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Flyers defenseman prospect Shayne Gostisbehere is a South Florida native who was heavily influenced by his grandfather, a native of Montreal.

(Zack Hill/Flyers)

VOORHEES – Phantoms coach Terry Murray's first chance to see the Flyers' most-NHL-ready, hotshot defenseman prospect was for the final two games of the 2013-14 AHL season.

He’d heard all about Shayne Gostisbehere scoring three points and being a plus-7 the previous weekend leading tiny Union College to an NCAA championship, those Frozen Four heroics coming in front of a lot of Flyers fans at Wells Fargo Center.

The stats from his first two pro games weren't impressive:

No points, minus-2.

Murray's first opinion?

"I coached Paul Coffey with the Flyers and Al Iafrate when I was coaching the Washington Capitals. Those guys played like Shayne does."

Wow. One of hockey's most respected coaches just compared Gostisbehere, a 2012 third round draft pick with no NHL experience, to two of the best offensive defensemen ever, both of them Hall of Famers.

"Coffey and Iafrate were offensive players who played on the edge all the time," Murray told NJ.com. "They were up on the attack in the offensive zone and they had incredible speed to be able to track back literally like a forward to defend and pressure the puck carrier.

"A lot of coaches probably don't like that. You want to keep the offensive player in front of you and you want to be skating backwards all the time, but I've had my taste of those Coffey-Iafrate type of players and they're special players who make a difference in the game. Shayne's like that."

A participant in the Flyers' 2014 development camp, which began Thursday and runs through next Tuesday, Gostisbehere smiled when he heard what Murray had said.

“Living hockey legends,” the 5-foot-11, 170 pounder responded with a hint of a smile. “Just to be compared to them in the same sentence is definitely an honor."

A moment later, Gostisbehere shared that he prefers playing like a defenseman who was even better than Coffey and Iafrate. His hockey hero is widely regarded as the greatest blueliner ever, Bobby Orr.

Gostisbehere was a kid from South Florida who grew up loving hockey because of his grandfather, a transplant from Montreal who has been a Florida Panthers' season-ticket holder since the franchise’s first season in 1993-94.

Gostisbehere started playing hockey around the age of 5 after two state-of-the-art rinks were built just a 10-minute drive from his home in Margate, which is a suburb to Miami.

Skating came easily to him, and initially Gostisbehere was a forward with a dream of becoming the next Pavel Bure, who for a short time was the Panthers' speedy goal-scoring right wing.

Eventually Gostisbehere was switched to defense, and that's when his grandfather, Dennis Brodeur, showed him old footage of Orr playing for the Boston Bruins in the 1960s and ‘70s and putting on shows against great Montreal Canadiens teams.

“I want to try that stuff,” he told his grandfather.

And so he did, and after switching from Bure's No. 10 to Orr's No. 4, the left-handed shooting blueliner "started trying to rush the puck."

He hasn't stopped, and over time this kid from Florida developed into a young man with NHL star potential.

His college coach compares him to another Hall of Fame offensive defenseman, Rangers great Brian Leetch.

“I played with Brian Leetch on the Rangers and Shayne reminds me of him in how Leetch could beat the first forechecker and sometimes the second just because of the way he could go east-west with his head up,” Union College coach Rick Bennett said. “I think the sign of a good defenseman is if you can beat the first forechecker. It’s the sign of a great defenseman if you can beat two. Shayne’s has proved that in college.”

Gostisbehere’s game took off in college. He was a good prospect when drafted by the Flyers after his freshman season. He's a much better one after three seasons at Union.

“First and foremost, his progress is a compliment to the Union College coaching staff,” Flyers director of scouting Chris Pryor said. “In the last couple of years, his game has really transformed. Everybody looks at Shayne as being an offensive guy, which he is, but he has rounded his game. He’s paid more attention to detail without the puck. Union’s coaching staff has done a good job with that.”

Gostisbehere, who was nicknamed Ghost in college, scored 22 goals and 82 points over 119 career games at Union, including nine goals and 34 points in 42 games this past season.

