He can skate, handle the puck and defend at above-average levels. He was third in the AHL in shots on goal and was an all situations forward for the Phantoms. Taylor Leier took his game to another level this season. Umberger.ĮSPN's Corey Pronman ranked Leier ninth (Insider link) in the Flyers' system (eighth among skaters) last month, and singled Leier out as the team's "noteworthy prospect" outside of his top 120: The Flyers clearly liked what he's done with the Phantoms they called him up in mid-November for a six-game stint at the NHL level to fill in for an injured R.J. Leier's brought himself from the fourth round of the draft - by definition, a place where long shots roam - to the fringes of the NHL roster discussion in four years' time. He went from a player with a grinder-type projection from that 2012 draft to a 37-goal season and a spot on Team Canada's World Junior roster in 2014, and has followed that up with a respectable rookie AHL season in 2014-15 and a sophomore campaign that saw him finish second on the Phantoms in total points this season. Since being drafted in 2012, Leier really has taken a step forward in every season he's played.
45 in 2012 and a fourth-round pick in 2013 for Sergei Bobrovsky) 14 : Taylor LeierĢ015-16 League/Team/Statistics: Lehigh Valley (AHL) - 20 G, 29 A in 71 GPĪcquired Via: 2012 NHL Draft - Round 4, Pick 117 (Pick acquired via Columbus along with Pick No. Because another step forward for him could be the difference between a third straight year in Lehigh Valley and a spot on the Flyers' roster.
Some make a huge statement at 19 years old, some are late bloomers, some land anywhere in between.Īs for Flyers forward prospect Taylor Leier, he's certainly hoping that his development ends up being linear. Which, in other words, means that there's no one single path for a player to make his way from "prospect" to "NHL player", and that some players take different leaps forward in their development at different times. A saying you sometimes hear in discussion of prospects is that prospect development isn't always linear.
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