Down the stretch of the regular season and all through the playoffs, Brandon Manning was a key member of the Philadelphia Flyers defence corps. His contributions to the NHL club have earned him a vote of confidence from his general manager and head coach.
On Tuesday, the 25-year-old Manning had a meeting with Flyers GM Ron Hextall and bench boss Dave Hakstol. During the chat, Manning - who is a restricted free agent - heard the words he wanted to hear.
"It sounds like I'll be coming back next year," Manning told The Citizen from Philadelphia. "It's just a matter of figuring out the details.
"Coach Hak really thought that my game the last couple weeks during the playoffs is where it needed to be and that I was a big part of the team's success. That's always nice to hear."
Manning, born and raised in Prince George, is coming off his most successful season with the Flyers. During the regular schedule, he played in a career-high 56 games, which more than doubled all his previous appearances in a Philadelphia uniform. Manning's 2015-16 season saw him score his first NHL goal, a game-winner against the New York Islanders on March 21, and he ended the season with that one marker and six assists. In the playoffs, he skated in all six games of a first-round series against the Washington Capitals.
After bouncing between the American Hockey League and NHL during his five years as a pro, the six-foot-one, 205-pound Manning appears to have solidified his place in the Flyers' lineup. He won't, however, be getting too comfortable, not with how quickly things can change at the NHL level.
"It's something I'm proud of, the way I've come up and what it's taken to get me here, but at the same time I don't think it's a time to be complacent," Manning said. "We've got six (defencemen) in the lineup right now - (Michael) Del Zotto was hurt and (there are) a couple young guys coming up - so you never really know what could happen. Until you've played a couple hundred games and you know you're playing every night, it's still a grind."
The Flyers were one of the league's hottest teams in the second half of the season. To get into the playoffs, they had to be.
With an overall record of 41-27-14, the Flyers nabbed the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference and were rewarded with a first-round playoff match-up against the powerhouse Capitals. In the series, the Flyers dropped the first three games (2-0, 4-1 and 6-1) but stayed alive with 2-1 and 2-0 wins in the next two. The Capitals, who claimed the Presidents' Trophy as the regular-season champion, finally closed out the series with a 1-0 victory on Sunday.
From an individual standpoint, Manning was making his NHL playoff debut. While he would have liked a different outcome, he was happy to get a taste of the post-season.
"It was an awesome experience," said Manning, who played junior hockey for the Prince George Spruce Kings and Chilliwack Bruins and signed a free-agent contract with the Flyers in November of 2010. "People talk all the time about how playoffs is different and how things get cranked up a little bit but until you're actually in it and live that experience, it's something you can't teach. It's a valuable experience for our hockey club and for myself.
"The games in Philly were pretty cool," he added. "Hearing Lauren Hart sing God Bless America and the fans out there... and especially Game 3 with the tribute to Mr. Snider (former Flyers owner Ed Snider died on April 11), it really got rocking and you could really see the support from the fans here."
In Game 3, the 6-1 loss, Manning picked up his first-ever playoff point when he got the primary assist on a goal by Michael Raffl, just 57 seconds after the opening faceoff.
"To contribute, obviously, was nice," Manning said. "I think it was our second shift - first game in Philly after waiting a couple years for the playoffs - and we score. That was a big moment for our team and for myself, just to be out there in that atmosphere."
Manning, the son of Prince George residents Leroy and Paula, is already looking forward to next season.
"I felt I really stepped things up in the playoffs and I felt really good out there," said Manning, who plans to be back in Prince George in a couple weeks. "If I can build on the way I finished, have a good summer of training and get a good start next year, hopefully I can take off from there."
