Rookie Isaac Ratcliffe earns promotion to top line; Flyers make donation to United Negro College Fund

Getting to play with Cam Atkinson and Claude Giroux on Monday in his seventh NHL game was “pretty cool,” Isaac Ratcliffe said, although he acknowledged he needs to bring more to the table if he’s going to be out on the ice with them on a regular basis.

Interim coach Mike Yeo will give Ratcliffe the chance to do just that on Tuesday. Yeo started Oskar Lindblom and Gerry Mayhew on the top line Monday, but announced Tuesday that Ratcliffe, who finished Monday’s game alongside Atkinson and Giroux, will get the nod there against the St. Louis Blues. The Flyers will be looking to snap a five-game losing streak.

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It’s all part of discovering who Ratcliffe, the NHL player, is.

“One thing you don’t want to do with young players is sort of cap them or put a ceiling on what they’re capable of,” Yeo said. “And you do see how effective he’s been on the fourth line, being physical and generating momentum. But he’s also a big body that has some hands and has a background and a history of putting points on the board.”

When Ratcliffe first came up, he simply hoped to play well and provide a spark. He did both, and the Flyers snapped their 13-game skid in his NHL debut on Feb. 21 against the Los Angeles Kings. While other players have yo-yoed back and forth between the Phantoms and the Flyers, Ratcliffe has stayed put.

Over those first few games, Ratcliffe adjusted his game to play on the Flyers’ physical fourth line alongside Zack MacEwen and Connor Bunnaman. Ratcliffe, 6-foot-6 and 200 pounds, learned to use his frame to play an aggressive brand of hockey.

In his fifth NHL game, Ratcliffe moved up to the third line to fill in for Mayhew, who was out with an eye injury. He played hard and did a lot of little things right before he committed two penalties that helped turn the tide against the Flyers in a 4-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. After the game, Yeo said he viewed those mistakes as the result of youth and saw them as fixable.

Ratcliffe went back to the fourth line with Mayhew’s return, but he had earned himself more responsibilities. He has contributed on the second power-play unit, and on Monday, he got bumped up to the top line. Now, he’ll start there on Tuesday.

“I don’t think that we’re at the point where we know where he’s gonna quite fit in the lineup,” Yeo said. “But I think really what it comes down to today is he’s just earned the opportunity to get that chance to play up there. And now we’ll see what he does with it.”

Following Monday’s game, Ratcliffe said he’s been playing better at the NHL level than he did in the AHL. He attributed it to being surrounded by more talent. But Morgan Frost, who has played with Ratcliffe on both levels and considers him one of his best friends, attributes it to the confidence and hard work Ratcliffe is putting in.

“He looks great; I think he’s moving his feet well,” Frost said. “And he’s getting rewarded with opportunity ... I think if he keeps going, he can definitely establish himself up here.”

The day after the Flyers hosted the Black Hockey History Tour, the team announced an agreement with the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). With their $40,000 donation, which will be used over the next four years to provide scholarships, the Flyers became the first NHL team to partner with UNCF.

“As we celebrate Black History Month, the Flyers organization is incredibly proud to be the first NHL franchise to partner with UNCF to help local hockey players follow their dreams and attend college,” said Valerie Camillo, President of Business Operations for the Philadelphia Flyers, in a release. “The Flyers are thrilled to work with the UNCF to identify top students, who’ve honed their leadership skills on and off the ice, and support their continuing success in college.”

The scholarship will be called the Philadelphia Rising Leaders Scholarship. Students must be high school seniors in the Philadelphia region who have a GPA of 3.0 or higher, can demonstrate an involvement in hockey and have leadership qualities.

UNCF awards over $100 million in scholarships each year and has helped more than 500,000 students earn college degrees from more than 1,100 schools across the country. The Flyers will present their check to UNCF during Tuesday’s game.

The Flyers host the Blues at 7 p.m. Tuesday for the second of a back-to-back. ... Carter Hart is still out with an eye infection, so Martin Jones will start in goal. Jones has played in back-to-backs 12 times in his career. He is 7-4-1 but has lost the last three. Yeo thinks they’ll have Hart back by Saturday’s game against the Washington Capitals. ... The Flyers recalled Connor Bunnaman under emergency conditions. Yeo said he won’t play but was called up as a precaution.