Philadelphia fans have been setting sky-high expectations for Sam Morin from the moment they pieced together the young defenseman’s connection to former Flyers great Chris Pronger. But really, other than the fact he’s very big, has a bit of a mean streak, and that every young defenseman is the next Chris Pronger, what connection does Morin share with Pronger?
When the aforementioned Pronger went down in 2011, the Flyers were desperate for a number-one defenseman. After some trades and big efforts in free agency didn’t work out, the team (finally) shifted its strategy on defense towards trying to build a defense through the draft.