LAST SEASON

It wasn’t difficult to predict the Philadelphia Flyers would take a step back after 2023-24, when they weren’t eliminated from the postseason until Game 82. In the first “official” season of a rebuild that began with the appointment of GM Danny Briere and President of Hockey Operations Keith Jones, those Flyers only stuck around so long thanks to a rotten year for the rest of the Eastern Conference.

Despite adding highly touted rookie Matvei Michkov to a roster led by Team Canada selections Travis Konency and Travis Sanheim, the Flyers never really threatened to overachieve again in 2024-25, struggling to a 2-6-1 mark out of the gate. The Orange and Black occasionally rediscovered their resolve by climbing over the .500 mark in November and again in January. Overall, though, a bad power play and worse goaltending curtailed any momentum they scraped together (0 win streaks of 4+ games).

Just after a five-game points streak took the Flyers over .500 for the last time on March 1, then-coach John Tortorella ran out of buttons to press. Tortorella’s undermanned lineup, which saw longtime teammates Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, and Scott Laughton traded throughout the season, endured a dreadful 1-10-1 slump before ‘Torts’ got his walking papers on the 27th.

The Flyers spent their offseason identifying Tortorella’s replacement, team legend and fellow Jack Adams winner Rich Tocchet, re-stocking their prospect pipeline with a promising draft class, and aggressively pursuing improvements in goal (Dan Vladar) and at center (Trevor Zegras, Christian Dvorak). Did they do enough to avoid a fourth bottom-seven finish in five years? And, with so little high-end talent to surround Michkov, would another tough year and a high draft pick really be a bad thing?

KEY ADDITIONS & DEPARTURES

Additions

Trevor Zegras, C
Dan Vladar, G
Christian Dvorak, C
Dennis Gilbert, D
Noah Juulsen, D

Departures

Ryan Poehling, C (ANA)
Jakob Pelletier, RW (TBL)
Ivan Fedotov, G (CBJ)
Olle Lycksell, LW (OTT)

OFFENSE

The punchless Flyers haven’t finished top-10 in scoring since 2020 or outside the bottom three in power-play efficiency since 2021. Fixing both of those issues starts with Michkov, a former KHL phenom who came as advertised in a 27-goal, 63-point debut. Those numbers probably undersell Michkov, a brilliantly creative and deceptively strong winger who jumped out to 27 points in his first 27 games before the NHL grind caught up to him, then finished the season strong with another 27 points in 25 games after the 4 Nations break.

Philly is eager to explore the upper limits of the 20-year-old’s game, and the simplest way to do that is to keep him across from Konecny, who led the team in scoring (76 P) for the fifth season in his past six tries. A fan-favorite pest, Konecny made up for depressed shooting volume (2.29 shots per game, down from 3.21) with career-best playmaking (52 A) last season. Captain Sean Couturier centered the duo 24 times and remains Philadelphia’s top pivot, though his production (44.5 P per 82 GP since 2023) has waned since a series of career-threatening back issues.

Fans are eager to see if the newly acquired Zegras can unseat “Coots” as the de facto 1C, but the former Anaheim Duck lacks the faceoff acumen (40.1 career FO%) and defensive responsibility that keep Couturier effective despite his diminishing scoring touch. Philadelphia wants to try Zegras at center, where he notched a couple of 60-point seasons in SoCal, but could be wary of a top unit where the 5’10 Konecny brings all the heaviness. Choosing between the electric skill of Zegras and the two-way reliability of Couturier on the top line will be an early conundrum for Tocchet.

Tyson Foerster, a budding power forward who brushed shoulders with MacKinnon and Crosby at the IIHF World Championship, could move up to the top six full-time after a 25-goal sophomore season. He’ll likely be joined by the physically gifted but inconsistent Owen Tippett, who’s looking to bounce back from his worst full season as a Flyer in goals (20), points (43), and ice time (16:00 ATOI).

The Flyers’ blueline is mostly unchanged from the group that chipped in the third-fewest points (132) of any defense in the NHL last year. Cam York, who was bizarrely frozen out from the power play after a 30-point season in 2023-24, and Jamie Drysdale, whose elite stickhandling hasn’t yet carried over to the box score, could sure use whatever insights Tocchet had for Quinn Hughes in Vancouver.

DEFENSE

Always a tough defensive outfit under Tortorella, Philadelphia gave up the ninth-fewest scoring chances and fifth-fewest expected goals at 5-on-5 while leading the league in blocked shots. With Tocchet at the helm, they’ll bring back a consistent if not eye-popping defense corps in 2025-26.

