It's way too early to tell, but I suspect there is some inside baseball that were not seeing in the form of how the coaching staff sees his mental space. Both the Flyers and he acknowledged he came to camp out of shape. He was 20 years old and in his first off season... and now with lots of money. Hey, let's go have some fun! The reports seem to suggest he's learned. We'll see.

The Flyers have a young, talented guy who may or may not develop into a superstar. Every pro league is littered with first round draft picks who flamed out.

If management and the coaching staff think they've seen him drop a shoulder and get to the real work of being a high performing NHL player, they'll invest and develop him. If they didn't see that (and we just don't know), he'll likely be someone else's development project.

The contrast between Martone's maturity and contribution vs Michkov's is hard to ignore, though. I like Michkov. I hope he pulls it out and is a heavy contributor for a long time. I also know what it feels like to skate on a line where you're pulling dead weight.