The Philadelphia Flyers are in a better spot than one year ago

Once again, it has not been a banner year for your Philadelphia Flyers.

That being said, there have been enough positive developments, both on and off the ice, to move things a rung or two up the proverbial “ladder of respectability and/or competitiveness”.

Start at the top, where Dave Scott is retiring and former GM Chuck Fletcher has been fired and essentially replaced by Daniel Briere. Count this as a win. We don’t know how well the tenure of new Comcast Spectacor chairman Dan Hilferty is going to work out, but a tonal shift was needed. Throw in Briere after he presumably gets the GM job full-time and whoever is hired as the team’s  President of Hockey Operations, and the new voices will be a welcome change at the top. Improvement is far from guaranteed, but fans have to be feeling much better about the whole situation than they were at the conclusion of the 2021-22 season.

As for the actual players on the ice, we’ve gotten a lot more clarity on the situation this year. As John Tortorella said right upfront when he was hired, the 2022-23 campaign was less about wins and losses than it was about evaluating what the Flyers have and which players can be part of the long-term solution.

For starters, Travis Konency’s re-emergence as a dynamic scorer after two seasons in the wilderness has been a great development. And this can work one of two ways, as either TK can continue to provide the team with sorely needed offensive punch or he has raised his profile enough to fetch the Flyers an excellent return if a team in a competitive window covets him in a trade. Either way, it’s a big plus.

Despite another non-playoff season, things are looking better for the Philadelphia Flyers than they were this time last year.

Other young players such as Cam York, Owen Tippett, and Morgan Frost (for the most part) have solidified themselves as solid, young, and most importantly inexpensive regular contributors. York and Frost will be getting raises this offseason, but their new salaries should be reasonable enough to not cause any issues. It’s also important to single out Noah Cates, who will be getting a new contract in the offseason, as well. Put in an extremely difficult position where he was essentially filling in for Sean Couturier all year, Cates’ admirable work is a credit to the Flyers’ developmental and coaching staffs, as a young player fully committed to a role that was put in front of him as a challenge. Here’s hoping that Cates ends up in Orange and Black for a long time. Finally, a special mention goes to Tyson Foerster for his solid performance in his first taste of NHL action. Expect him to be a mainstay on the team beginning next year.

Speaking of Couturier, his absence has of course been a huge negative for the Flyers this year. Ditto Cam Atkinson. But the fact that the club was able to improve decently on last season’s results in the standings while not getting a single game out of either of these players is a promising development in and of itself. If one or both of them can come back reasonably close to their old form in 2023-24, the club will only benefit that much more. Their expected recoveries provide a glimmer of hope for internal improvement as we head into this offseason.

As for the offseason, the best path to immediate relevance would be some lottery luck that lands the Flyers Connor Bedard. Failing that, however, the team still figures to add a top prospect to their stable of youngsters that includes Cutter Gauthier. It’s also highly anticipated that some of the dead weight around these parts — Kevin Hayes, Ivan Provorov, et al — could be jettisoned, which clears up space for young players to earn their keep. Any and all moves should be explored as the new front office puts their stamp on the team.

Goaltending is another big part of the equation here, as Carter Hart and Samuel Ersson look capable of providing a very good and affordable tandem for the foreseeable future. No, their numbers don’t look great overall this season, but anyone who’s watched the games (in which case, sorry) can tell you that very rarely has goaltending cost the Flyers any standings points this year. Instead, it’s been growing pains and the simple talent gap that has overworked the Flyers’ goalies. Further development of the system and/or an infusion of better players will do wonders to improving the surface numbers of Flyers netminders. For once, though, fans actually should not worry about what’s between the pipes for this team.

There are still miles to go before the Philadelphia Flyers can be mentioned in the same breath as the legitimate playoff contenders around the NHL. But you have to start somewhere, and maybe we can actually have a little bit of fun following this team again when the puck drops on the 2023-24 season.