PHILADELPHIA, Pa – The Philadelphia Flyers have been waiting since 1975 to win a Stanley Cup championship. Well, sorry Flyers fans but you’re just going to have to keep waiting a little while longer until the “rebuild” officially kicks into high gear and the Flyers start adding some blue-chip prospects into their lineup. Up and down the roster, holes need to be filled sooner rather than later. Long rebuilds won’t cut it in a city that couldn’t spell patience much less have any. Today PHN gives our season preview of the Philadelphia Flyers.
Samuel Ersson #33 of the Philadelphia Flyers makes a pad save.
Offense – The forwards on opening day will be Joel Farabee, Tyson Foerster, Sean Couturier, Bobby Brink, Scott Laughton, Noah Cates, Travis Konecny, Owen Tippett, Morgan Frost, Cam Atkinson, Nicolas Deslauriers, Ryan Poehling, and Garnet Hathaway.
Waiting in the wings: Matvei Michkov, Cutter Gauthier, Samu Tuomaala, Bryce Brodzinski. Cutter Gauthier is the beast the Flyers cannot wait to unleash onto the NHL. Foerster and Brink are both up with the big club for now but for how long that is anyone’s guess. Wade Allison has been demoted to the AHL with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Kevin Hayes has been traded to Columbus. Frost has to continue to make strides in the face-off department. Only Tippett was over 50 percent on the current roster.
What do you get when you have two players key players back that are in their early to mid-thirties that are coming off injuries onto a team already lacking in talent? You get a small glimmer of hope that things will change from last season when they were 29th in goals for and 23rd in goals allowed. The one thing the Flyers used to be able to do well was face-offs until they traded away Claude Giroux. Last season they were 30th overall but having Couturier back should help.
The Flyers added two top prospects, Foerster and Brink. They will give Flyers fans something to look forward to until the end of the college hockey season ends or Boston College’s season ends, whichever comes first. That is when Gauthier will head straight to the AHL for the rest of this season and will no doubt be in the starting lineup next fall. Poehling is a very underrated off-season signing. Tippett had a breakout season in 2023 and Frost looks like the real deal. The Flyers future definitely looks brighter up front.
Defense – The defensemen on opening day will be: Cam York, Travis Sanheim, Nick Seeler, Marc Staal, Sean Walker, Emil Andrae, Egor Zamula.
Waiting in the wings: Oliver Bonk, Adam Ginning, Ronnia Attard, and Oliver Bonk.
The Staal signing seems strange for a team in a rebuild, but there is he on the roster. Sanheim had his no-trade clause kick in so he isn’t going anywhere unless he tells the Flyers otherwise. Another down year like last season and the Flyers will beg him to reconsider. York has turned into a solid pick despite his slow start. Rasmus Ristolainen will start the season on the IR.
Seeler was a pleasant surprise last and has earned another season in orange and black. He was the only Flyers defenseman above zero in the plus/minus category. Another huge surprise is that Andrae and Zamula are still on the big club. Andrea is a tad smallish size at only 5’ 9” and was a second round pick(54th overall) in 2020.
Zamula was an undrafted free agent. He has only played in 26 NHL games so far but he will get a long look on the parent club this season. Ivan Provorov and Tony DeAngelo are gone.
Goaltending – Carter Hart, Felix Sandstrom, and Samuel Ersson. All eyes are on Hart. The rumors are getting loader and loader that Hart will be moved, but this might not happen until this years’ trade deadline. It is truly a put up or shut up year for the one-time goalie of forever in Philadelphia Ersson and Sandstom have to put pressure on Hart, who has to feel the heat by the local mob. As usual, the Flyers will go as far as their goaltending will take them.
The Ivan Fedotov has been a soap opera and the Flyers drafted two goalies in this years’ draft. Carson Bjarnason and Yegor Zavragin are a long way from the being on the Flyers fans radar. Alexei Kolosov should be in the AHL when he comes overseas at the end of his season in Russia.
Outlook. – It doesn’t look pretty but the overall picture doesn’t look as bad as things appear with the parent club. The Flyers should have another down year and should end up having another lottery pick. The Flyers will have at least two first round picks in the 2024 draft. For now, they only have two: Their own and one from the Florida Panthers in the Claude Giroux trade but it is top 10 protected. If they have another down year like last year, then the mass exodus of players from the current roster will begin at the trade deadline and you can bet Philly will be looking to acquire more first round picks in any trade, especially if Konecny and Sanheim are involved.
Couturier, Laughton, Konecny, Frost, Atkinson, Deslauriers are all on the chopping block to be moved, as are Sanheim, Seeler, Ristolainen, Staal, Walker, and Zamula will all be trade candidates. Hart is the key. If they decide to move on from him all bets are on the table.
If the Flyers are looking ahead at the 2024 draft keep these names in mind: Macklin Celebrini, Cole Eiserman, Ivan Demidov, Artyom Levshunov, and Sam Dickinson. Dickinson is currently playing with Bonk with the London Knights blueline.
Brian Jennings covers the Philadelphia Flyers for prohockeynews.com and can be found on twitter at @Flyersfan22.
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