With the Philadelphia Flyers Season All but Over, Fans Look Ahead
Barring a miracle, the Philadelphia Flyers’ 50th season will come to an end with the conclusion of the regular season. Missing the playoffs is a disappointment, and the team has some significant holes to fill. But there’s hope.
Everyone wants to see their team make the playoffs. And the Stanley Cup Playoffs might be the best in all of sports. But the losses to the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins have crushed any hope the Philadelphia Flyers had of making it to the postseason.
But don’t lose faith in Ron Hextall.
2016–17 Expectations
The Flyers started the season with largely the same roster as last year’s. While that team did make the playoffs, they did so only because they played their best hockey during the last 20 games and just snuck in. Unfortunately for this year’s team, their 10-game win streak wasn’t enough to gain much ground on the rest of the division, and a hot streak now would likely be too little, too late. At this point, even this modest prediction seems out of reach:
The Flyers will likely find themselves right on the fringe of the playoffs, fighting for a wildcard spot in early April. (Matt Brauckmann)
That winning streak inflated expectations, however, which makes these losses that much more disappointing. But it was impressive. And it showed that the Flyers can play great hockey for stretches. I don’t think that they’re too far away from being able to sustain high-level play for an entire season.
Promising Defensemen
Rookie Ivan Provorov has arguably been the team’s most solid defenseman this year. He leads the team in ice time, is second to Shayne Gostisbehere in points among defenseman and is among the league leaders in blocked shots.
But he’s 23, and he’s played in only 127 NHL games so far. Everyone experiences setbacks, especially early in their career. And Gostisbehere still shows incredible upside.
And like Provorov, Gostisbehere is also impressing his peers:
“He’s smart with the puck and he’s a skilled player,” [Johnny] Gaudreau…said [February 15] before the Flames hosted the Flyers. “He knows where guys are on the ice all the time, and…he can use that skill in the defensive zone, trying to break out of the zone.” (Sam Carchidi)
Keeping the prospects still in the system in mind—Travis Sanheim, Sam Morin and Philippe Myers in particular—the Flyers defensive promise should soon turn into a solid blueline. A more pressing concern is scoring depth.
Top-Heavy Offense
The Flyers traded Mark Streit for center Valtteri Filppula, which has helped create more balanced forward lines. Looking forward, Travis Konecny should also help in that regard. Before an injury sidelined him for nine games, he was usually on the second line, sometimes on the first. When he returned, Hakstol put him on the fourth line to ease him back into play, but Hakstol moved him up a line in the crucial game against Toronto.
And Jordan Weal has been an unexpected bright spot since being called up last month. He was the AHL playoff MVP in 2015, and he’s scored three goals in the last six games. His play has earned him the LW spot on the top line with Claude Giroux and Wayne Simmonds.
His offensive skill at the AHL level was obvious—he was second in scoring when the Flyers called him up—his defensive game also earned praise. He reminds Lehigh Valley Phantoms coach Scott Gordon of David Krejci.
“I love the way he competes defensively,” Gordon said of Weal. “His [offensive] numbers are great, player of the month and all that, but he’s setting himself up so that when the points don’t come, just like for David Krejic when he didn’t get the points in that third-line role, he was still making a contribution defensively by positioning himself right and making good decisions with the puck.” (Stephen Gross)
And German Rubtsov made the switch to Canadian juniors this year, where he continues to make a name for himself. If these players continue to develop, the Flyers could soon find themselves with scoring depth like they haven’t seen since 2011, when they had six players score at least 20 goals.
Uncertainty in Net
What can be said about the Flyers goaltending situation that hasn’t been said a million times each year since 1997?
Probably just one thing: there’s promise.
Not in Steve Mason or Michal Neuvirth, but in prospects. Yes, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. But at least there are birds in the bush for a change.
Mason is still set to become a free agent in the offseason, while Neuvirth just signed a two-year deal. Anthony Stolarz has split time with Alex Lyon, and one of them may well earn the backup spot with the Flyers next year.
What’s interesting going forward is both Stolarz and Lyon are restricted free agents after the season and the Flyers will certainly want to bring both back…it’s also a safe bet that either Stolarz or Lyon could be the Flyers’ backup next season. (Tom Dougherty)
And the Flyers had more players in the IIHF World Junior Championship, including three goalies: Carter Hart, who played in the gold medal game for Canada, Matej Tomek from Slovakia, and Felix Sandstrom of Sweden.
Goalies can take years to develop, but if the Flyers can put a strong team in front of the net, they can take a lot of pressure off the shoulder pads of whoever’s in goal. And as the 2010 Chicago Blackhawks showed us, teams don’t need an elite goalie to win the Stanley Cup.
Of course, the upcoming expansion draft makes it very difficult to predict who the Flyers will have in net next year. Regardless, the team’s future in goal looks better than it has in 20 years.
General Manager
Let’s not forget Ron Hextall, the man in charge of putting all these pieces together.
He’s had front-office success everywhere he’s gone. He was the Flyers director of pro hockey personnel from 2002 to 2006, a span that saw the Flyers make the playoffs every year, including the memorable run to game seven of the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals. From 2006 to 2013, Hextall was the LA Kings assistant GM and the GM of their AHL affiliate, the Manchester Monarchs. During his tenure, the Monarchs made the playoffs each year, and the Kings won a Cup in 2012.
Patience—For Now
It’s hard to wait. Especially when at least two other Philly teams are in a slow rebuild. But Hextall is doing it the right way. In the last eight years, only four teams won the Cup: Pittsburgh (’16, ’09), Chicago (’15, ’13, ’10), Los Angeles (’14, ’12) and Boston (’11). The teams with multiple Cups in that time got where they are by drafting well and signing the right free agents. Hextall has done well following that plan so far.
It won’t be long before his plans come to fruition.