Philadelphia Flyers: Possible Defensive Pairings For 2019-20 Campaign

Philadelphia Flyers President and General Manager Chuck Fletcher made a good amount of changes to the blue-line this offseason.

Just over a week ago, I wrote about potential forward line combinations Head Coach Alain Vigneault could role out for the Philadelphia Flyers this upcoming season, going through what the lines could likely look like for most of the year. With that being said, I’m now going to focus on possible defensive pairings for the 2019-20 campaign. Fletcher wasn’t shy on shaking up the Flyers blue-line, adding Matt Niskanen and Justin Braun to the mix while moving Radko Gudas and buying out Andrew MacDonald and David Schlemko. The Flyers GM may not be done moving defensemen out of Philadelphia, either, so stay tuned on that.

Zero of the pairings I’m about to list should come as much of a surprise, especially the top one. Once his contract situation is figured out, Ivan Provorov should slot right in on the left side with Niskanen playing on the opposite side. The Flyers will rely on Niskanen to rebound from a notably poor season with the Washington Capitals last year, and he should serve as a reliable mentor for Provorov and the other youthful blue-liners given his Stanley Cup pedigree. There’s a bit of a risk putting two guys who struggled in 2018-19 together, but I expect at least Provorov to look like himself again. Even if Niskanen can’t turn it around, Vigneault can always switch things up, and it’s not like Provorov isn’t used to playing with bad defensemen during his career (MacDonald).

The second pair should consist of newly signed Travis Sanheim playing on the left while Braun plays on the right. I’m going to admit that I went back-and-forth between Sanheim and Shayne Gostisbehere for the second pairing role, but opted for Sanheim since Gostisbehere can receive ice time on the top power-play unit. Braun, like Niskanen, wasn’t the best last year but can still provide value with his play in his own zone. He ranked in the 76th percentile in Zone Entry Breakups per 60 minutes and the 64th percentile in Percent of Zone Entry Targets where Possession was Allowed at 5-on-5, according to data from Corey Sznajder and visuals from CJ Turtoro. Putting him with a two-way defenseman like Sanheim should make for an excellent second combination and allow Sanheim to let-loose on offense more often as well.

Lastly, Ghost and Philippe Myers should be the third pairing. I’m slightly skeptical slotting Gostisbehere with Myers given that the 22-year-old is still somewhat of an unknown at the NHL level, but the potential could make for a dominant third pair. Ghost is a sure-fire Top-4 defenseman at this stage of his career and pitting him against inferior Bottom-6 talent would bode well for him on both sides of the puck. Fletcher said that Myers could be a replacement for Gudas, too, and easing him into the NHL with third pair role alongside a guy like Gostisbehere driving the offense should help him develop and gain confidence as a player.

These potential pairings would leave Robert Hagg and Samuel Morin without a spot, and one of them may find themselves in a city other than Philadelphia before the new season begins. I’ve stated that Hagg should be the one to go while Morin serves as the seventh d-man, but it remains it be seen whether Fletcher and Vigneault agree with me on that narrative.

The Flyers have a quality group of defensemen on paper, and it’ll be interesting to see how everything plays out when 2019-20 rolls around. If things go according to plan, the Orange and Black should be a much better team defensively than they were last year.