Travis Konecny

Early life

Konecny was born on March 11, 1997, in London, Ontario. He grew up in nearby Clachan with his father Rob, a firefighter; mother Terri-Lee, a worker with autistic children; and brother Chase, an engineering student. Outside of his immediate family, Konecny's cousin Bo Horvat also played ice hockey from a young age. Because Clachan was too small to have its own ice rink, Konecny would practice on frozen ponds and would watch hockey games to develop his skills. He was also childhood friends with Lawson Crouse, who he met when they tried out for the same hockey team at the age of six. Coaches started to notice Konecny when, at the age of 10, he scored four goals and an assist in one period of a youth ice hockey tournament.

Although he began playing minor ice hockey with the local Chatham-Kent Cyclones, when Konecny was 14 years old he moved to Mount Brydges, where he joined the Elgin-Middlesex Chiefs of the Alliance Hockey organization and began attending the PEAC hockey academy in London. Smaller than most of his teammates, Konecny was known for his physical style of play, with 24 penalty minutes through the first nine games of the 2012–13 season. He told reporters, "I don't take stupid penalties [...] I like to battle and I don't like to lose a puck battle or a race to the puck." He was also a strong scorer, recording 53 goals and 61 assists in 54 games that season. Elgin-Middlesex, meanwhile, captured the Alliance championship, sweeping the Waterloo Wolves. In the final game of the championship tournament, Konecny received a 10-minute misconduct penalty for fighting.

Playing career

Junior

The Ottawa 67's of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), who were entering a rebuilding year after finishing the 2012–13 season with a 16–46–6 record, selected Konecny first overall in the 2013 OHL draft, an honour that came with the Jack Ferguson Award for the top OHL draft pick of the year. Younger than most of his new teammates and opponents at only 16, Konecny registered two assists in his OHL debut, a 5–4 win over the Belleville Bulls. While the 67's once again missed the OHL playoffs, Konecny had a dominant rookie season, scoring 26 goals and 44 assists while playing on an offensive line alongside Erik Bradford and Ryan Van Stralen. Leading all OHL rookies in scoring for the 2013–14 season, Konecny was named Rookie of the Month on four out of six possible opportunities, and at the end of the season, he received the Emms Family Award for OHL Rookie of the Year. He was also named to the OHL First All-Rookie team that year at centre.

Going into his second year with the 67's, Konecny was named team captain for the 2014–15 season. Although he had a slow start to the season, with only three goals and 12 points through his first 18 games, Konecny soon recovered, finishing second on the 67's in scoring with 29 goals and 68 points in 60 regular season games. Ottawa reached the playoffs, and Konecny recorded an additional three goals and 10 points in five games there. That year, the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League traded two picks in the 2015 NHL entry draft to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for the 24th overall pick, which they used to draft Konecny in the first round. The Flyers' other first-round pick, Ivan Provorov of the Brandon Wheat Kings, had played alongside Konecny at the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game earlier that year. Konecny signed an entry-level contract with Philadelphia on July 16, 2015. At the end of the season, the NHL awarded Konecny the inaugural E.J. McGuire Award of Excellence, given to the prospect who "best exemplifies the commitment to excellence" in hockey "through strength of character, competitiveness and athleticism."

After attending the Flyers' training camp, Konecny was sent back to his junior hockey team in time for the start of the 2015–16 OHL season. There, he posted nine goals and 45 points in his third OHL season before becoming part of a major trade with the Sarnia Sting on January 6, 2016. Konecny and Sam Studnicka were sent to Sarnia in exchange for Sasha Chmelevski, Chase Campbell, and eight picks in that year's OHL draft, with an option for two extra draft picks if Konecny spent the 2016–17 season in the OHL as well. With Sarnia, Konecny played with future NHL players Jordan Kyrou, Jakob Chychrun, and Pavel Zacha. After the trade, Konecny scored 23 goals and 56 points in the remaining 31 games of the regular season, and added a goal and two assists in his first two playoff games before a shoulder injury put his postseason run on pause. Although Konecny was meant to rejoin the team for game five of the first-round OHL playoff series, Sarnia was swept in four games by the Plymouth Whalers.

