Flyers re-sign determined Sam Morin

If Sam Morin has shown anything during his hockey career, it’s that he has tenacity. The 6-foot-6 defenseman by trade has not only fought back from two devastating knee injuries, he tried to win over the Flyers by willingly giving a forward role a shot last January.

Honestly, that didn’t work out too well. But Morin, 26, did return from the AHL’s Lehigh Valley near season’s end for workmanlike performances as a Flyers’ third-pair defenseman when called upon, and it was his strength and resolve all along that impressed management. So much so that the Flyers signed pending unrestricted free agent Morin to a one-year contract Monday at the NHL minimum of $750,000.

Morin is one of the least successful of the top picks in the 2013 draft, in which he went 11th overall. Upon eight-year reflection that draft doesn’t appear to have had the strongest of first rounds.

But Morin was an admitted project when the Flyers took him then, and his progress since was greatly impeded by back to back ligament tears just as he was developing into a viable stay-at-home defender with real NHL aspirations in 2018 and ‘19.

Still, through lengthy rehabs and a pandemic that shut down AHL business for more than year, he finally returned to action for the Flyers in January of this year, taking on a fourth-line forward role.

Overall, Morin appeared in 20 games for the Flyers last season and scored his first NHL goal on March 27, a gamewinner. He also appeared in seven games for the Phantoms, garnering two assists.

Before that, Morin, had two solid seasons with the Phantoms in 2015-16 (four goals, 19 points in 76 games) and 2016-17 (three goals, 16 points in 74 games).

In other news Monday, the Flyers officially filed qualifying offers for four restricted free agents, goalie Carter Hart and defenseman Travis Sanheim foremost among them. Phantoms forwards Connor Bunnaman and David Kase also received qualifying offers.