Philadelphia Flyers: 5 Players With Most to Prove in 2023

The Philadelphia Flyers are heading into the first official season in their rebuild under the direction of Daniel Briere and Keith Jones. Although the club is largely playing to see development from their younger players, the veterans will need to perform well in their auditions for their futures. 

The 2022-23 season didn’t go as the Philadelphia Flyers planned, and that’s putting things lightly. A season in which the Flyers finished 26th in the league saw general manager Chuck Fletcher mercifully dismissed from his post. Although it may sound crazy, last season’s results aren’t all Fletcher’s fault.

Make no mistake about it, the Philadelphia Flyers’ roster was left in deplorable condition, and that’s all on Fletcher and Ron Hextall. Even so, the Flyers sorely missed three would-be key contributors who greatly contributed to the team’s failure in 2022. Sean Couturier, the Philadelphia Flyers’ longest tenured player, headlines that group.

Sean Couturier’s last game for the Philadelphia Flyers was on December 18, 2021 – a 4-3 overtime victory over the Ottawa Senators at the Wells Fargo Center. Couturier had the primary assist on Joel Farabee’s game-tying goal, before Travis Sanheim put a bow on things in the extra frame. Couturier finished the 2021-22 season with only six goals in 29 games whilst shooting 7.6%, his lowest figure since the 2012-13 season. That was Couturier’s age-20 season.

With a December 7 birthday, Sean Couturier will be on the wrong side of 30 once the clock strikes 12 on that day during the 2023-24 season. Although he was reportedly healthy enough to play at the end of the 2022-23 season, Couturier is returning from back surgery, and wasn’t playing particularly well before that either.

Sean Couturier has surpassed 30 goals and 60 points just twice in his career: in 2017-18 and in 2018-19. Couturier was 25 and 26 in those seasons, and since then, hasn’t managed to appear in more than 70 contests in any season after. Couturier’s health is obviously a major concern, and 37 players did better than Couturier’s career-best 76 points in the 2022-23 season. Couturier was never a truly elite player in the National Hockey League, and his injury rap sheet hasn’t helped that.

It remains to be seen whether the extra long layoff from hockey will refresh Sean Couturier or make him rustier. The 2023-24 season will be Couturier’s first crack at proving he can be a top-six center again. Couturier is signed at a $7.75 million cap hit until he’s 37; through the 2029-30 season, and will have a no-movement clause for the next six years. The Philadelphia Flyers will be praying that contract won’t haunt them for years to come.

The Philadelphia Flyers wasted no time this offseason swapping out unfavored veterans for draft picks and prospects. As is the cost of doing business though, the Flyers had to take on a veteran with a hefty salary to make things work.

The Philadelphia Flyers acquired former Los Angeles Kings goalie Cal Petersen via the Ivan Provorov trade, and it’s easy to see why the Kings were willing to cut ties with Petersen so quickly. After once being seen as the heir to Jonathan Quick in the short-term, Cal Petersen had two consecutive seasons (2021-22 and 2022-23) with a save percentage below 0.900. That’s just not good enough for a goalie making $5 million annually.

Cal Petersen’s previous successes in Los Angeles came in rather small sample sizes. Petersen posted a 0.924 save percentage in 11 games in 2018-19, and kept the momentum rolling with a 0.922 in 2019-20. In his first rodeo with the full-time gig in 2020-21, Petersen regressed to the mean with a 0.911.

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Cal Petersen performed even worse in 2022-23 than in 2021-22 in fewer games, even though the Kings were a pretty good team for most of the last season. As a result, Petersen found himself in the AHL with the Ontario Reign for the first time since the 2019-20 season. His situation reeks of a lack of confidence and a need for a fresh start.

Luckily, the Philadelphia Flyers will be able to afford him just that, if he can earn it. It’s unclear whether or not the Flyers will move incumbent starter Carter Hart, and backup Felix Sandstrom was poor in his 20 games at the NHL level last season. At his current cap hit, no team will (should) be willing to take Cal Petersen off of the Flyers’ hands, but he’s also only got two years remaining on his contract. It would make the most sense for the Flyers to try to rehab Petersen’s trade value and confidence whilst Sandstrom and Sam Ersson hold it down with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

With two really bad seasons in a row, this could be Cal Petersen’s last chance to find or audition for a home in the NHL.

The two defensemen who dominated offensive minutes for the Philadelphia Flyers – Ivan Provorov and Tony DeAngelo – are now in the rearview mirror after the latter’s buyout earlier in the week. Rasmus Ristolainen makes the most sense to take over DeAngelo’s role as the righty, and youngster Cam York figures to take over Provorov’s role as the lefty.

The Philadelphia Flyers’ power play finished dead-last in the NHL last season with a paltry 15.6 percent conversion rate. That will need to change in a big way if the team hopes to have any success that they can build off of in the long term. Cam York has a chance to be the best power play quarterback the Flyers have had since Kimmo Timonen.

Cam York is about the same height as Timonen at 5’11”, but weighs a little bit less. With the appropriate work in the gym as a full-time guy, York should easily fill out his frame over the next few months. The added size and strength will greatly benefit York in the defensive zone; the offensive zone is already taken care of.

Cam York bet on himself earlier last week when he signed a two-year, $3.2 million contract to remain with the Philadelphia Flyers. Although York has yet to establish himself as an every day NHLer, he will have every chance to do so in 2023. His underlying numbers have been incredible in his modest sample size, and is counting on his play to earn him more money than an early, long-term extension would have netted him.

2019 NHL Draft classmates like Jack Hughes, Cole Caufield, and Matt Boldy, have all signed long-term extensions at team-friendly cap hits. It’s unclear whether that was even an option for York, but now that’s all irrelevant.

Now, the ball is in York’s court. It will be up to him to earn the trust of the Philadelphia Flyers brass and cement himself as the team’s number one defenseman who can be counted on in all situations. When his current contract expires, York will be an RFA again – hopefully looking to sign the biggest contract of his life.

If the Philadelphia Flyers were aggressively seeking to move any player this summer, it was probably Travis Sanheim.

Travis Sanheim signed an eight-year, $50 million contract extension with the Philadelphia Flyers in October, by way of Chuck Fletcher. Included in the extension was a no-trade clause for the first four years, which officially kicked in on July 1. Sanheim was not traded and now has the no-trade clause active, so the Flyers are stuck with him, for better or for worse.

In the past, Travis Sanheim was a legitimate top-four defenseman who, more often than not, showed signs of being capable of being a top-pairing defender. He was anything but in the 2022-23 season, and the Flyers’ record and defensive results reflect that.

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The positive news, though, is that Sanheim will have help with Cam York and Sean Walker on the way. Sanheim can improve his play from an individual standpoint, and maybe Carter Hart too bounces back and inspires some confidence in the blueline.

If Sanheim is unable to return to form, his massive contract extension would just be the latest addition to a laundry list of Chuck Fletcher farces. It would also mean a long wait until 2027 for Philadelphia Flyers fans, when Sanheim’s full no-trade clause becomes a 12-team no-trade list that would allow the team to dump his contract to roughly half of the NHL.

It takes two to tango, though, and the Philadelphia Flyers’ 2023-24 season is looking filled with questions, and empty on answers.