The Ghosts of Flyers Past, Present, and Future

A team that is full of homegrown talent, the Flyers appear ready to take the next step.

The Flyers turned a lot of heads last year making a fever pitched run towards the playoffs before being shut down by the pandemic. When the season re-started, they picked up right where they left off by sweeping the top three teams in the Eastern conference to gain the #1 seed.

The team has undergone a massive change in philosophy in how the roster is constructed. The last time they had the top seed in the Eastern Conference was the 1999-2000 season. That Flyers team was coached by Roger Neilson and was led by John LeClair’s 40 goals and Mark Recchi’s 91 points. The 1999-2000 season ended when they were shockingly knocked out of the Eastern Conference finals after blowing a 3-1 series lead to the New Jersey Devils who went on to win the Stanley Cup.

They are now just a footnote in franchise history, marked by an era of sustained championship contention that never delivered hockey’s holy grail.

This Flyers team has a different feel though, it feels like a new era. A beginning of long-term contention and re-establishing the Flyers as a perennial cup contender. The difference between the current team and the team of old comes down to how the roster has been constructed.

The Flyers were once a team that spared no expense building championship contending rosters, spending on top dollar free agents, and trading prospects at will to acquire talent that appeased the impatient “win now” mentality. The salary cap constrictions have drastically damaged free spending teams like the Flyers to the greater benefit of the NHL in general, creating more league wide parity and opportunity for small market teams to compete and further grow their fanbases.

Ron Hextall put an end to that mindset and Chuck Fletcher has continued to build a team with the vision of developing home grown talent. By home grown talent, I mean players that had their NHL debut with the franchise either by draft, trade, or undrafted signee. The difference between the last two top seeded Flyers teams is startling.

The 1999-2000 team had only six players begin their careers with the team that contributed in any meaningful way. Those were Eric Lindros, Simon Gagne, Chris Therien, Brian Boucher, Rick Tochett, and Mikael Renberg. Both Tochett and Renberg spent time with different franchises and were reacquired by the Flyers.

The current team is flush with home grown talent sporting 16 players expected to contribute major time in the starting line-up in the upcoming season. Hart, Giroux, Couturier, Konecny, van Riemsdyk, Farabee, Patrick, Lindblom, Laughton, Aube-Kubel, Raffl, Provorov, Myers, Gostisbehere, Hägg, and Sanheim all started their careers for the orange and black with only James van Riemsdyk having spent any time with another hockey club.

It is very possible that the Flyers could have 11 of their 12 forwards, 5 of their 6 defensemen, and their starting goaltender (all having started their careers in Philly) penciled into a line-up. The few players making up the rest of the starting roster from outside organizations are Kevin Hayes on offense, Erik Gustafsson and Justin Braun on defense, and backup goaltender Brian Elliott. This does not even include young players like Mark Friedman, Morgan Frost, Carsen Twarynski, and Connor Bunnaman all vying for a spot with the big club.

The difference is remarkable, and the Flyers stand among few franchises, if any, that can tout the same level of draft success up and down the roster contributing at the NHL level.

Flyers fans finally have something to be excited about. They showed the NHL that they are a team on the rise, and they will need to be taken seriously going forward. Unfortunately, last season their groove hit a snag in the playoffs as the Canadiens gave them everything they could handle, and despite forcing game seven they were completely overwhelmed by a well-coached Islanders team.

The playoff loss at the hands of the New York Islanders notwithstanding, the team’s 2019-2020 season was equally as exciting as it was impressive. Nobody picked the Flyers before the season began to be legitimate Stanley Cup contenders, though martini wielding Alain Vigneault had other ideas. The youth matured at the right time, and the veteran coach in his first season with the team knew all the right buttons to push and catapulted the orange and black into the upper echelon of NHL clubs.

The fans in the city of Philadelphia are ready for what is next. What about the captain? Claude Giroux has reason to be as excited as anyone now that he has a chance to cement his up and down Flyers legacy. Giroux is the longest tenured athlete of the four major sports franchises in Philadelphia, but he has yet to take home a championship. In fact, Giroux has not made it beyond the second round of the playoffs since that exhilarating Stanley Cup run in 2010 where he broke out with 10 goals and 11 assists in 23 playoff games.

To make matters worse he only has 12 points in his last 28 playoff games. In Philly, those early career ‘point per game’ playoff runs he had, are about as popular as Circuit City Stock options. He has presided as Captain over one of the longest periods of mediocrity in the Franchise’s storied history. Not all of that can be blamed on him of course, as he just happened to come around when the team needed a philosophical adjustment for the future which yielded instability for the better part of a decade.

Giroux should be incredibly happy with his Stanley Cup hopes going forward. The Ron Hextall ‘draft and develop’ years have paid off and Chuck Fletcher has provided just enough finishing touches for the Flyers to make some noise with Hayes headlining the band of transplants. Ivan Provorov, Philippe Myers, and Travis Sanheim have all turned into impact players and are only getting more confident as they play. Travis Konecny led the team in points in the shortened season.

The aforementioned Hayes changed the entire atmosphere and helped build some much-needed chemistry around the team while also contributing on the scoreboard at a high level all season. Scott Laughton took a big step forward as a reliable third line grinder. Oskar Lindblom was leading the team in goal scoring before his illness. He along with former No. 2 overall pick Nolan Patrick are expected to return and produce this season.

Not to mention, Giroux does not even have to be the best player on the team anymore as Sean Couturier has been maturing into the role the past two seasons. There is one piece to the puzzle that stands alone above all others. Something the Flyers haven’t had since Ron Hextall played hockey in the late 80’s. Of course, we are talking about an elite franchise goaltender in Carter Hart.

He has been the missing piece every year since I can remember. We did have some one-hit wonders over the years, 2014-15 Steve Mason, 2000-01 Roman Ceckmanek, and 1999-00 Brian Boucher come to mind. This is clearly different. People around the league are recognizing what we have in him. He was the center of attention for the Flyers during the playoffs and he is young and as determined as any goalie in the league. A goalie that can steal games for a team is the most coveted asset in the NHL and Philly finally has one.

For the next few years, while he still has his legs under him, Giroux has the perfect opportunity to lead the Flyers to their first championship since 1976. A great coach, solid veterans, depth down the middle, legitimate top line defenseman, an elite goalie, and hungry young players eager to make a name for themselves are the perfect recipe for playoff success. All of this should give Flyers fans and Giroux visions of playoff dominance once again.

Giroux has always been a fan favorite. Who could forget “the shift” when he flattened Sidney Crosby and then unleashed a howitzer top shelf where grandpa hides his blackberry brandy. Or the beautiful ‘through his legs’ tip-in overtime game-winner against the Blackhawks in the 2010 finals. He ranks 3rd in Philadelphia flyers history in games played and will pass Bill barber this season should he stay healthy. He ranks 2nd all-time behind Bobby Clarke in assists, and he also ranks 3rd all-time in powerplay points.

The pandemic hit the Flyers especially hard as the team boasted an NHL best 25-6-4 home record at the time. Hart was brilliant at home with a 20-3-2 record a 1.63 GAA and .945 save percentage compared to his objectionable road numbers amounting to a 4-10-1 record a 3.81 GAA and .857 save percentage. You can see how home ice in front of fans would have made an enormous difference for the Flyers.

Complaining about an adjusted outcome to the season is infantile and naïve when considering the loss of life and devastation our world has experienced. People need to find outlets of joy and reasons for hope. One of my outlets is Philadelphia Flyers hockey as I suspect might be one of yours. Here’s to hoping this new era of Flyers hockey will continue to provide such hope as the World recovers from the unexpected upheaval that 2020 brought upon us.