Forgotten Flyers of the 2010s: Forwards
The dawn of a new NHL season is slowly approaching along with a hopeful era of Flyers dominance, so now is a good time to look back at some forgotten players that recently wore the orange and black.
The first edition of this “Forgotten Flyers” series was a look back at some recent defensemen and goalies who had a cup of coffee with the team at some time during the 2010s.
This time, it’s a look at the forgotten forwards whose time with the team didn’t last long.
Jason Akeson
Jason Akeson signed with the Flyers as an undrafted free agent in the spring of 2011 after a fantastic year with Kitchener Rangers of the OHL.
During the 2010/11 OHL season with the Rangers, Akeson led the league in assists and tied for the lead in total points.
He spent two seasons with the Phantoms before debuting with the Flyers in the last game of the 2012/13 season against the Ottawa Senators.
Akeson scored his first NHL goal in his debut game against Craig Anderson, who has been the goalie for a couple of Flyers players’ first NHL goals. He played a total of three seasons for the Flyers totaling 15 regular-season games and 2 points recorded in total. The most interesting stat of all is that he played in all 7 games during the 2014 playoff series against the New York Rangers and recorded 3 points in that series (2 G, 1 A) which was more points than he scored in the sum of his three regular seasons with the team. Akeson is still currently playing hockey, and most recently played in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL).
Ruslan Fedotenko
Ruslan Fedotenko signed with the Flyers as an undrafted free agent in 1999 and made his debut for the team during the 2000/01 season. Fedotenko might be most famous with Flyers fans for scoring the OT game-winning goal during Game 1 of the 2002 Eastern Conference Quarter-finals against the Ottawa Senator.
In 2002, he was traded with two 2nd round draft picks to the Tampa Bay Lightning for a 1st round pick. He won a Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004 and a Stanley Cup in 2009 with that bird-themed team from Pittsburgh.
In 2012 after 8 seasons elsewhere, he signed back with the Flyers for the 2012/13 season. He played 47 games for the Flyers that season and notched 13 points (4 G, 9 A).
Fedotenko’s NHL career came full circle as he started and ended his NHL career with the Flyers, and finally retiring in 2016 after a couple of years playing in the KHL and AHL.
Mike Knuble
Mike Knuble played 16 seasons in the NHL, with 5 of them being in a Flyers uniform from 2005-09 and then 2012/13. He’s remembered a lot for his original stint with the team in the mid-2000s but there’s not a lot of memories about his second stint with the team in the lockout-shortened 2012/13 season.
During the 2012/13 season, he played in 28 games and scored 8 points (4 G, 4 A) at the age of 40. Knuble retired in 2013 and is now currently serving as an assistant coach for the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL.
Tye McGinn
Tye McGinn was drafted by the Flyers in the fourth round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft and made his NHL debut for the team at the start of the 2013 season. He played 36 games and registered 10 points in total (7 G, 3 A). His first career NHL goal came against the Florida Panthers in his 3rd career game on January 26th, 2013 against former Vezina trophy winner José Theodoré.
McGinn was traded in July of 2014 to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for a 2015 3rd round draft pick.
He is still playing hockey and most recently played for the Chicago Wolves during the 2019/20 season.
Jay Rosehill
Jay Rosehill came to the Flyers in April of 2013 through a trade with the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Harry Zolnierczyk. He played 2 seasons for the Flyers for a total of 45 games where he registered 3 points total (3 G, 0 A). Rosehill was a pure enforcer and might go down as one of the last enforcers to ever play for the Flyers. Just to put into context, he had a TOI of 75 minutes during the 2012-13 season and spent 64 minutes in the sin bin. He never filled up the box score by any means though he could change the energy of the game after a fight.
The fighting style that he used could best be described as a “lawnmower” as he would continuously throw punches until the end of the fight with little pause. He was a ton of fun to watch the fight because his game was a throwback to the days of the Broad Street Bullies.
Rosehill was waived by the team at the start of the 2014/15 season and played for the Phantoms for two seasons after that. He retired at the end of the 2017/18 season after two seasons playing in the EIHL in England.
Mike Vecchione
Mike Vecchione played for the Flyers in only two games during the 2016/17 season, where he had a total time on ice of 17 minutes and recorded 1 SOG and 0 points. It would honestly be impressive to remember his time in the Orange and Black since it literally only lasted minutes, but his connection to the Flyers and Philadelphia is honestly really interesting. He played his college hockey for the Union College Dutchmen and won the 2017 ECAC Player of the Year award along with being a Hobey Baker Award finalist in the same year.
In his rookie season at Union during the 2013/14 campaign, he helped Union win the national championship defeating Minnesota 7-4 at the Wells Fargo Center. One of his teammates during that season was current Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, and both players were named to the 2014 ECAC Hockey All-Tournament team.
Vecchione was undrafted and signed with the Flyers in 2017 and played two full seasons with the Phantoms. He is still playing hockey, and most recently played with the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL during the 2019/20 season.
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