Flyers prospect Oliver Bonk’s rise to make Canada’s World Junior team: ‘An amazing feeling’

Bonk, whom the Flyers drafted No. 22 overall in June, made Canada's team after initially being viewed as an outsider. Canada opens tournament play Tuesday morning.

Flyers defenseman Oliver Bonk is ticketed for a top-four role with Canada at the World Juniors.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer

by Jackie Spiegel

Published Dec. 26, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET

The wait was gut-wrenching. As he sat in his room, Oliver Bonk had no idea if the next knock meant he would be fulfilling every Canadian boy’s dream by donning the maple leaf at the 2024 World Junior Championship or heading to the airport for the long trip home.

In the end, it was “an amazing feeling to find out” he would be sticking around Gothenburg, Sweden, for the intense, best-on-best battle of the top under-20 players in the world.

And while he has played for Hockey Canada at other levels — notably winning gold at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup over the summer — there is nothing like making a World Junior roster and representing your country on hockey’s biggest stages.

Except for one thing that should make every Flyers fan smile.

“That was one of the best moments of my life getting drafted to Philly [in June]. Obviously, huge, great sports city. Spent most of the summer there and I absolutely love it there, the fans there. The fans that noticed me, even being someone who hasn’t played an NHL game yet,” Bonk, who was the No. 22 overall pick, told The Inquirer via phone from Sweden.

“It’s been amazing. I’m just really excited to keep developing … and just keep working on my game here for next year.”

The defenseman’s game can best be described as all-around and 200 feet. After posting 40 points in 67 games during his draft year, the 18-year-old has 30 points (six goals, 24 assists) in 28 games with London of the Ontario Hockey League this season. He ranks second on the team with six power-play goals and is tied for second with 11 assists on the man advantage.

It’s evident that the work he put in this summer with Riley Armstrong, the Flyers’ director of player development, on his shot to make it more powerful and consistent by reworking the mechanics is paying off. He is on pace to surge past the 10 goals he scored in 2022-23.

And it’s surely a key reason why he will quarterback the second power-play unit and play on the second pairing for Canada, which is always expected to win gold when it starts the tournament on Boxing Day (Tuesday) against Finland (8:30 a.m. on NHL Network).

“Just a really intelligent player,” Flyers assistant general manager Brent Flahr said. “Obviously, he’s a good size [6-foot-2, 180 pounds], right-shot defenseman, but he’s mobile. He moves the puck really well, like he just reads the game efficiently. He’s an efficient defender and now the offensive side of his game is growing as well. So I think the sky’s the limit for him.”

There is no set timetable for when Bonk will be NHL-ready. And the Flyers are not going to rush his development. As Flahr noted, although it would be great if he was ready for the league any time in the next two years, if Bonk needs time in the American Hockey League, that works, too. They want to make sure he’s the best player at 25 and not 19 or 20.

“Certainly we project him as a top-four defenseman. Top pairs, but even as a second pairing, a big-minute guy, plays in all situations. But, yeah, just see where he’s at now, the way he’s evolved even this year to make the Canadian World Junior team at his age is commendable. … He’s a great kid, he’s a sponge.”

Bonk is ready to soak in the World Junior experience. Venturing to Sweden for the first time — he’s not much of a meatball guy though — he will get a chance to play in front of his family, including his father, former NHL and Czech-born forward Radek Bonk.

One guy he won’t be seeing is his London teammate and fellow Flyers prospect, Denver Barkey. Although he’s having a stellar season with the Knights, Barkey, a 2023 third-round pick, was one of the guys who got the knock to pack up.

“It was tough to find out he didn’t make it, obviously for him, but for me, too. We are pretty close,” Bonk said. “So I was pretty sad to find out that he didn’t make it, but it’s been nothing but support on his part. He’s texted me saying good luck and stuff like that, checking up on how I’m doing. So he’s a really good kid. Even though it’s tough on him, he’s still trying to support me.”

Bonk will also be carrying on without one of his former teammates. Dec. 17 marked the first anniversary of the passing of London Knights forward Abakar Kazbekov, who died suddenly.

“When you turn 18, you’re able to get a tattoo in Canada. On my 18th birthday, that’s all I got. My parents asked me what I wanted and just had to pay for that,” Bonk said of the semicolon tattoo he has on his wrist. “So it kind of just reminds me of him and kind of pays homage to him — and for everyone else to see and know that the story is never over. It’s never that bad and you can always keep it going.”

The Ottawa native — born in the city where his father made his mark skating 10 seasons with the Senators — has received text messages from members of the current Flyers squad wishing him luck at World Juniors. Along with Barkey, the London-based duo should be key cogs in the final stages of the Flyers’ rebuild. Bonk tries to watch the Flyers every time a game is on and is fully aware of the shot-blocking his future holds.

“Yeah, definitely ready for that,” he said. “Coach [John] Tortorella plays that style and I think I love it. Shows your teammates that you care, you’re willing to sacrifice your body.”

“I’ve always been a good blocker, able to read where the shots going and block it, even in London. So I think it’s an important part of the game. You love to see any team doing it. Gives you energy on the bench, gives you energy when your teammates kind of give me props for it. So I think it’s great.”