John Tortorella has revealed his next high-profile addition, spending more than $800 million.
This Season Should Be Interesting and Fun Thanks To The Rebuild
There won’t be any pressure on the Philadelphia Flyers in 2023–2024.
Ultimately, not many anticipate them to contend for a postseason berth, much less the Stanley Cup. However, management—which includes two rookies in the front office, Danny Briere and Keith Jones—finally seems to get it after multiple clumsy attempts at a rebuild.
Now let’s get the rebuild started.
A true rebuild.
The Flyers, who have failed to make the playoffs the past three seasons, will suffer as a result of using a number of young players. However, it is hoped that a large number of those players will develop and join the foundation.
So take pleasure in watching the children ascend. This season, a number of young players could be important players, including Bobby Brink, Emil Andrae, Tyson Foerster, Owen Tippett, Morgan Frost, and Cam York.
Briere, who is fired up about the season, made his mark on the team by sending defenseman Ivan Provorov to Columbus in a three-way trade that netted the Flyers two second-round picks and a first-round pick in return.
Tyson Foerster
Briere stated that he had always dreamed of working in management, even as a player.
The new general manager declared, “I was always more interested in how teams were being built.”
It’s his turn to construct now. He will build the Flyers with a focus on developing players and the draft.
Jones, president of hockey operations for the Flyers, stated, “We want to continue to have our younger players develop into more than what they’ve already demonstrated.”
“Player development to become a really high standard for where we want to go,” according to Jones and Briere, is their goal.
Here’s how the Philadelphia team was looking going into training camp under head coach John Tortorella, who is in his second season there:
Moving forward
The Flyers finished 29th out of 32 teams in the NHL last season with a pitiful 2.68 goals per game average.
We anticipate improvement. for a number of reasons.
The primary cause is the return to health of Sean Couturier and Cam Atkinson. Due to injuries, both missed the previous season.
The Flyers will have two of the top six offensive threats if they can get back to their previous level of play. They will also assist a power play that, at 15.6 percent, was the last effective one in the NHL a year ago.
The Flyers’ season will depend on Couturier’s recovery from his two back surgeries. He is a versatile player who has scored 31 and 33 goals in his last two seasons of at least 80 games played.
The top line will be led by the 30-year-old center, who may be joined by two players who are nearing the end of their professional careers: Travis Konecny (31 goals, 61 points in 60 games) and Matt Tippett (27 goals).
After recovering from neck surgery, Atkinson might play alongside Frost (who has a career-high 19 goals) and Farabee. 23-year-old Farabee (15 goals) should be much better after having neck surgery last season, which hindered him.
Cates, 24, a potent two-way player who led the team in scoring as a rookie with 13 goals and 38 points, ought to play at center for the third line. He might line up with another industrious 200-foot player, Scott Laughton (18 goals), and the extremely gifted Foerster.
Possibly the team’s hardest shooter, Foerster, 21, only managed seven points in eight games during his previous season with the Flyers. Among the other rookie forwards competing for spots are Brink and Elliot Desnoyers.
Before camp began, Jones stated, “It’s going to come down to the guys who want to grasp it and make the most of that chance.”
Another contender for a spot is 25-year-old Wade Allison. Although he has a history of injuries, the right winger has a lot of potential.
Perhaps Ryan Poehling would center the tough wingers Nicolas Deslauriers (6-1, 220) and Garnet Hathaway (6-3, 208) on the fourth line. Fast center Poehling, 24, was selected in the first round of the 2017 NBA Draft, two picks ahead of Frost. Hathaway and he were signed as free agents.
DEFENSEMEN
The Flyers’ top duo will appear different after Provorov was traded.
Provorov was a hit-or-miss player in Philadelphia for seven seasons. Despite being selected seventh overall in the 2015 draft, he has largely underperformed since then, but he was still a guy who took up minutes, blocked a lot of shots, and helped on the power play.
He was the blue line warrior for the Flyers.
However, Travis Sanheim will need to play a larger part now that Provorov is out. As for Cam York, he played well in 54 games the previous season.
It appeared likely that Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen would make up the starting lineup going into camp. Marc Staal, a free agent, was expected to pair with York on the second pairing. Staal was a member of the New York Rangers for five years under Tortorella, so he is familiar with the system.
Predicting the third pairing is the most challenging. The Flyers may start veteran Sean Walker and steady Nick Seeler.
Alternatively, they could take a chance and choose one or two young men.
We will take a close look at Andrae, Ronnie Attard, Egor Zamula, and Helge Grans. When the Flyers play Provorov, Johnny Gaudreau, and the Blue Jackets on October 12 in Columbus to open the season, it wouldn’t be shocking if one or two are on the team.
Andrae, 21, has been likened to a younger version of Kimmo Timonen. That is really flattering.
Andrae only played 10 games with the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms last season, but Briere insisted that this doesn’t mean he can’t play in the NHL this year.
“He’s competed professionally in Sweden as well; he’s faced men there,” Briere remarked.
The Flyers were 23rd in the NHL last season with 3.37 goals allowed per game. That number probably won’t go down unless a few of the young defensemen quickly make the switch to the NHL.
On the other hand, the defense should improve overall with defensive whiz Couturier back in the starting lineup.
SCORES
Goaltender of the year without a doubt is 25-year-old Carter Hart. For the majority of his five seasons, he has been a good-to-very-good goalie, but he has not yet attained an elite level. Furthermore, he will be playing behind a defense that appears to be the Flyers’ weakest point on paper.
Hart was the focus of trade rumors during the offseason after finishing the previous season with a 2.94 GAA and a.907 save percentage. At the trade deadline, those rumors will resurface, particularly if one of the other goalies proves to be very competent.
The circumstances surrounding promising goalie Ivan Fedotov were unclear at the time of the press deadline. The International Ice Hockey Federation decided on August 14 that Fedotov’s contract with the Flyers was still in effect and that he had broken it when he agreed to a two-year contract to play in Russia.
That decision was appealed by the Russian Federation.
Fedotov would be the top choice for the No. 2 spot and could push Hart for playing time if he were to visit Philadelphia. The 6-foot-7 goalie from Russia has all the makings of an NHL regular, having helped his country win a silver medal at the 2022 Olympics.
Other goalies attempting to prove they are NHL-ready include Felix Sandstrom and Sam Ersson, who played well in 12 games with the Flyers last season.
The other goalie is 28-year-old Cal Petersen, a former prospect who had a difficult season with the Los Angeles Kings but has some solid work on his résumé.
LOWER LINE
It is anticipated that the Flyers will occupy one of the final two spots in the Metropolitan Division. However, this year isn’t about victories and defeats. It has to do with the growth of the youth and setting the stage for future developments.
One day, that future will include players like Matvei Michkov, an 18-year-old KHL sensation, and center Cutter Gauthier, who is currently a sophomore standout at Boston College.
In 2024–2025, Gauthier might be the Flyers’ second-choice center. Michkov, a center and right winger with a three-year contract in Russia, might rank among their top six players in 2026–2027.
The Flyers want to be back to their heyday by then.
