Who says the Flyers can't have too many defensemen?

It's an old hockey axiom that a team can't have too many talented defensemen. Try telling that to Travis Sanheim who, at the ripe old age of 21, is attending his fourth consecutive development camp.

If there is such a thing as a veteran at a "development camp," he is it. Sanheim has gone from someone you teach to someone you point to while you teach. The no-crossover pivot, for example, an awkward struggle when Sanheim was a gawky 6-foot-4, 18-year-old first-round pick of the Flyers in 2014, he now executes effortlessly.

"But he's also been to three of these, right?" Flyers general manager Ron Hextall was saying the other day. "So it's a little different than the first-year kids who come in here who have never been taught this. It's all the little things that we think these kids should know. But they don't know. They've never had that level of coaching yet. The more they come in here and do it, the better …"

That's the message Hextall has repeated since before camp began: That no one is winning or losing a job, a placement, anything this week. It's all about their coachability, focus, and eating habits.

So in that respect at least, Sanheim seems so out of place. He's been to so many of these camps, played and excelled at the WHL level. He's learned some hard lessons in his initial forays as a pro, the risk-taking habits he developed against slower, younger players caused him a first professional month of misery last fall as a Phantom.

"There was a development curve early on in those first two months." Sanheim said in between sessions Saturday at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. "Trying to figure out new ways of being able to play pro hockey. I wasn't able to do the same things I was able to do in in Juniors. And I learned some valuable lessons those first few months. I went over numerous video sessions with the coaches back then that if I was to look at now, it would just look silly. I'm standing on top of the goalie in the crease. And there's just no reason to do that as a defenseman, and particularly at the pro level."

"But I think toward the end of the season you could see I had gained my confidence again and I was able to play the game I wanted to play."

After that first month in which he was far too often caught out of position and too far up ice, Sanheim settled in nicely, finishing second in scoring among Phantoms defenseman behind AHL veteran T.J. Brennan.

Still, his 10 goals and 27 assists over 76 games represented a significant drop from the point-a-game productivity he achieved in two previous seasons with the WHL's Calgary Hitmen. For a scoring starved team – which the Flyers were last season – this might still warrant a promotion. But Sanheim's path appears to be impeded or blocked – at least right now  – by two of his more seasoned Phantoms teammates in Robert Hagg and Samuel Morin.

Morin, a 6-7 stay-at-home physical presence, was frequently paired with Sanheim last season. He seems, on paper at least, to perfectly complement the venturesome game of smallish Shayne Gostisbehere, maybe even protect him a little. Hagg, whom Flyers director of player development Kjell Samuelsson dubbed "NHL ready" late last season prior to a quick call-up, has been paired with Radko Gudas in many projections.

While some predictions have Sanheim winning a training camp battle for one of the two available slots, the more common and conventional thinking is that he needs the kind of minutes afforded to first and second-line pairings for his game to mature, and that he will be a better and more potent player with more AHL seasoning.

Morin and Hagg are older and more professionally seasoned than Sanheim. Although neither projects the same top-line upside. Even if either or both have doubt-inducing camps, even if Philippe Myers continues his upward trajectory and catapults into the conversation this September, Hextall has intimated that a veteran defenseman brought in on a tryout basis would be his preferred route rather than accelerating his careful cultivation of this future core.

Sanheim is aware of this. For now at least, the Flyers may indeed be a team with too many defenseman – if there is such a thing.

"Nobody said it was going to be easy and that I'm going to be slotted for the first pairing," he said. "I feel ready. I'm going to compete for a spot. And until someone tells me differently, that's my goal. And if I do go down to the AHL again this year I'm going to work hard and try to get back up."