Cam York will be on the power play Saturday night for the Flyers.
He'll be back there for the first time in a long time when the team takes on the Minnesota Wild at Xfinity Mobile Arena, on a unit consisting of himself, Trevor Zegras, Noah Cates, Bobby Brink, and Tyson Foerster, based on Saturday's morning skate reps.
Moreover, the Flyers need him there.
"Well, I think if you look at it, you got [Jamie Drysdale], Yorkie and then [Travis Sanheim]," head coach Rick Tocchet explained. "Sandy's been playing a lot of ice time, so you gotta save some minutes. So any of those three guys, we wanna get them reps."
And for York, to see what he can generate offensively.
When it comes to the minutes, his return to the lineup in Thursday night's 5-2 loss to Winnipeg already gave Sanheim a bit of a breather – well, relatively.
York skated 22:32 of ice time in his first game back from a lower-body injury to begin the season, while Drysdale played 24:08 and Sanheim 24:35, after Sanheim averaged 27:15 and topped out at 29:34 through the first three games.
"He's still gonna get the minutes, for sure," York joked about Sanheim from his locker. "I think he'll be happy he doesn't have to play 28-plus. That's tough to maintain that for 82 games, and if we can kind of ease those minutes on him, I think he'll benefit from that."
Along with the distribution of them as the Flyers go.
York appeared to be eased back into things on Thursday night. Even though he skated above 20 minutes, it was nearly all at even strength while Sanheim and Drysdale handled the bulk of the power play time.
York said he felt good and comfortable getting back on the ice in game action, and feels good about the prospect of getting his first look of the season on the power play Saturday night.
He got plenty of reps in camp, and during the morning skate, he put a black practice jersey on to signal his spot on the man-advantage while Sanheim put on an orange jersey to take up a role on the penalty kill.
Cam York and the Flyers are hoping time on the power play leads to more points from the defenseman.
York, notoriously now, was removed from the power play and had a down season last year as former coach John Tortorella was on his way out.
Tocchet, as the new head coach, is giving him the opportunity again, with the belief from the organization that not only can York return to form as a top-pairing defenseman, but as one who is also capable of much more on the offensive side.
York is still going to have to commit to all the little details on the defensive side under Tocchet, and he said as much throughout the summer and on Saturday morning, but his chance to do more with the puck, get his name on the board a bit more often, and help the Flyers score more in the process? That starts Saturday night against Minnesota.
"I think just getting the puck touches and more minutes, you're gonna have probably more points than if you weren't on the power play, obviously," York said. "It kinda gets that mojo going again. I had that a few years ago, and I think it helped my game and my confidence. Excited to hopefully get back into that."
Hopefully, it gets more going for the Flyers, too.
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