Dave Isaac | NHL Writer

VOORHEES — All summer long Flyers prospect Joel Farabee has stayed in South Jersey to train, hoping to impress the front office as the 2018 first-round pick embarks on his first professional season.

While he hasn’t yet met new head coach Alain Vigneault, he’s gotten pretty close with the training staff and has already accomplished his first goal. Farabee gained a good amount of muscle to bring his weight up from the 163 pounds he was when the Flyers drafted the winger last summer.

“I’m pretty close to 180 pounds now,” Farabee said. “I think I’m in a pretty good spot weight-wise that I want to be at, so I feel really good, a lot stronger on the ice.

“If I put on too many pounds this summer, it would probably hurt me hockey wise. I’m just trying to take it day by day and see what happens.”

Over the weekend was something of a test run against different competition.

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For the last few days, his linemates in the pro-am division of the Checking For Charity tournament were New York Rangers forward Chris Kreider and Columbus Blue Jacket Sonny Milano. Their team, headed by Sewell native Tony DeAngelo, also of the Rangers, fell short of repeating its title and lost to a team constructed by John and Nolan Stevens, the sons of ex-Flyers coach and player John Stevens.

Earlier this month, Farabee was playing against teenagers at USA Hockey’s World Junior Summer Showcase, where he had five points in four games. As a returning member, Farabee felt at ease and at home wearing his country’s uniform. He had a hat trick against Kazakhstan in the World Juniors last season and finished with five points in seven games.

He’d be a lock to make the squad again…on one condition.

“I think the only thing would be…I talked to the coaching staff there and obviously if I make the NHL, I won’t be at World Juniors,” Farabee said. “That was kind of the only thing. When I played I was going as hard as I can. I wasn’t letting up. It’s a good level. It’s not like I completely dominated. It was good to play with some old friends and old teammates. It was a good showcase.”

Farabee was careful not to say he felt like had graduated past that level, but the obvious goal is to make a pretty big jump from playing at Boston University as a freshman last year, where he was the NCAA’s top rookie, to cracking the Flyers’ roster when training camp starts next month.

How realistic is that?

At development camp in late June, Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher pointed mostly to Farabee’s need to add weight so he could withstand the rigors of an 82-game season, adding, “but in terms of hockey sense, skill, skating, passion to play the game, he has all those elements already and it’s just going to be a question of time, and really, maturity. Watching him out here, his talent stands out. It wouldn’t take you many drills to pick him out as one of the better players on the ice.”

There is a clear spot that seems to be attainable for Farabee and it’s the right wing spot on the third line which likely has either Oskar Lindblom or James van Riemsdyk on the left and Nolan Patrick at center. There will be a battle for that spot in training camp and some of Farabee’s competition includes fellow prospects German Rubtsov, Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Morgan Frost, more experienced players like Andy Andreoff, 28, and Kurtis Gabriel, 26, Tyler Pitlick, 27, and 31-year-old Chris Stewart who will be in training camp on a tryout.

Farabee has played left wing most of his life but doesn’t anticipate the right side being much of an issue. He’s feeling good heading into rookie camp, which begins early in September, that he can outlast the rest.

Meantime, Farabee is just waiting to make an impression on the decision makers. He rented an apartment with Lehigh Valley Phantoms winger Carsen Twarynski, a third-round pick in 2016, and they’re at the team’s practice facility a lot.

“Obviously there’s a couple guys that still need to get signed (winger Travis Konecny and defenseman Ivan Provorov) so we’ll see what happens,” Farabee said. “A lot can change by the time training camp even happens. Right now I’m obviously going for the third line wing spot. That’s my goal. Hopefully if I have a good camp I can make the team. We’ll see what happens.”

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Dave Isaac joined the Courier-Post in April 2012 after covering the Flyers for three seasons elsewhere. Contact him on Twitter @davegisaac or by email at disaac@gannett.com.