No player benefited from Tortorella more during his three seasons than blueline leader Sanheim. His elite recovery speed and comfort on both sides of the ice earned him the ninth-most minutes against “elite” competition of any player last season. If that usage wore down the rangy Manitoban, it didn’t show in his possession stats; his 54.53% high-danger chance share led Flyers’ D-men. Sanheim doesn’t have the offensive tools (30 P per 82 GP) of a modern No. 1 defender, but his versatility, skating, and stick work (career-high 51 takeaways) put him squarely in the mix to retain his 4 Nations roster spot in Milan.

York doesn’t quite have the wheels to replicate his partner Sanheim’s aggressive O-zone pinches and end-to-end dashes. Still, York’s skill at puck retrievals and a good first pass have allowed him to soak up matchup minutes (20:56 career ATOI) without taking too much punishment as an undersized D. Splitting from Tortorella, with whom York’s relationship broke down last season, should rejuvenate the former first-round pick in the first year of a new five-year pact.

With crease-clearing Finn Rasmus Ristolainen back on the shelf with another injury to start the season, Nick Seeler and Jamie Drysdale should expect more work than usual on the second pair. Seeler, a tough lefty who took the scenic route to the NHL, has blocked at least 200 shots for two seasons running and will likely set a fourth-straight career high ATOI. Drysdale, a pedigreed, diminutive puck mover, needs to build on his second-half improvements to work his way into the Flyers’ long-term plans.

The Flyers will also defend from the front, where two-way centermen Couturier and Noah Cates will be joined down the middle by free agent acquisition Christian Dvorak (74 blocks, 55.8 FO%). On the wings, Konecny finished second among Flyers’ forwards in shorthanded ice time, while Foerster’s strength in the corners has made him an effective playdriver; his 54.93% expected-goal share was second only to veteran forechecker Garnet Hathaway (257 hits) among returning Flyers.

GOALTENDING

Philadelphia never finished better than 18th in scoring defense under Torts and gave up the fifth-most goals of any team last season. How’d they manage that despite all the bluster around their fearless shot-blocking and shorthanded “power kill?” Simple: a goaltending curse that’s approaching the 40-year mark.

Carter Hart left the team to await trial for sexual assault in January of 2024, and the replacement battery of Sam Ersson and Ivan Fedotov produced the club’s most forgettable results to date. It wouldn’t be a stretch to call an .872 team mark in the 21st century the worst goaltending season of all time. It’s the sort of number that would make Gilles Meloche blush, but Briere isn’t totally starting from scratch.

Ersson has floundered for much of his first two full seasons (2.97 GAA, .887 SV% in 98 GP), but was never supposed to be a full-time starter. Hart’s departure left Philly in the lurch, and a rotating cast of inadequate backups left Ersson overworked. When the 25-year-old was splitting time in his early career (before Hart was charged), he jumped out to an 18-8-3 record with respectable numbers (2.55 GAA, .906 SV%).

Briere believes that poise is still in there somewhere, so he washed his hands of the failed Fedotov experiment and signed career backup Dan Vladar. Vladar’s career numbers in 105 games might not inspire a ton of confidence (2.99 GAA, .895 SV%), but he’s a seaworthy NHL shotstopper with some runway to improve at age 28. The 6’5 Czech also offers a different look from the positionally sound but physically unimpressive Ersson. The Flyers would pick up five to 10 extra points if their goalies could settle into a merely competent 1:1 split.

COACHING

Look past the mob’s anger that yet another former Flyer is back in a leadership role, and Rick Tocchet is still an interesting fit for a team so far away from a championship as a recent Jack Adams and Division winner with Vancouver. Still, the hire shouldn’t suggest Briere and Jones (both former teammates of Tocchet) are trying to rush back into the mushy middle. They like Tocchet’s similarities with Tortorella as a player developer and as someone who grasps the importance of identity on and off the ice. They like his differences from Tortorella even more: Tocchet, known as a good communicator with a level head, is far less likely to use public humiliation as a motivational tool or scare off free agents.

Tocchet’s experiences with the cash-strapped Arizona Coyotes should prepare him to keep standards high on a losing team. The biggest challenge for the once-feared power forward will instead be flipping the switch when Philadelphia finally does have the horses to compete. Usually, escaping the NHL’s doldrums requires a new coach bump somewhere along the way, but “Toch” is signed up for the next five years.

Jaroslav Svejkovsky followed Tocchet over from BC and is tasked with repairing what has consistently been among the NHL’s most dreadful power plays (VAN finished 15th last season and 12th in 2023-24). The Flyers were disappointed to lose Brad Shaw as the engineer of their defense, but former Washington Capitals bench boss Todd Reirden is a qualified replacement.

