After yet another season where they missed the playoffs, the Philadelphia Flyers have not made the playoffs in consecutive seasons since the division realignment in 2013. Despite fielding some potentially threatening rosters on paper, they never have found consistency. While the Flyers have kept a similar core throughout, they still haven’t been able to produce consistent success come springtime.
Pittsburgh Penguins players take exception to the cross check by Shayne Gostisbehere #53 of the Philadelphia Flyers on Mark Friedman #52 of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the third period.
The reasoning behind this phenomenon naturally changes season by season, but there have been a few trends that have regularly popped up and been overwhelming factors in seasons that have gone south and have been the primary reason why they haven’t made it to the second round for 6 straight years.
Constant Defensive Changes
The Flyers organization have not been strangers to acquiring talent. They have constantly shifted their defensive pairings around to the point where their top four defensemen have changed almost every season. This can mean that a handful of moves can potentially work out initially then not being able to build off that success because they end up making another change in hopes of improving it once again.
Tempers rise during the second period of the game Philadelphia Flyers versus Pittsburgh Penguins
Not every successful NHL team has a solid top four defensive pair every year, but rarely does it shift as often as it does in Philadelphia. Teams with postseason success often keep their coaches and have a consistent defensive scheme. Coupled with changes in scheme and roster, this has seemingly led to inconsistent defensive results year over year.
Despite this inconsistency, the overall defensive play doesn’t seem to be there. They have consistently been near the bottom of the league in takeaways and have had the fourth worst penalty kill since the 2013/14 season. There seems to be a trend that the Flyers struggle with getting the puck in the defensive end without the goaltender having to stop the play. The 2021 NHL season was by far the worst the Flyers have played defensively despite keeping a majority of the pieces from the season prior. The sudden retirement of Matt Niskanen was just another loss that the Flyers couldn’t replace and will likely fix during the 2021 offseason.
| Season | PTS | League Finish | Goals For in the NHL | Goals Against in the NHL | Playoffs? |
| 13/14 | 94 | 13th | 8th | 20th | Yes |
| 14/15 | 84 | 24th | 21st | 22nd | No |
| 15/16 | 96 | 13th | 22nd | 12th | Yes |
| 16/17 | 88 | 19th | 20th | 21st | No |
| 17/18 | 98 | 13th | 12th | 14th | Yes |
| 18/19 | 82 | 22nd | 18th | 29th | No |
| 19/20 | 89 | 6th | 7th | 7th | Yes |
| 20/21 | 58 | 19th | 18th | 31st | No |
Coaching Changes
Since the 2013 offseason, the Philadelphia Flyers have had four different head coaches. While this isn’t an unseen number, every year they started the season with a new head coach, the Flyers have made the playoffs (Scott Gordon was an interim head coach). It is likely due to a honeymoon period with the players initially reacting well to a new system, but never seems to last. One reason could be because of the lack of patience that seems to be shown to the coaching staff. Craig Barube only coached for two seasons and Alain Vigneault is already facing calls to be fired after the horrid defensive showing during the 2021 season.
Oskar Lindblom #23 and Jakub Voracek #93 of the Philadelphia Flyers set the screen in front of Goalie Igor Shesterkin #31 of the New York Rangers along with Ryan Lindgren #55 and Adam Fox #23
This isn’t anything out of the ordinary for the Flyers organization. Dave Hakstol is the second longest tenured coach for the Flyers since 2000. There has been a fairly recent trend of coaches not lasting more than a handful of seasons. The rotating door of coaching staff can be another reason why the Flyers keep having different team identities which never sticks. That’s even with core players like Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek having prominent roles with the team for years.
Almost Having a Scary Offence
The Flyers never cracked the NHL’s top five scoring offense since realignment. Even though they have been fortunate enough to have star players like Giroux and Voracek for years, They’ve never even managed to consistently stay above half of the NHL in goals for. In addition, their powerplay hasn’t cracked the top 10 since 2015, and their leading scorers have not been among the league’s best on a regular basis. The Flyers offense is mediocre when compared to the rest of the league but always giving fans the impression that they are one piece away from becoming a truly feared NHL powerhouse.
| Season | Leading Scorer | Goals – Assists – PTS | NHL Rank |
| 2013/14 | Claude Giroux | 28 – 58 – 86 | 3rd |
| 2014/15 | Jakub Voracek | 22 – 59 -81 | 5th |
| 2015/16 | Claude Giroux | 22 – 45 – 67 | T-19th |
| 2016/17 | Jakub Voracek | 20 – 41 – 61 | T-35th |
| 2017/18 | Claude Giroux | 34 – 68 – 102 | 2nd |
| 2018/19 | Claude Giroux | 22 – 63 – 85 | 19th |
| 2019/20 | Travis Konecny | 24 – 37 – 61 | T-32nd |
| 2021 | Jakub Voracek Claude Giroux James Van Reimsdyk | 9 – 34 – 43 16 – 27 – 43 17 – 26 – 43 | T-53rd |
It’s not for a lack of effort however; The Flyers organization have aggressively tried to make big free agent signings and trades in hopes of easing the pressure on their star players Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek. They traded for players like R.J Umberger, Andrew MacDonald and Valtteri Filppula at a premium price but those players didn’t perform anywhere near as well as they did prior to their acquisition. Philadelphia also tried a handful of big free agent signings like Kevin Hayes and Vincent Lecavalier but those proved to be very costly and both players were considered to be heavy overpayments.
A shot by Travis Konecny #11 of the Philadelphia Flyers scores against Ilya Samsonov #30 of the Washington Capitals in the first period.
Ultimately they never were able to build off of their success and ended up just making lateral moves. The talent that they acquired was almost always through the draft but at the cost of a similar level of talent leaving at the same time. With a core that isn’t getting any younger, the past season could be a start of a downward trend for the Philadelphia Flyers scoring.
Goaltending
During the 2018/19 NHL season, the Philadelphia Flyers set a new record for most starting goalies in a single season at 8. This feat is even more incredible when you factor in the Flyers have only had 13 different goaltenders since the division realignment. The net has almost always been held by Steve Mason, Brian Elliot or Carter Hart. Unfortunately, the trio haven’t been anything special. Statistically they have been middle of the pack compared to other starting goaltenders across the league and they haven’t really been anything other than serviceable. 
One could point out the goaltending depth that the Flyers have been fortunate to have with Michal Neuvirth being a backup for four seasons, but he was always behind Steve Mason or Brian Elliot. Recently they have found a potential gem with Carter Hart, but there are still concerns about him being rushed into the NHL as early as he has. His 2021 season was cut short due to a MCL sprain, luckily Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher says he is “basically back to full health”. Hart is one of the brightest spots for the Flyers in the future and will continue to develop and hopefully become the elite goaltender that Philadelphians haven’t seen since Ron Hextall.
Colin Blackwell #43 of the New York Rangers shot attempt is broken up by Phillippe Myers #5 of the Philadelphia Flyers
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