Morgan Frost’s Return Leads to Questions

After six long games watching from the press box, Morgan Frost returned to the Philadelphia Flyers‘ lineup for Monday night’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes. And after all that time sitting and waiting for his next opportunity to finally arrive, the 24-year old center looked…not bad, actually.

Gifted with Travis Konecny and Tyson Foerster on his wings for the majority of the game, Frost logged 17:02 of ice time and registered three shots on net, although he was held off the scoresheet in the Flyers’ 3-2 setback. After banishing him from the lineup two weeks ago, John Tortorella seemed to make a concerted effort to get Frost going by giving him more playing time than usual, a number which was buoyed by the 4:35 of power play time that he received. By comparison, Frost averaged a little over two minutes per game on the man advantage over the course of 81 games last season.

Ultimately, it was because of their lackluster power play (0 for 5) that the Flyers lost this game, but Frost wasn’t the reason why. He beautifully set up Foerster for a one-timer that was denied by Canes goalkeeper Frederik Andersen in the second period, and Frost helped create a power play with his speed in the third period when he forced Jordan Staal into taking a hooking minor to disrupt him. It ended up not mattering, as the Flyers couldn’t cash in on their opportunities.

Overall, Frost was fairly noticeable, and he seemed to get more comfortable as the game went along. He very nearly got on the board with an assist after making a dandy of a backhand pass to Konecny with the game tied midway through the third period, with Konecny unable to bury the finish. One glaring area for improvement, however, was the faceoff circle, as Frost won just six of his team-high 20 draws on the evening. The Flyers were absolutely blasted at the dot overall, though, and are now 26th in the league with a 47% faceoff win percentage. Things aren’t going to get better overnight in that regard, but Frost can help his case going forward if he can make improvements.

Long term, a middle-six center spot might be Frost’s most likely landing zone if he were going to stick with the Flyers. The team’s surplus of right-handed shooting wingers has forced Tortorella and his staff to switch Konecny and/or Owen Tippett over to the left side from game to game. This effectively eats up a left wing spot that would seem to suit Frost, making it imperative that the team sees what he can bring at center. Time will tell if it ends up being a ‘square peg in a round hole’ situation. The eventual arrival of Cutter Gauthier complicates matters even further, and perhaps his ascenscion will be what eventually spells the end of Frost’s time with the Flyers if he doesn’t completely prove his worth. Make no mistake, folks around the league are keeping an eye on Frost, speculating on his viability as a trade candidate should he ultimately ‘run out of road’ in Philadelphia, so that could be a real option at some point, although the time has not arrived yet.

Frost was held out so long because the Flyers were playing above expectations, and there was a feeling not to rock the boat. But Saturday’s ugly 7-4 loss to Anaheim finally changed the equation, and Frost seemed to accept the challenge with a good attitude. Let’s hope that the loss to Carolina doesn’t create the need for further shakeups, as Frost should at least be given a number of games to find his groove and get back to the scoring clip that he exhibited over the second half of last season.

Whether you’re in the camp that the Flyers should scour the market to see what kind of return Morgan Frost could fetch or not, the best course of action for now would be to give him the ice time to show what he can or can’t offer. If that means sitting a depth piece like Ryan Poehling more often or even sending a young player like Foerster to the Phantoms for a time, so be it. More likely than not, an injury will occur that will open up ice time, although that’s not something to openly root for. The point is, as this ‘exploratory’ 2023-24 Philadelphia Flyers season rolls along, Morgan Frost should be one of the primary experiments. And his return to the lineup on Monday, while it wasn’t earth shattering, merits further study for a stretch of games going forward.