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Philadelphia Flyers Season Preview: Staff Picks

By Marc Naples

Jan 19, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Flyers assistant head coach Ian Laperriere (left) and head coach Dave Hakstol against the Toronto Maple Leafs during the third period at Wells Fargo Center. The Maple Leafs defeated the Flyers, 3-2. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 19, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Flyers assistant head coach Ian Laperriere (left) and head coach Dave Hakstol against the Toronto Maple Leafs during the third period at Wells Fargo Center. The Maple Leafs defeated the Flyers, 3-2. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports /
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Michael Appel

Before the start of training camp, I thought the Flyers would take a step back this year and would fall short of  the playoffs. The Philadelphia Flyers were going in to this upcoming season with basically the same team as last year, while teams that finished behind them in the Eastern Conference like the Buffalo Sabres, Carolina Hurricanes and Montreal Canadians made additions to their respective rosters to close the gap between them and the Flyers.

After watching Ivan Provorov and Travis Konecny through training camp and seeing that they are NHL ready, my outlook on the Flyers has changed. They have filled two of their biggest holes; secondary scoring and another puck moving defenseman. This willkeep teams from keying on Claude Giroux and Shayne Gostisbehere.

Konecny is a dynamic forward with speed and skill who will play on the second line with Jake Voracek and Sean Courtier. Teams will no longer be able to put all of their focus on shutting down Claude Giroux’s line. The Flyers also now have two legitimate scoring threats on their second line with Konecny and Jake Voracek. With only six goals in six games in last year’s playoff series loss to the Washington Capitals, it was clearly evident that the Flyers needed more scoring from their second line to take some of the heat off of Claude Giroux. The Flyers have done that by adding Konecny.

Ivan Provorov will do for Shayne Gostisbehere what Konecny will do for Giroux. He will give the Flyers another scoring threat on their back line. At the end of the regular season and in the playoffs, NHL teams knew if they shut down Ghost, they eliminated the Flyers offense on their back line. With the addition of Ivan Provorov, another puck moving defenseman who averaged more than a point per game in junior hockey last year, teams will no longer be able to focus in on just Gostisbehere. And with Provorov and Konecny being only 19 years old, the injection of youth should give the Flyers an added spark like it did with the Penguins on their run to a Stanley Cup last year.

Season Prediction: With the additions of Provorov and Konecny to an already good core of young players and with teams in the Flyers division losing key players,  the Rangers losing Keith Yandle and the Islanders losing Kyle Okposo, I see the Flyers overtaking these two teams in their division and finishing third in the Metropolitan Division behind the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins.

Being that the third place team in the division plays the second place team in the division, that would pit the Flyers against the Penguins in the first round of the playoffs. The Penguins are the defending Stanley Cup champs but, no team has repeated as Stanley Cup champions since the Detroit Red Wings accomplished the feat in 1998. I predict this is the year the Flyers win their first playoff round since 2012.  The Penguins will be suffering from their Stanley Cup hangover while the Flyers will be young and hungry. The Flyers season comes to an end in Round 2 but it will have been a successful season.

Fearless Prediction: For the first time in his career, Sean Courtier tops 20 goals and 50 points. Playing on a line with Jake Voracek and Travis Konecny should go a long way towards helping him achieve that goal.

Marc Naples

The Flyers didn’t really do much in the offseason. Their only moves were to sign Boyd Gordon and Dale Weise, which don’t exactly qualify as blockbuster maneuvers.

Related Story: Meet Dale Weise

What is happening is a deliberate building process, while the team continues to shed bad contracts. Remember the Flyers are committing just over $14 million in cap dollars this season to Mark Streit, Andrew MacDonald, Nick Schultz, and RJ Umberger.

The real improvements came from within. Ivan Provorov and Travis Konecny demanded their inclusion on the roster with their performances in training camp, and the Flyers feel like a much deeper team this year. Furthermore, I fully expect each of Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, and Steve Mason to have better season this year than last.

Related Story: Voracek Ready for Bounceback Season

They will need that improvement, because I’m not convinced the Flyers are as good as their hot regular season finish last year suggests. More likely, their true baseline quality is somewhere between the team that finished so strong and the team that looked overmatched in the first round of the playoffs.

Working in their favor is wide open competition for the 3rd spot in the Metropolitan division. Aside from powerhouses in Pittsburgh and Washington, the Flyers’ real competition is a declining Rangers team and a curiously stagnate Islanders team.

Season Prediction: I don’t expect the Philadelphia Flyers to take a leap forward this year. Instead, it’s more like one step sideways to take 2 steps forward in the future. Short of everything going right (which it never does), look for them to be between 95-100 points, and in the midst the race for lower playoff seeds. But don’t get greedy and expect too much more.

Next: Look Out for Flyers New 2nd Line

Fearless Prediction: Ivan Provorov will be second on the team in average overall ice time this season (and probably first next year).

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