One of the biggest offseason changes that Chuck Fletcher made was upgrading the defense. It was clear that was an area the team needed to fix after last season. That began with acquiring Ryan Ellis from the Nashville Predators. The dominos began to fall after that as the Flyers then brought in Rasmus Ristolainen and Keith Yandle later on. A lot of changes on the backend as the team looks to clear things up in front of their netminders.
It’s clear that bringing in Ellis to pair with Ivan Provorov was one of the most important things that needed to be addressed. The loss of Matt Niskanen was evident as Provorov saw himself with numerous partners and wasn’t quite the player we were used to seeing. Ellis will be able to play a similar role that Niskanen had where he will be able to help aid some of the younger players.
The two have gotten to know each other well over the last few days. Having that bonding experience both on and off the ice has been important for both of them. They both have similar work ethics as well, which is something that should help them gel together on the ice.
"“Provy is a beast in the gym, so I kind of just follow him around. I just want to get as big as Provy and do my thing with him. He loves the game. I didn’t think that anyone loved it more than I did, but he’s right up there. He’s always here early. We always get here at the same time. Like I said, we just follow each other around and try to do our best to get to know each other.”"
For Ellis, this will be his first time playing for a team other than Nashville. He was drafted by the Predators in 2009 and has been in the league since making his debut midway through the 2011-12 season. Playing 10 seasons in the league, Ellis has plenty of experience. He also has 74 playoff games under his belt as well.
Ellis has spent the majority of the past few seasons with Roman Josi as his partner. Most recently, the two spent far and away the most time together among Nashville’s defensive pairings, spending close to 400 minutes together on the ice. That is something the Flyers will be looking for him to do with Provorov. Both will be expected to eat up big minutes and will see some time on both the power play and possibly the penalty kill as well. That’s an area that is in need of a big improvement.
Looking at the power play, the Flyers now have two units who, according to Provorov, can pick each other up if the other isn’t going that night. Ellis will add to that as he’s posted 20 goals and 59 total points on the man advantage during his career. The two will be a part of the team’s second unit to start.
Having that bonding experience will only help grow the partnership between the two players as well. And it’s one that Provorov feels is working out thus far. He believes the two of them match up well and is looking forward to seeing what they can do in these exhibition games moving forward.
"“It’s been awesome. We show up to the rink at the same time, two and a half hours before. We get our breakfast in, get our warmup in before the ice, all the meetings and everything. Tried to help him out with our scheduling and everything like that the best way that I could.“Just overall doing things together and getting to know each other off the ice. And on the ice, getting used to each other during those practices and the last little scrimmage here. Just very excited to get going and see what we can do together as a pairing during real games.”"
Speaking of those real games, we will get a chance to see that pairing in action when the Flyers take the ice against the Islanders for their first of six preseason games. A lot of this team’s potential this season will rely heavily on their top pairing gelling as much as they hope it will. Not too much pressure, right?