Alex Bump became a ‘college hockey superstar.’ After 2025 Frozen Four, Flyers are up next

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To Pat Ferschweiler, “Alex Bump is a college hockey superstar.”

And the Western Michigan University Broncos head coach will tell you that he has “said that since the second he stepped on campus.”

He said that before Bump, a 2022 fifth-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers, registered 36 points in 38 games for him as a freshman, and before he came back as a sophomore and scored 23 goals and 47 points in 40 games to lead his program to its first-ever appearance at the Frozen Four and a semifinal matchup Thursday with Penn State.

Bump was so good this year that Ferschweiler said in advance of the Frozen Four that he has actually “vastly outplayed his points, even though his points are high and impressive.”

“He was a really, really good freshman for us last year but he came back this year and I think what separated him this year to be a star rather than a really, really good college hockey player is his competitiveness has gone off the charts,” said Ferschweiler, who also gave him an “A” on his jersey this season. “His ability to win puck battles, get pucks back and really just be a fierce competitor has been incredible. He has just taken his game to a whole new level.”

After his sophomore season wraps up later this week in St. Louis, though, he may not be a college hockey superstar any longer.

He’ll always be a Bronco, but he’ll become a Flyer.

“I’m sure Philly is going to come knocking extremely soon for Alex Bump,” Ferschweiler said.

Bump still seems genuinely annoyed that he dropped to the fifth round before the Flyers — guided in large part by scout Shane Fukushima, who is based in his home state of Minnesota — selected him with the 133rd pick.

It’s a feeling that Bump still carries with him, and drives him, to this day.

“I definitely don’t think I’m a fifth-rounder, but it is what it is and I can’t do anything about it now,” he said. “But I definitely don’t think I’m a fifth-rounder. I think it did leave a little chip on my shoulder, just to try to prove to people that passed on me that I can play.”

Flyers assistant general manager Brent Flahr took notice of Bump’s irritation right away, when Bump made his first appearance at development camp a couple of weeks after the draft.

“His first camp he was pissy because he was a fifth-round pick,” Flahr recalled. “He worked his butt off, showed off himself at that camp, and every year after, he was one of the most improved as far as fitness and strength and conditioning. He’s really driven to be a player.”

Flyers general manager Daniel Briere seems to believe that, too. He even mentioned Bump in his 2023-24 season-ending news conference.

“(He’s) had a great year. He’s pushing himself into a high-end prospect for us,” Briere said last April, even before Bump’s achievements this season.

On the ice, Flahr has seen Bump’s “skating improve dramatically.” Further, while Bump has always been a volume shooter and a goal scorer, “other parts of his game have grown up,” Flahr said.

“(He now) holds onto pucks, whether it’s on cycles or offensive zone sequences, creating things out of nothing,” Flahr said. “The shot has always been there, but he’s taken a step in a lot of different directions.”

Bump, a 2022 fifth-round pick, is expected to sign with the Flyers at the conclusion of the Frozen Four. (Courtesy of Western Michigan Athletics)

Bump said he has worked hard at rounding out his game with his offseason skills coach Noel Rahn at the Velocity Hockey Center in Eden Prairie, Minn. He also said it’s a non-negotiable when you play for Ferschweiler at WMU.

“He doesn’t want you on your team if you don’t work hard or have a passion for the game,” Bump said. “It’s all about hockey here. You’ve got to put your work in and do your part to succeed here and that’s the culture here: hard work, doing your part and being a good teammate.”

And while some of that hard work is motivated by the chip on his shoulder, he said some of it also comes from getting “beat up growing up” as the youngest of four Bump kids who all played hockey (his older brothers, Connor and Tyler, played Division III, and his sister, Hannah, played high school).

It wasn’t until last year, however, when he had success as a freshman with the Broncos, that he really started to think “Wow, I have a chance of playing in the NHL.”

Now he’s on the cusp, and all signs are pointing toward Bump signing with the Flyers after the Frozen Four and immediately joining the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The Phantoms’ regular season concludes on April 19, and although they haven’t officially clinched a playoff spot yet, they’ll almost certainly qualify.

Jett Luchanko, the Flyers’ first-round pick in 2024 who played four games with the team in October, joined the Phantoms late last month, too, so perhaps coach Ian Laperriere gives them a look together on the same line.

It’s not out of the realm of possibility that both will be competing for spots on the NHL roster when training camp begins in September. Bump will turn 22 in November, so, at least from a physical standpoint, he should be better prepared than other Flyers prospects. (Western Michigan listed him at 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds this season, but Bump joked that he got an extra inch or two from the Broncos training staff, who let him keep his shoes on for the measurement.)

“He’s one guy that has a chance just because of where he’s at physically,” Flahr said. “His game the way it is — he’s got things to learn, for sure — but he’s a guy I expect to come to camp and compete for a job. We’ll see. It’s obviously a big jump, but he’s got that ability.”

Whether he makes his NHL debut late this year or next, Ferschweiler believes he’s going to be a top-nine winger in the NHL.

“He’s certainly got the skill and the IQ and the ability to make a five-foot pass at one of the higher levels and maybe play on a power play. But I think what’s going to make him an NHLer originally and make him stick in the NHL is that compete combined with his skill,” Ferschweiler said. “That’s the special quality of those guys in the NHL from my time there (Ferschweiler is a former assistant coach with the Red Wings). All the best players are the best competitors.”

Though Bump is focused right now on winning his last two games of college hockey, he acknowledged that “it’s hard not to” think about his next step with the Flyers.

“It’s always in the back of my mind,” he said.

Since getting drafted, he said he has talked with Flyers director of player development Riley Armstrong “about every week” — and about everything from what he needs to work on to simply how he’s doing.

“It has been nothing but good with the Flyers,” Bump said. “I couldn’t be happier with where I am with the organization that I’m in.”

As for what Flyers fans can expect?

“I’m a full 200-foot player,” Bump said. “I’m more offensive-minded for sure but I can play defense as well and I’m just a hard worker that likes to get in the corners and the grittier spots to use my size. I have a good body, I have a good frame, and I try to put that to effect.”

(Top photo courtesy of Western Michigan Athletics

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