The Philadelphia Flyers currently have eight defensemen under contract, and that is not including any of their five highly regarded defensive prospects, so basically, there are at least 13 defensemen who are probably capable of potentially making their way onto the team’s NHL roster.
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Unfortunately, teams tend to go with a core of six blueliners, rather than 13, so Hextall and Hakstol are going to have some decisions to make in the coming months. Here, I’m going to take a look at what the Flyers’ three defensive pairing could look like when the first puck drops in October.
Disclosure: This is just how I think things will shake out; not anything seriously official.
Top Pairing
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Mark Streit is the team’s best defenseman by a healthy margin, which speaks to the quality of the rest of the Flyers’ current defensive core. He’s not bad, he’s actually pretty good, but it can be a little frustrating when “actually pretty good” is the best you’ve got.
Streit is a smooth skater who is very good offensively and fundamentally sound in the defensive end, and he did an admirable job stepping into the role left by Kimmo Timonen last season.
The question is, who will be paired with Streit at the top of the defensive depth chart, and I think it’s reasonable to put Nick Schultz up there with him. Schultz was signed last summer by the Flyers to be their seventh defenseman, but quickly found his way into the lineup thanks to injuries on the blue line. Thanks to his very consistent play, he cemented a spot in the lineup next to Braydon Coburn, and was awarded a 2-year contract extension in February.
The duo of Streit and Schultz spent some time together last season after Coburn was dealt to Tampa Bay, and the two fared pretty well. This combination of Streit’s talent and Schultz’s consistency has the potential to lead to a decent top pairing worthy of managing the blue line in Philadelphia.
Middle Pairing
Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
If my calculations are correct and we see the combination of Michael Del Zotto and Luke Schenn playing a significant amount of time together, it can either go one of two ways: 1) The two combine their respective upsides, while making up for each other’s disadvantages. Or 2) They both crumble under the pressure of being asked to contribute more, resulting in disaster for rookie head coach Dave Hakstol.
Needless to say, this would be a pretty volatile pairing seeing as both of these two defensemen have had their share of ups and downs throughout their careers, and they are both only 25 years old. This group has a ton of potential, Del Zotto is incredibly gifted offensively, while his game in his own zone could use some work; Schenn on the other hand can be a solid, hard-hitting stay-at-home defenseman.
The key to success with these two will be to maximize the benefits that each one can provide, while cutting down on each of their well-publicized shortcomings.
Bottom Pairing
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I almost feel bad for Andrew MacDonald. Ever since the moment he signed his enormous 6-year, $30 million deal, he has been under the microscope of the media and the fans. And for that kind of money, rightfully so. The reason I feel bad is because MacDonald is not a terrible defenseman, he has some good qualities!
However, the truth of the matter is that he has definitely not lived up to his contract, and the Flyers will have to just bite the bullet on that one for a few more seasons.
In the meantime, they are going to get everything they can out of MacDonald, and if that simply means that he’ll be a bottom pairing guy who specializes in blocking shots and not that much else, so be it. I expect him to be playing alongside one of the biggest unknowns on the Flyers’ roster, Yevgeni Medvedev, a 32 year-old Russian who has never played a game in the NHL.
It will be interesting to see how Medvedev does coming over to the NHL, and he was signed to a very low-risk 1-year deal, but expect to see him getting some time on the third pairing, possibly as a way of easing him into the North American game, as well as to see what he’s capable of.
The Prospects and The Others
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It was a tough choice to leave Ivan Provorov out of the lineup, especially considering that he, as well as many fans and analysts, think that there’s a good chance he is already NHL-ready. However, in his term as general manager, Ron Hextall has made it abundantly clear that he wants the prospects to develop as much as possible before making the jump to the big leagues.
Hextall’s restraint, combined with the logjam on defense will be the reason that we won’t see any of the Flyers’ highly touted prospects, at least in the beginning. Depending on the health of the D-men in the big club, an appearance from Shayne Gostisbehere or Robert Hagg is possible, but unlikely, as Radko Gudas will be waiting in the wings as the team’s seventh defenseman, and Brandon Manning is also under contract as well.
Most of us want to see the Flyers’ young defensive future start now, but as long as there are all of these contracts in the way, we’re going to have to wait just a little bit more.
With the sheer number of D-men that the Flyers have to choose from going into this season, there are plenty of different choices that they could make as to who belongs where. As long as they improve upon their performance from last season, they will be just fine.
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