Aube-Kubel and Hagg Making Their Case to Stay With the Flyers for the Final Stretch
As the Flyers enter their last 25 games, each game is important to their playoff chances. Currently, they sit in the second wild-card spot but are still within reach of climbing higher in the crowded Metropolitan standings.
With the growing importance of each game, the Flyers need to find what lineup works best for them and start building chemistry if they want to make it into the playoffs and possibly make a run.
As Alain Vigneault has shuffled his lines around the past few weeks as they dealt with injuries or just trying to kickstart a certain player, Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Robert Hagg have found themselves playing important roles for this Flyers team.
Two players who originally did not factor into this team’s plans to start the season. Aube-Kubel and Hagg have filled in nicely when called upon. For Aube-Kubel, he was put in a tough spot as he was called up to replace Oskar Lindblom in early December.
At the time, Lindblom was the team’s leading scorer and one of their best penalty killers. Though, Aube-Kubel is not as talented as Lindblom, nor do they share the same skillset, Aube-Kubel has carved out a role for himself on the Flyers’ surprisingly-good fourth line.
Specifically, the duo of Raffl and Aube-Kubel has posted a 70.91 CF% and 72.06 xGF%. in 62 minutes played together at even strength.
Whether it was playing with Kevin Hayes and JVR or getting fourth-line minutes, NAK has done enough to show he can stay and the Flyers have taken notice. Even when Joel Farabee came back, it was top prospect Morgan Frost who was sent back down to Lehigh Valley.
On the back end, Robert Hagg has filled in for Shayne Gostisbehere quite well and many are arguing for him to stay in the lineup even when Ghost fully returns from his injury. While they are two completely different players, it’s a valid argument that Hagg has been much better for the Flyers despite him being an afterthought entering this season.
Getting third-pairing minutes, Hagg has played his role well as a defense-first player and is fifth on the Flyers with 55 blocked shots and has played just 37 games. He’s even chipped in 3 points in his last five games.
While it’s still to be determined what the Flyers will do when Gostsibehere returns from his surgery, Hagg has shown improvement over a poor showing last season.
This also raises the point that the trade deadline is quickly approaching and the Flyers may be able to shop Gostisbehere to team’s needing a defenseman who can run a powerplay and is still just 26 years old.
Featured Image: Drew Hallowell/Getty Images
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