Professional

On October 10, 2016, Flyers general manager Ron Hextall announced that both Konecny and Provorov had been named to the opening-night roster for the 2016–17 season, and that they were foregoing the usual nine-game tryout period for junior-aged rookies. Konecny was set to begin the season on the second offensive line, alongside Sean Couturier and Jakub Voráček. His first two professional hockey points came in his NHL debut on October 15, with two assists in a 4–2 defeat of the Los Angeles Kings. Konecny's first NHL goal came on October 26, in the third period of a 4–3 win over the Buffalo Sabres. His goal broke open the scoring for Philadelphia, who recorded three power play goals in the third period to take Buffalo to overtime and an eventual shootout win. His first major penalty for fighting came a month later, as the 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) Konecny went up against the 6 feet 0 inches (1.83 m) Brandon Pirri of the New York Rangers on November 25. By January 2017, Konecny had been flipped from the left wing to the right, and had been moved up to the top line with Claude Giroux and Michael Raffl, although coach Dave Hakstol continued to shift skaters around while attempting to find a rhythm for the team. After taking a hit against the St. Louis Blues on February 6, Konecny was confined to a walking boot with leg and ankle injuries, and was expected to miss four to six weeks of the season. He missed nine games before returning to the lineup on March 4 for a 2–1 loss to the Washington Capitals, playing on the fourth-line in order to slowly return to full skating. Overall, Konecny had an uneven rookie season, with 11 goals and 17 assists in 68 games and a ±0 plus–minus score.

Konecny started the 2017–18 season in a sophomore slump, with only one goal in the first 16 games of the season. Hakstol voiced concerns that Konecny was "trying to put a little too much emphasis on scoring", which was limiting his impact on the rest of the game. After being demoted to the fourth line with Scott Laughton and Taylor Leier, Konecny scored his second goal of the season on December 13, with a tying goal in the Flyers' eventual 4–2 win over the Maple Leafs. He was able to turn his performance around in the second half of the season, recording 33 points in the last 41 regular season games for a total of 24 goals and 47 points in 81 contests. Most of his success came after being moved back up to the first line with Giroux and Couturier. The one regular season game he missed was on February 22 against the Columbus Blue Jackets, following a left foot injury sustained in the previous game. The Flyers faced division rivals the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs, and Konecny scored his first NHL postseason goal in game two, which the Flyers took 5–1. The Flyers ultimately fell to the Penguins in six games.

International play

Konecny made his international debut with a number of performances for Canada's under-18 team in 2014. He first appeared as captain of the Canada Ontario team at the World U-17 Hockey Challenge. Konecny recorded one goal and three assists in five games of the tournament, in which Ontario took fifth place. He next captained Canada at the 2014 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, with five goals and six points in five games for the gold medal-winning team. Although he did not captain the Canadian team at the 2014 World U18 Championships, Konecny did score a goal in the bronze medal match against Sweden, which Canada won 3–1.

Two years later, Konecny represented the Canada junior team at the 2016 World Junior Championships, where he played alongside fellow Philadelphia prospect Travis Sanheim. Although Konecny had a goal and an assist in five tournament games, Canada lost to Finland in the quarterfinals and were kept from medal contention. He would medal the following year in his senior national team debut, registering eight assists for the second-place team at the 2017 World Championship. Konecny was one of five Flyers on the Canadian team that year, joining Couturier, Giroux, Brayden Schenn, and Wayne Simmonds.

Konecny was part of the Canadian team line-up for the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off, and was a health scratch for the gold medal game between the United States and Canada, with Canada winning 3–2 in overtime. As a result he was filmed, receiving a piggy back ride from fellow player Brad Marchand to receive his medal, instead of walking across the ice in dress shoes. He was also announced to be named to the Canadian team for the 2025 World Championships.

Player profile

Coming into the NHL at only 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) and 176 lb (80 kg), Konecny is physically much smaller than most NHL players, and like former teammate Shayne Gostisbehere, his coaches have encouraged him to focus on honing his speed and agility on the ice rather than strength. Unlike Gostisbehere, however, Konecny has also shown a physical style of play and is unafraid to hit larger opponents, a technique that has earned comparisons to Tampa Bay Lightning forward Ryan Callahan. Early in his NHL career, Konecny would sometimes clash with his coaches for making too many high-risk plays; with age, coaches and sportswriters have praised his improved decision-making and carefulness when making plays. Konecny is also talkative on the ice, frequently chirping insults at his opponents to distract or irritate them.

Personal life

Konecny is of Czech ancestry on his father's side, and was taught a few phrases of the Czech language by his grandfather. His cousin Bo Horvat also plays in the NHL. Because Horvat is two years older than Konecny, the pair rarely played with or against each other on childhood teams, but regularly faced each other starting at the junior level.

Konecny and his wife Karly, have two children. His wife's twin sister Kristin is married to Brody Sutter who is the son of Duane Sutter.

Career statistics