Outside of the obvious choice in Kevin Hayes, which new addition to the Philadelphia Flyers roster will have the most significant impact this next season?
General Manager and Team President Chuck Fletcher wasn’t shy in making moves in the offseason, adding new talent to both the forward and defensive cores. While the possibility of moving a defenseman once Restricted Free Agent Ivan Provorov is re-signed still looms, as the Philadelphia Flyers will have eight blue-liners on the NHL roster once the deal is done, the team is likely done producing big waves for the summer.
The Flyers, in total, brought in four new faces to the city of Philadelphia, not counting ones who will spend most of their time in the AHL or were signed to a pro-try-out. There’s also the potential of a prospect winning the third-line winger role out of camp and given the fact that Fletcher said it wouldn’t be smart to box them out, I’ll count them in, bringing that number to five. So, which of the five will have the largest impact during the 2019-20 season?
I’m going to take Kevin Hayes out of contention due to how obvious of choice he’d be. The 27-year-old centerman heavily outscored the other additions last season and will probably do the same as the second-line center for the Flyers in the coming year. This brings the options down to four, with Matt Niskanen, Justin Braun, Tyler Pitlick, and one of the prospects all in contention.
Braun is still very sound in covering the defensive zone and should help a Flyers team that surrendered the third most Goals-Against in the league last season with 280. The thing is he doesn’t score all that often, possessing just three seasons with 20+ points during his nine-year NHL career. For that reason, I think a different player will bring more on the ice than Braun does, as the two-way impact just isn’t there. I’ll put Pitlick in that same category in that he could help Philadelphia defensively but won’t bring a ton of offense, especially in a fourth-line role.
That leaves the choice between Niskanen and a prospect. I’ll go ahead and choose German Rubtsov to win the third-line spot out of camp based on his NHL-ready frame, AHL experience, two-way upside, and merely pure speculation. If Niskanen can return to his 2016-17 form, then he’d be the guy I’d go with out of the five. When he’s on his game, Niskanen can chip in on offense, effectively defend his own zone, skate the puck out of the opposing area, and showcase an excellent passing ability as well. The 32-year-old defenseman notably struggled with the Washington Capitals last season, though, and isn’t getting any younger.
There are a lot of what if’s surrounding Niskanen, but it’s not like Rubtsov is a sure-fire bet to set the league on fire as a rookie, either. Any prospect is mostly an unknown when they enter the NHL and teams don’t know what they exactly have in them once they’ve seen a couple of years of action. This would remain true if I chose Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, or Isaac Ractliffe, too, as they could all end up flopping, though that’s not a scenario I would count on happening.
Putting all of that into thought, I think Niskanen will have the biggest impact behind Hayes for the Flyers in 2019-20. Unlike Rubtsov or any other prospect that could earn a third-line role, I know what he can bring at the NHL level and am banking on him playing better than he did last year.