Cole Knuble took the puck straight to the net with a little over six minutes left in the third period on Monday, in his first NHL game, with the Philadelphia Flyers protecting a lead against the Colorado Avalanche. Josh Manson was standing there waiting for him.
What followed was the kind of hit Broad Street Hockey described as nearly decapitating him. The 22-year-old got up.
It wasn’t even the only one. Earlier in the evening Noah Juulsen had caught him in the corner, and rather than ducking out of it Knuble had taken the full weight of that one too.
The reaction from supporters was somewhere between admiration and concern.
“He’s a brave little guy,” one wrote.
“There’s his welcome to NHL moment,” said another, while a third offered some advice: “He had another one where he was crushed in the corner. Kid definitely has determination, but he’s got to learn to be a little more heads up.”
Somebody else summed up the evening more poetically. “When you were the big fish in a small pond, and the ocean signs you to a contract.”
Why was Cole Knuble’s debut so special?
Two decades ago he was a kid in those same stands, watching his dad. Mike Knuble made 1,068 NHL appearances across Detroit, New York, Boston, Washington and Philadelphia, 362 of them for the Flyers over two separate stints, and Cole grew up supporting the club because of it. On Monday both of his parents were back in that arena, watching the other direction.
“Obviously I have been a fan of this team my whole life, so I think it’s extra special,” Knuble said afterwards.
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A fourth-round pick in 2023, he signed his entry-level contract in March after finishing his junior season at Notre Dame, and came close to making the roster out of training camp before being sent down.
He logged 13:44 and fired one shot, and his side won. Matvei Michkov led Philadelphia to a 3-2 victory over the Stanley Cup contenders for a second straight win, with five Flyers rookies in the lineup.
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