ROOKIES

If Foerster is ready to graduate to the top six, Philadelphia has an important vacancy on a heavily used third line featuring Cates and Bobby Brink. Rookie Alex Bump could be in the early lead for that spot as a fleshed-out prospect who, like Foerster, is a powerfully built winger with a heavy shot. Bump was one of the stars of Western Michigan’s National Championship run (37 G in 80 career NCAA games), and didn’t look out of place for the AHL Lehigh Valley Phantoms (3 G, 5 P in 9 GP, including playoffs). It’s rare for a North American prospect to rise so quickly from draft-night anonymity (5th round pick in 2022) and into an organization’s plans, but, after dominating at development and rookie camps, Bump could lock up a spot on the big club with a strong preseason.

If Bump seems to have an inside track to a spot on the Flyers, 2024 first-rounder Jett Luchanko’s fate is still very much in the air. Luchanko skates and competes at an NHL level, but his shot is still far away, and he’s nursing a groin injury ahead of camp. Working in Luchanko’s favor is a strong playoff run in Lehigh Valley (6 P in 9 GP) and a late birthday that will keep him from returning to the AHL for at least another season. The best option for the 19-year-old centerman may be to throw him to the wolves in the show. The learning curve will be steep, but would Luchanko really learn anything new as an overage player on a poor Guelph team in the OHL?

Position battles on the blueline won’t be as open to rookies; the offseason signings of journeymen Noah Juulsen and Dennis Gilbert give Philadelphia four experienced D-men on either side. That’s counting Ristolainen, though, so Helge Grans should have a shot at being the No. 6 or 7 defenseman on opening night. Grans, a rangy right-shot D who isn’t waiver exempt, had a six-game cameo in the show amid a strong AHL season.

Aleksei Kolosov will serve as primary goalie for the Phantoms and the third option in case of an injury in the NHL crease. The Fedotov trade seemed to hint Kolosov wouldn’t be so cagey about an AHL assignment after a tough North American debut (.867 SV% in 17 GP).

BURNING QUESTIONS

1. Is the clock ticking for Owen Tippett? It’s not hard to see why Briere was so enamored with Tippett’s game that he handed him max term, even if the contract value ($6.2 million AAV) was a bit speculative. The 26-year-old is one of the best skaters on the planet (98th percentile in top speed per NHL EDGE) and has a howitzer for a wrist shot, one he fired on goal 289 times (11th in NHL) in 2023-24. With that shot and that volume, it seemed only a matter of time before Tippett became a 35-goal scorer. Twelve months on, he barely reached the 20-goal mark in a gun-shy season (188 shots) that looked a lot like an identity crisis. Tippett was constantly trying to impress Tortorella with his forechecking but left so little room for his game that he seemed to forget just what it was. The Flyers already had one franchise winger in Michkov before they picked MSU-bound power forward Porter Martone sixth overall in June. Foerster and ‘TK’ are also part of their long-term plans. Does Tippett’s big contract still make sense in Philadelphia?

2. Is a free agency spending spree really a good idea? The Flyers have made a concerted effort to keep their books clean ahead of the summer of 2026, when nearly $7 million in dead money comes off the wage bill. If they trade Ristolainen and/or Tippett this year, they could go into the offseason with upwards of $50 million in cap space, a number that, in theory, should make them players for just about anyone. How ambitious should Jones and Briere get? Even if KHL goalie Yegor Zagravin pans out one day, this team does not have a potential top center or defenseman anywhere in the organization. Beyond Martone, its vaunted 2025 draft class could take three seasons or more to make an impact in the NHL. Throwing $100 million-plus at a Jack Eichel would be great for season ticket sales, but does it make sense for a team whose most valuable assets are still so far from reaching maturity?

3. What does a Zegras extension look like? The Flyers don’t have as much time as they’d like to make a call on who Zegras is before it’s time to go to the negotiating table next summer, if not earlier. Zegras was once among the hottest names in hockey because of his dazzling hands and the reckless abandon with which he used them. Now, he’s a reclamation project whose last contract ($5.75 million AAV) might not be much help in determining the value of his next one. Briere could bite on a lengthy extension if Zegras proves he can hack it at center, but a bridge deal and another conversation just like this one in two years seems like the likeliest outcome for the mercurial forward, who’s still just 24.

PREDICTION

With improved goaltending (it could hardly be worse) and a new coach that should have the backing of the room, the Flyers may get right back into the 8th-10th place range. It’s also possible that, without the unifying factor of their maligned but respected taskmaster Tortorella, this roster shows you what it really is: a bottom-five group in the league by talent. Expect Philadelphia to land somewhere in the middle, a positive outcome that would neither stunt the development of Michkov nor hinder Briere’s ability to find him more help at the 2026 NHL Entry Draft.

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