2022-23 Flyers Player Profile: Travis Sanheim

Travis Sanheim is one of the Flyers’ biggest enigmas on this team. He is the fourth highest paid defender on the team, but he sometimes plays as if he should be paid the most. There are also stretches, usually depending on who is he paired up with, where he seems lost. The 2014 first rounder will also be a free agent at the end of this year. Will he stay or move on to “greener pastures”.

Sanheim has been paired, mostly, with the following players during his career as a Flyer: Ivan Provorov, Phillipe Myers, Rasmus Ristolainen. He has not had a tremendous amount of success, but a lot of that can be attributed to his linemates. Provy has struggled since the retirement of Matt Niskanen. The pairing of him and Sanheim has been spotty at best. Myers is gone and when he was paired with Sanheim, the mistakes that these two young players made cost the team several games. Risto is well….Risto. Sanheim can’t be faulted for mistakes his defending partner has made.

Much of Sanheim’s problems can be traced to not having a mentor in which to learn from. COVID, injuries, and personnel decisions have led to a lot of young players on defense having to learn on the fly. That’s not good. The difference seems to be that Sanheim has learned from his mistakes. Myers did not. After several years of playing, Ristolainen keeps making the same sort of mistakes that has plagued his career. And despite the pairing, he still had 31 points (his second highest career total) and a career high +9.

If Sanheim has the right pairing, his career can take off to where everyone expects that he can perform at. I can see him paired up with Tony DeAngelo and being very successful. Sanheim is not an offensive blueliner. He doesn’t have to be. He can patrol the back end while DeAngelo helps to quarterback the offensive attack. The two of them can feed off each other and be very effective. We have seen that pairing him with Provy has had mixed results and with Risto has been a disaster. Putting Sanheim on the third line with Justin Braun is not an option. Sanheim is too good to stash there.

So, what do we make of him? That’s what this season is going to be all about. If the Flyers decide to cash it in, he can be a major trade piece to a contender. Or, they can try to work with him and re-sign him long-term. If he is someone that Coach Tortorella loves, he can be a major part of this defense for the next few years. He is 26 and has a defensive minded coach to learn from.

He could easily turn into one of the best defenders in the conference if he buys into this system. If the Flyers want to move on, he may be gone in this offseason and the Flyers will spend his $4.675 million elsewhere.  This year is going to be very important for him and the team looking ahead.