Artem Anisimov's love of the game pays dividends for Flyers organization

It was garbage time on Daily Faceoff Live to wrap up the show, and Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna took the opportunity to tell us about a great story in Artem Anisimov this season.

Frank Seravalli: Artem Anisimov has really made a dent on the Philadelphia Flyers organization in a good way. I think this hasn’t been talked about enough, so I wanted to shed a little light on it and give him a little love, but he came to the Flyers camp earlier this year on a PTO, and ended up breaking his foot in a preseason game, took a shot off his foot. And that just basically sealed his chances to make the team. He was living in Chicago, played in Russia last year, and everyone just assumed that he’ll go back home to Russia or go to Chicago and go on and continue his life outside of hockey.

Instead, he went away for a couple weeks, but made the decision to come back because he really wanted to give it a shot playing in the AHL with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms to see if he could be a mentor this season to their team. He’s had a great year statistically, but the Flyers have been way more impressed about what he’s done off the ice trying to mentor some of their young guys.

I think it’s just a neat little story about a guy who’s made a couple bucks in his career, and played 775 NHL games, and decides to go back to the AHL. If that’s not love of the game, I don’t know what is.

Mike McKenna: Yup, he’s having fun, that’s what it comes down to. We played together in Columbus, and I’m not surprised at all. It’s a special relationship that he’s had with Egor Zamula, a defenseman for that franchise, and I think he’s really solidified it.

It’s great to see, I’m not surprised here. There’s not a lot of pressure in the American Hockey League, so if you still love it, if you still don’t mind making a few bucks less, why not? He likes living in America, I understand that aspect, so good on Artem.

Frank Seravalli: Yeah, I just love to see it. I wonder what that means for the next part of his career, whether it’s player development or getting involved in scouting or whatever it might be, the Flyers will work to find a place in the organization for a guy like him, that goes a long way.