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.

Like Sean Couturier, Cam Atkinson missed the entirety of the 2022-23 season, and is now much older than he was in the last game he played in.

For Cam Atkinson, the stakes in the 2023-24 season are pretty cut and dried: he will be 36 when his current contract expires, and this might be his last shot at playing in the NHL as a regular. Atkinson had 50 points in his only season as a Flyer thus far, but given his age and $5.875 million cap hit for another two years, Daniel Briere and the Philadelphia Flyers might not feel inclined to keep him beyond this season. Unless Atkinson can show the juice he had pre-neck surgery, his NHL career could be coming to a close sooner than later.

The Philadelphia Flyers’ roster looks wildly different compared to how it did in Atkinson’s last full game with the team. Martin Jones, James van Riemsdyk, Patrick Brown, Kevin Connauton, Kevin Hayes, Ivan Provorov, Oskar Lindblom, Nate Thompson, and Hayden Hodgson have all retired or moved on to other teams. It will be a huge adjustment for Atkinson to play with new teammates whilst having to take on his normal workload after a neck surgery.

If Cam Atkinson is unable to return to form, it could be curtains on his Philadelphia Flyers career and his hockey career.