Who is the Most Improved Philadelphia Flyer This Season?

While this season hasn’t gone quite as planned for the Philadelphia Flyers, a couple of players have still been able to improve aspects of their game.

With the Philadelphia Flyers 2018-19 campaign winding down and a postseason berth seeming very unlikely at this point, it’s time to reflect on individual and full team performances throughout the year. There are plenty of negatives I could look at, especially in the first half of the season, but I wanted to keep things positive and focus on players who have improved their games the most for the Flyers.

The first player I want to key in on is none other than Travis Sanheim. Sanheim started the year on the Flyers third defensive pair with Radko Gudas and has risen all the way to the top ever since. He has looked very solid alongside Ivan Provorov, scoring 23 of his 33 points from December 23rd until the time this article was written.

If you told me Sanheim would score 30+ points after netting a mere 10 in his rookie year, I would’ve called you crazy and I loved what I saw from him in juniors/AHL. The now 23 year-old d-man has established himself as a Top-4 defenseman with his play on both sides of the ice, but he’s not the only Flyer who’s vastly improved from this season compared to last.

Scott Laughton is the only player I can think of who gives it his all in every single game. Laughton, or “Laughts” as he’s known, never changes his energy level when out on the ice, no matter what the score may be. That’s something I have to commend as a fan of the team, but it’s definitely not all Laughton does.

He’s quickly become one of the Flyers best penalty-killers, and Interim Head Coach Scott Gordon seems to agree with me given Laughts ranks second to just Sean Couturier in shorthanded time-on-ice among forwards. His aggressive play-style has meshed well with the changes Gordon made to the penalty-kill when he arrived back in December. The 2012 first round pick also broke his career high in points, potting 30 points (12 Goals, 18 Assists) in 77 games played. Laughton’s been the most consistent bottom-six forward and should stay in that role for a long time in Philadelphia.

Lastly, but certainly not least, Oskar Lindblom’s proved to be yet another nice find from former Flyers General Manager Ron Hextall. Lindblom has 29 points on the year, the highest of his short NHL career, but could easily have more with all of the scoring chances he’s been able to create.

The 2014 fifth round selection has led the team in Scoring-Chances For and High Danger Chances For percentage among skaters who’ve seen at least 500 minutes in time-on-ice at even-strength with 53.93% and 58.65% on the year thus far. I do understand that these chances need to turn into actual points eventually, but the fact that Lindblom can simply generate this many opportunities is an impressive feat in itself.

So, who exactly deserves the Flyers Most Improved award? Personally, I have to go with Sanheim. I never expected him to make this big of a jump in his sophomore season but, well, here we are. His arrival gives Philadelphia another bonafide second or even first pair defenseman to go along with Provorov and Shayne Gostisbehere for the future, as long as something disastrous doesn’t happen. And with Philippe Myers already getting his feet wet in the NHL, it’s safe to say the Flyers will be more than okay on their blue-line moving forward.