The Philadelphia Flyers probably do not get the credit they deserve for being one of the most consistent NHL teams over the last couple of decades. After missing the playoffs for four straight seasons from 1990-1994 the Flyers went on a run of making the postseason in seventeen of the next eighteen seasons. That run includes four conference finals appearances and two Stanley Cup Final appearances.
The past couple of seasons have been a little more bumpy for the Flyers. Having holes to fill on the roster has caused the Flyers to miss the playoffs for two of the past three seasons and have some uncertainty when they will return. Since making the Final in 2010 Philadelphia has gained and then lost some key players, like Chris Pronger, Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Scott Hartnell, Kimmo Timonen Jaromir Jagr and Daniel Briere. All of those names lost to a different cause being injury, trade or free agency but all those guys played a big part with the Flyers during the post lockout years of 2005-12.
To update you on those players, Three have retired (Pronger, Timmonen and Briere) One is on the serious downside of his career and may never play in the NHL again (Richards) and the other three continue to play and play well for their current teams (Jeff Carter-LA, Scott Hartnell-CBJ, Jaromir Jagr-FLA).
Meanwhile the Flyers have gotten much younger and maybe have gone into what you maybe able to call a mini rebuild or retool. Philadelphia has the players they want to build around and those players are at a good age. Claude Giroux (27) Jakub Voracek (26) and goalie Steve Mason (27). Not to mention the have a pretty solid supporting cast in Sean Couturier (22) Brayden Schenn (24) Wayne Simmonds (26) and Matt Read (29) and Michael Raffl (26) have shown they can contribute.
On defense the Flyers are somewhat thin, on the current roster Mark Streit, Andrew MacDonald, Michael Del Zotto, Luke Schenn, new signee Evgeny Medvedev, Nick Schultz, Radko Gudas and Brandon Manning. Having a defense that isn’t very deep equaled the Flyers being one of bottom teams in terms of goals against per game and shots against per game. None of those names mentioned will scare anyone, We’ve seen teams who have had success has have that one guy, Duncan Keith and Drew Doughty to name the most recent top Dmen to lead their teams to success. The Flyers don’t have a guy like that.
Mark Streit is the guy who carries most of the offensive burden for the Flyers but at age thirty-seven it doesn’t seem likely that continues much longer. Luckily, the defensive depth is pretty good when you look at the prospects, 2015 first round pick Ivan Provorov leads the class having the highest potential but there are others like Sam Morin, Shayne Gotisbehere, Travis Sanheim and Robert Hagg all seeming to have NHL potential and could make the show sooner or later. MacDonald, Del Zotto and Schenn seem to be there for the long run and they could be very good depth guys but the Flyers still need to find that guy who can carry the team defensively and maybe one of those young guys will turn into that.
Goaltending this team is set with a solid guy in Steve Mason if he can continue to do what he’s done in his first two plus seasons with the club. Last year the backup goalie was a big issue though, after Mason’s 2.25 goals against average and .928 save percentage Ray Emery who served as the number two most of the season could only give the Flyers a 3.06 GAA and .894%. Not anywhere near good enough in a time where backups seem to be increasingly important. Signing Michal Neuvirth in the off-season has seemed to fill the backup position and if Mason struggles could even be a sleeper number one even though he has proven to be very streaky. With an iffy defense the goalies need to be huge more nights than not, if these two guys can put up stellar seasons they can put the Flyers back into the playoff hunt.
The Flyers are a young team, the leaders and core players are at a good age and they have young players in the wings other not mentioned would be Scott Laughton, Nick Cousins and Travis Konecny.
What needs to be worked on is defense which they didn’t make any additions to really help that this off-season other than Medvedev from the KHL and who knows what he brings being a rookie of the NHL at age thirty-two. Other than that you could see some top defensive prospects for the Flyers this season.
A season that saw Jakub Voracek score eighty-one points and become an MVP candidate, Giroux continue to be a top player in the league and a franchise record eighteen overtime losses, eleven of those being in a shootout we saw the Flyers miss the playoffs. This off-season hasn’t really changed much for this team and with strong teams in their division it’s hard to see this team making the playoffs. Recently we have seen young teams come out of nowhere and make the playoffs, teams like Colorado in 2013-14 and Calgary in 2014-15, I won’t say Philadelphia will do it this year, but one more bad year and high draft pick could make the Flyers a team to watch out for soon.
