Defenseman-Turned-Forward Returns to Lehigh Valley
March 1, 2021
Lehigh Valley, PA – The Philadelphia Flyers have announced that they have re-assigned forward Samuel Morin to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms from the Flyers taxi squad.
Morin, 25, is in his sixth season as a professional hockey player and also his first season as a forward after serving as a defenseman the previous five years.
The towering left wing made his official debut at his new position on January 30, 2021 for the Philadelphia Flyers against the New York Islanders. That was his first game in over 14 months since a knee injury with the Phantoms on November 11, 2019 in a game against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
Morin has played in four games for the Flyers this year and one game for the Phantoms on February 6 plus one preseason game with the Phantoms on February 4. His most recent game with the Flyers was on February 24 against the New York Rangers.
Morin was a first-round selection (#11 overall) of the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. He has played in 170 games with the Phantoms going back to 2014-15 which was the second season for the team in the Lehigh Valley. The Lac-Beauport, Quebec native has scored eight goals and recorded 34 assists for 42 points with the Phantoms, all as a defenseman. He has also played in 10 career games with the Philadelphia Flyers including five at the beginning of the 2018-19 season before injury issues interrupted his career.
Morin has seen extremely limited action the past two seasons due to two knee surgeries. He has played a combined 11 games with the Phantoms and Flyers in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 campaigns including just four total games in 2019-20. And before that, he had played in only 20 games total in the 2017-18 season ending when he sustained his first knee injury on May 9, 2018 at the beginning of a playoff game at Charlotte.
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms return to action on Wednesday night hosting the Hershey Bears at 7:05 p.m.