“He's not a big guy, but he can really move,” Flyers director of player development Kjell Samuelsson said. “You see a lot of defensemen who can skate the puck in, but when they hit the red line they don’t have a creative mind, so they dump it in. There’s nothing wrong with that, but when Shayne hits the red line, he wants to create. That’s instincts.

“And he’s come a long way defensively. Every time I talk to him I say, ‘That’s what you have to focus on. Be reliable defensively because you have something offensively that nobody can teach.'"

His college coach preached the same thing for three years.

“He’s tremendously smart, and obviously you need that, but he has the feet and the lateral movement, and that sets him apart from a lot of defensemen,” Bennett said. “He turned the corner halfway through his freshman year. It was a tough go there for the first few months of the season. He was just so aggressive and getting caught 2-on-1s. It was a like a Six Flags ride.

“It’s nice to play forward all the time, but you’ve got to play a little defense as well. Once he figured out his reads, when to go and when not to, then he really kind of shaped his game. He really took a lot of ownership in playing good D, and that’s what’s nice about Shayne. When you have something like Shayne who’s willing to listen and learn, boy, the sky’s the limit.

“I think he passes like a pro now and I think that’s the one area that set him apart from a lot of college players. He passes and there’s no ‘sorry.’ He’s going to zip it, and you’re either going to catch the puck or you’re not. So I think he's a step ahead of the game coming into pro hockey in that regard.”

Shayne Gostisbehere (left) had a great NCAA championship game for Union College.

His best college game was his crazy three-point, plus-7 NCAA championship game when Union beat Minnesota 7-4 on April 12 in Philadelphia.

Three days later, Gostisbehere turned pro by signing a three-year, $925,000 entry-level contract with the Flyers. Three days after that, he made his pro debut. And two days after that, he turned 21.

"It was easily the best week of my life,” Gostisbehere said. “It’s definitely been a world wind of a year, especially the end there."

The end there created expectations of NHL greatness, which for a Flyers defenseman prospect is beyond rare.

The organization hasn’t been so excited about a blueliner in its system since drafting Joni Pitkanen fourth overall in 2002, and now the Flyers have four that they’re really high on in 2014 first-round draft pick Travis Sanheim, 2013 top pick Samuel Morin, 2013 second rounder Robert Hagg and Gostisbehere.

Gostisbehere has the best shot at getting to the NHL next season, but it’s possible he’ll spend all of 2014-15 (and possibly beyond) honing his all-around game in the AHL.

“If he fast tracks in the American League the way he did here, then it’s going to be hard to keep him down,” Bennett said.

As much as he loves Gostisbehere, Murray doesn’t think he's NHL ready.

"I think Shayne needs to play in the American League next season,” Murray said. “I think he needs to get a season of pro hockey under his belt and get a real good understanding of what it’s all about.

"He played two games for us and showed big stuff ... incredible speed, quickness and puck-handling. He’s got an attack. He shoots the puck. I think he’s a very special player. I want to keep pushing the big stuff, too. But like all players, he’s going to have to work on the other part of the game, whenever you don’t have the puck and learning how to defend."

Gostisbehere says he’s fine with whatever the Flyers have planned, although he’d love to play his way into their 2014-15 plans by blowing them away in training camp come September.

"Of course that’s my mindset," Gostisbehere said. "But the Flyers have a plan for me. I’m all ears. I’m a sponge. It’s a jump from college to the NHL or even the AHL. It’s a big jump. If it’s a year in the AHL or two years in the AHL, then that’s what it’s got to be."

Defending is the biggest area Gostisbehere needs improvement, but he’s already made big progress and this past season was named his conference’s best defensive defenseman.

"In my high school days I really didn’t care too much for the D-zone,” Gostisbehere said. “I definitely block more shots now. It’s something I probably wouldn’t have done back then. I would have just let the goalie have it.

"I think the progress started at Union my freshman year when I realized that I had a special skillset. My coaches sat me down and we talked about how I had to clean up the defensive side of my game. Once I realized that being a two-way player is better than being one dimensional, my game just took off from there."

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