Philadelphia Flyers: Which Players Will Rebound In 2019-20?

A couple of Philadelphia Flyers didn’t perform well in 2018-19, so who could rebound from their lackluster seasons?

Not a whole lot went right for the Philadelphia Flyers last season. They went through eight different starting goaltenders, fired their General Manager and Head Coach, and eventually missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the second time in three years. Current GM Chuck Fletcher has done a quality job since arriving to the team in December of 2018, bringing in Alain Vigneault to coach the Flyers and signing players such as Kevin Hayes, Matt Niskanen, and Justin Braun to help improve the roster. As I mentioned in this article, Philadelphia will need some of the guys who struggled last year to rebound and return to form if they hope to get back into the playoffs. The new additions can only do so much, so who’s due for a stellar 2019-20 season?

Two of the rather obvious choices are Ivan Provorov and Shayne Gostisbehere. When two of your best defensemen aren’t playing at a high-level, there’s a good chance the team will suffer because of it. Provorov consistently turned the puck over in the defensive zone, setting primal scoring chance for the opposition. He tied for 16th in the entire NHL in giveaways with 92, which isn’t what you want to see from your best defensive player.

There was speculation that the Russian defenseman might have been dealing with some sort of injury, but he denied being below 100%, and it seems he was telling the truth with no news of him undergoing offseason surgery. Provorov also saw his point total decrease from 41 in 2017-18 to just 26 this past year. I think that with an eventual new contract and with no ailment holding him back from training over the summer, as he dealt with a Grade 3 AC Separation during the 2018 series with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Provorov will look like the number one D-Man we’ve come accustomed to seeing.

I feel the same way about Gostisbehere, as well. It’s no secret that Ghost gets a good amount of his offensive production while on the power-play and I don’t envision the unit sitting in the bottom half of the league for a second straight year given the talent they have. Playing alongside a guy like Braun could allow Gostisbehere to focus more on offense, pinching more often to help keep plays in the attacking zone. The 26-year-old defenseman has shown he can bounce-back from below-average performances before, who’s to say he can’t do it again?

My last candidate is Brian Elliott. This isn’t so much of a performance-based rebound as it is a health-based one. Elliott was nothing short of outstanding for the Flyers in November of 2018 until an injury caused him to miss about two months of action. He returned in February and once again displayed excellence between the pipes, but fell off of a cliff in his final couple of starts. I think that with a reduced work-load as the number two to Carter Hart, Elliott will be able to stay on the ice more often than not and boast similar stats in the process.

The Flyers have the potential to return to the playoffs in 2020, but it starts with these three players returning to who they once were and more importantly staying healthy.