Three Flyers Who Need to Be Better in 2022-23

When you are a last-place team, you need to do better. That’s a no-brainer. The 2021-22 Flyers were devastated by injuries. Good teams can overcome them. Bad teams can’t. But again, even with the number of injuries sustained, the Flyers never had a shot once December rolled around.

To be fair, there were bright spots. Travis Sanheim had one of his better seasons. Joel Farabee posted near career highs. Carter Hart’s numbers bounced back despite an injured-plagued end of the season and questionable defensive play in front of him.

Despite this, there are three Flyers who really need to step it up this year; especially with Sean Couturier and Ryan Ellis out for awhile. These are players the Flyers are counting on in order to have a successful year and an even more successful future.

Rasmus Ristolainen

He is a popular object of ire for many Flyers fans. He simply needs to play better than he has. The thing is, it isn’t that he is bad. He’s not. But when you are the sixth highest-paid player on the team and second highest-paid defender, then you better dang well play like it. He was signed for his size and for his potential offensive capabilities.

Instead, what we got was a less offensive version of Shayne Gostisbehere. But, it is what it is. We have Risto. What we need out of him is more than a two-goal/14 assist performance. Yes, the 230 hits were nice. Yes, his 38 min of being in the penalty box didn’t hurt the Flyers too much, especially since their penalty kill has been atrocious as of late.

He can do better. He was brought here to be better. If he can’t make that jump into playing like a top-line defender, then we are stuck with a second-line defender at best who is massively overpaid. Likewise, I don’t think Tortorella will tolerate any lazy play on his part.

Owen Tippett

When you are young and traded for a future Hall of Famer, there will be expectations placed on you. Maybe they are fair, maybe they are not. Tippett came over from the Florida Panthers for Claude Giroux. He made very little noise when he came here. That’s not good enough.

To be fair, he was traded to the Flyers after the team had given up, brought up a herd of young players to give them a taste of the NHL, and he was thrown onto a team with an interim coach who probably knew he was out the door in a few months.

Tippett is a young guy who was a high draft pick. He has a great chance to cement his future on this team. If he can put up anything close to a 20-goal/40-point performance, the trade will be well worth it. If he can do that, he will become one of Tortorella’s guys. But he has to make it happen. He’s going to be given a great opportunity.  Let’s hope for the best.

James van Riemsdyk

He was one of the Flyers’ best prospects in ages. It looked as if he and Giroux, with Wayne Simmonds and Brayden Schenn, would be the face of the team for years to come. Then he was traded. When he came back, everyone was excited. Then…..something happened.

Maybe it was a personality conflict with Alain Vigneault. He also did not get along with Peter Laviolette. Maybe he was upset with not being “the guy” on the team. Perhaps he just didn’t gel with his linemates. Who knows? What we can all see is that his numbers since returning to Philly have been ok.

Yes, he has had some minor injuries and he has scored over 20 goals twice in four seasons. But when you are making $7 million a year, that should be an easy benchmark to make. He hasn’t cracked the 50-point plateau since coming back; a total he made in each of his last two seasons in Toronto. Also, last year he was a horrendously awful -33.

Is he lazy? Is he in it for the paycheck? Is he hiding a nasty injury? It’s all speculation. But he can be a great leader on this team. He can be one of the guys who can jumpstart this team and turn it into something great. Whatever he is missing, if he can find it, we need it back. A JVR that can put up 25+ goals and assists would be a monster help to a team that desperately needs it.