliner had skated in five games for BU across two seasons. This season, as a senior, he has played in 22 contests, including all three NCAA Tournament games, and has two assists.
Page, who’s from West Chester, knows he took a bit of a different path to Division I hockey. He grew up playing for the Quakers before a handful of other local teams like Virtua and the Little Flyers and later played a season at Bayard Rustin High School.
Page has one more year of eligibility after redshirting his junior season and is hoping to use it while working on a master’s degree. He is studying corporate finance for his bachelor’s.
In the offseason, the 23-year-old also tries to help out in youth hockey. Not many NHLers come from the area — according to Hockey Reference, only 15 players from Eastern Pennsylvania have appeared in at least one NHL game, Flourtown’s Mike Richter being the most well-known — and Page is hoping the game keeps growing in the area.
“You’re starting to see more and more guys start to go to the next level and help grow the Philadelphia-area hockey, and it’s just getting better and better,” Page said.
“Hopefully I can help lead the way, and hopefully more guys can follow my path and get to the next level, or the NHL, or whatever everyone’s goals may be.”