The Flyers' Travis Sanheim is All Grown Up, and He is Really Good

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From “Reach” First Round Pick to Stand Out Defensemen, Flyers Sanheim Has Gotten Better Every Year

In June of 2014, the Flyers were in the throws of the Nicklas Grossmann era and were looking desperately for a way out. As per usual under the Holmgren regime, the Flyers found themselves against the cap with little room for improvement via trade. But Ron Hextall had just been named general manager and was about to change the direction of the franchise. Travis Sanheim was the first pick in that transformation.

Thought to be a reach by the Flyers who used the 17th pick overall to select him, Sanheim was thought to be a mixed bag. A good skater when he is up to speed, bad skater as he was getting there. He was said to have an accurate shot with a slow and sloppy release. A long defender that had problems when things got physical. An overdeveloped penchant for jumping into the play offensively, which translated into bad positional defense and containment. For every positive attribute there was a corresponding negative. Hextall and his staff were not dissuaded by the detractors and took the player they wanted, the one who they thought would be the best.

By his draft+1 season Sanheim’s star was on the rise. He had started to temper his offensive aggression, picking his spots a little better, charging ahead less frequently and getting much better results. His shot improved, his defense got better and suddenly many people were saying he was a high ceiling, top pair defensemen. I was not one of those people, I saw an above average height player with above average skating ability who liked the offensive zone a bit too much for a defender.

I did not get a great look at Sanheim until the 2017-2018 season, his rookie season. He played 49 games for the team and I did not like what I saw. In my view on offense he was a bigger, slightly smarter version of Steve Duchesne, on defense he was a liability. Bad decisions and pushed around by smaller players. He would make the line up, but really was not someone who could help the team or his teammates.

The following summer Hextall would assess Sanheim, heaping praise on the youngster but then end with “He needs to get stronger”. It was a mantra Hextall would continually repeat about Sanheim. I wondered what he meant every time he said it. What did this GM-speak actually mean? It turns out Hextall was being literal, he thought that Sanheim just needed more physical strength and he would be fine. I had my doubts.

A Leap Forward

Fast forward to 2020 where a physically and mentally mature Sanheim had his best season. He did not break a personal single season scoring records, he did not put on fifty pound of muscle and drag RVs behind him on the ice. Sanheim played a really smart, really solid season, and was my pick for the best Flyers’ defensemen in the playoffs before a couple of unfortunate games against the Islanders.

Sanheim’s leap was as understated as it was important. Sanheim was paired with Phil Myers for most of the season. Because of that pairing he was forced to compensate for the uneven play from Myers. Sanheim essentially became the adult in the room. He was there to shepherd Myers and he was outstanding in that role and able to make them a very effective pair.

Travis Sanheim, Philadelphia Flyers (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /

What was even more impressive, is that Myers was usually pretty good, so the errors were not something to game plan around. Myers’ bad games were unpredictable in terms of when they would strike and what aspect he would be struggling with. It was like having the perfectly mannered toddler, who, out of nowhere, will set the cat on fire. Myers was mostly good, but then there was the occasional bad pass, the infrequent poor checking, and the rare completely blown assignment. Sanheim provided coverage and security in most of these scenarios. Sanheim was able to anticipate the trouble and then negate it, to clean up most of the messes Myers made.

When he was drafted my view was at best, we might have a solid second pair defender in Sanheim. I greatly underestimated how much he could improve. As Hextall pointed out, there was obvious room for improvement in strength, but mentally Sanheim has been even more impressive. His time with Myers has demonstrated just how well he thinks the game, an advanced understanding of situational risk and an unselfishness that manifests in making the right play for the team.

If Sanheim progresses no further, he is a plus second pair player at a minimum. However I expect that Sanheim is already better than I think, he has probably gotten stronger and smarter since the end of the off season. If Myers and Sanheim remain paired, we have a second top behind Provorov and whomever he may have as a partner.

Sanheim may never get credit as an elite number one defensemen in the NHL. In his draft class, Aaron Ekblad was the top pick and is an undisputed top pair player and the best defensemen taken in the draft. There is a really strong case that Sanheim is next best, ahead of draftmates Brandon Montour and Anthony Deangelo. Montour is more of a defensive player. Though he did get some spot duty on the power play, he is not the player Sanheim is offensively. Deangelo is an offensive defensemen, in the same class as Sanheim, but is deficient defensively especially when comapred to Sanheim.

Even if he is not a clear cut number one like Ekblad, his value to the team is immense. As Myers continues to develop and becomes more consistent it is easy to see that he and Sanheim could become a dominating first pair in the NHL for seasons to come.

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