Early in the season, the Flyers have found stability in their top-four blueliners. Ivan Provorov and Shayne Gostisbehere up top and Travis Sanheim and Philippe Myers on the second pair. But the third pairing has been a mix and match of different players throughout the season thus far.
Robert Hagg, Justin Braun, Erik Gustafsson, Mark Friedman, and even Nate Prosser have spent time as the bottom pair defensemen. No one has stood out above the rest. Of course, Prosser only played in one game and did score. But he seems to be more of an extra at the moment.
The former four have not been able to solidly their game to a point where Vigneault feels confident leaving them in every game. Braun is the only one who has appeared in every game thus far. But that doesn’t mean he is safe either.
"“I’m looking for the six best defensemen that gives us a chance to play on any given night. And so far on our third pair, we have not yet…one guy or two guys haven’t stood out that they deserve to play on a regular nightly basis.”"
Vigneault did mention that injuries have played a factor, namely Gostisbehere’s COVID diagnosis and Myers’ fractured rib. However, the plan continues to be to play whoever deserved to be in the lineup. And right now the Flyers are continuing to find out who that is on their bottom pairing.
The players mentioned above, while having played better than expected, are still not at the level they need to be at. The sample sizes are different when looking at each defenseman. Friedman has appeared in three games while Hagg and Gustafsson have each played eight games thus far. And as mentioned above, Braun has played all 10 games for the Flyers.
So with the difference in games, it is fair to look at the latter three as opposed to diving too far into Friedman’s numbers. But Vigneault has mentioned before that he has needed to see more from Friedman in terms of his play. He felt that he wasn’t playing with enough bite as he had before. So there are things he still needs to work on as well.
Aside from Friedman and Myers, the rest of the Flyers defense is below a 50% mark when it comes to their Corsi. Gostisbehere (46.73) and Sanehim (46.33) are close to that mark, though there is a difference in the games played there as well. But they are each performing about where they are expected to.
Among the bottom pair defensemen, Hagg grades out the best with a 45.95 CF%. He is still being out-chanced, outshot, and outscored when he is on the ice. And they are by wide margins as well. When he was first scratched for Prosser, Vigneault mentioned that he could be a more effective defenseman and make better plays on the ice.
He has been a steady player for the Flyers down the stretch last season and performed mostly as you expect from a third-pairing defenseman. Gustafsson, in the same amount of games, hasn’t looked much better. However, he will get a chance to redeem himself as he checks into the lineup on Wednesday evening.
When the Flyers signed Gustafsson this past offseason, it was known there were some deficiencies in his game. While he was able to perform on offense, his defense often suffered. Some compared it to what we had seen before from Gostisbehere. Things have looked worse at Gustafsson sits at a 41.71 CF% and the numbers get even worse as you look down the list.
Among regular defensemen, Gustafsson has the second-worst Fenwick percentage and the team is getting heavily outshot when he is on the ice. He is close to even when it comes to goals as he has helped account for five of the six goals the team has scored with him on the ice.
It is a bit of a surprise that Braun has not yet been scratched as he grades out at the team’s worst defensemen in most categories. He is 0.08% behind Provorov for the worst CF% on the team. Provorov has also played over 30 more minutes than Braun. He is under 40% in both Fenwick and shots for. He has broken even in the goals for category but hasn’t been much of a factor in any of them as he has no points thus far.
While Gustafsson and Hagg have appeared to swap the most, it could be time to sit Braun down for a game or two. The choices ahead of him are not much better right now, but he also hasn’t helped his case either.
When Chuck Fletcher spoke on Tuesday afternoon, he did say that the defense has played better than he expected. Though he mentioned some of the top guys performing better than others.
"“I think all things considered, the D have surpassed my expectations. The first two games I felt that it would take some time to get the group where we wanted it to get to. But there’s been some players that exceeded my expectations early on. Namely Shayne Gostisbehere and actually young Phil Myers…We have some good pieces back there”"
Fletcher also did mention that he thought Gustafsson and Braun have been looking better in their most recent games.
It’s a numbers game on the back end right now as the team has numerous players they could put on that bottom pair. But they are going to need one or two of them to step up sooner than later to solidify that blueline for the Flyers.