Owen Tippett’s Career-Year a Sign of Things to Come for Flyers

It has been over a year since Owen Tippett was traded to Philadelphia in the Claude Giroux deal. At first, the deal itself may have seemed underwhelming simply due to what the Flyers trading away their franchise captain. But as we end the season, Tippett is ripe with confidence and has been one of the Flyers’ best players.

With the lack of space in Florida, Tippett was never able to showcase the skill set that he has. The shot is one of his best attributes as he’s able to seemingly pick his spots at will. Combine that with his dangerous speed and he can be a lethal player on the rush. His strength to fight through most contact also helps him force himself to the front of the net for dangerous opportunities.

If anyone is still thinking that Tippett isn’t a goal-scorer, they haven’t been watching the Flyers’ recent games. Take the overtime win against Columbus for example. Tippett not only scored two goals, but he also showed confidence in powering to the net on both of them.

He fought through contact along the boards for the first one. He skated through the middle and went backhand to forehand on the game-winning goal. That is a player who is feeling extremely confident about where his game is at. Given an opportunity to flourish in Philadelphia, he has shown the Flyers what is to come from him moving forward.

Rocky Thompson, given the opportunity to coach the game against the Blue Jackets, has been very impressed with what they’ve seen from Tippett.

“I think his games evolving, not just as a shooter which is what we’re seeing. That’s kind of maturing, but I think he makes good plays too. I think he can be very hard to play against cause of his speed, not just when he has the puck. He can forecheck and take advantage of those attributes that he has. Definitely the offense has come. He’s been put in a good situation this year to succeed, and I think he’s taking advantages of those opportunities. The future is very bright, in my opinion, moving forward.“

Tippett has shattered any and all of his career highs offensively. He’s also played in the most games (77) of his career this season. He is second on the team with 27 goals and is third with 49 points. Based on where he started to where he is now, he is by far one of the most improved players on this team. Hence why the team voted him as such before the Blue Jackets game.

This season was less about wins and losses and more about changing the culture and developing more of the younger players. As the team looks toward a rebuild this summer, it was key to know which players would stick around. One of John Tortorella’s goals as head coach was to play the kids and find out what they could be.

Some of them stood apart and gave him a lot of good things to think about. Others fell flat or were too inconsistent to be rewarded with high marks. Tippett was one of those players who Tortorella hardly ever had a bad word to say about. He was given more and more responsibility as the season went on and was counted on even more when Travis Konecny went down in January.

“Yeah, I think the more situations you get in, the more comfortable you become in those situations helps with confidence,” Tippett said about becoming confident with more opportunities. “I think when you play those kinds of big minutes in last minute periods in games, it goes a long way. You become more comfortable in those situations. I think it helps a lot with just overall confidence and just knowing that you’re trusted at times. It for sure goes a long way, just as an overall aspect.

He rewarded the Flyers for their belief in him and he could be a big part of this team’s future. And 30 goals could be right around the corner for him. He just missed out, falling three goals short. It’s not necessarily a goal he is setting for himself right now, but it’s definitely something he’s thought about.

“I think just knowing I was kind ofscratching at the surface there of 30 that obviously can be a goal. It’s one of those things where I want to improve each and every year, whether that be 30 goals or something else. It’s something that you can kind of look forward to as the next milestone.”

He was one of many young players to show Tortorella how important they can be to this team. And if someone like Tippett is able to grow even more from here, the Flyers have a much brighter future ahead of them.