It’s hard to believe in a team that looked like it was as dysfunctional as it was bad. Watching the Flyers was a definite migraine-inducer, and if you stuck around for all 82 games despite the throbbing pain, I applaud you; you’re a true fan of this hockey team.
But, it wasn’t all bad news in Philadelphia. Even the worst teams in the league can give their fans a reason to believe that better days are ahead. And if you want any proof, just check out a few encouraging signs I highlighted below and it should change your outlook.
This isn’t to say that the items listed made the Flyers the class of the league in any one category. Instead, they were reasons that this team either is or will be heading north before you know it.
1 - Matvei Michkov
Nobody deserves more recognition than Matvei Michkov, whose 2024-25 season was better than advertised. It seemed like opponents never had a consistent answer for Michkov, and it ended with him finishing second only to Travis Konecny in points.
He put up 63 of them, with 26 goals, 37 assists, and a solid 13.0 shooting percentage. And he still went through his fair share of growing pains, telling me that 63 points could be the floor every time he plays in at least 80 games. It’s an impressive mark that will make him one of the most feared players on the ice by the time the 2025-26 season ends.
While Michkov couldn’t save the situation this year, nor did anyone expect him to, he made so many strides between October 2024 and today, solidifying himself among the most elite youngsters in the game today.
2 - The core
This is what I liked more than anything else for the Flyers. They’re a team with a young core and one that Matvei Michkov’s leading. Of course, the downside was that, with such a young team, the Flyers were going to be awful. That was a given, despite the season they had in 2023-24.
Just going down the line, here is every player 25 or under on the Flyers at season’s end: Matvei Michkov, Devin Kaplan, Jamie Drysdale, Karsen Dorwart, Emil Andrae, Jakob Pelletier, Aleksi Kolosov, Tyson Foerster, Bobby Brink, Egor Zamula, Cam York, Owen Tippett, Samuel Ersson, and Noah Cates.
There were another four players still in their twenties, including Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim. That’s one young hockey team, and while there are no guarantees all of the above names will be in town when the puck drops in six months, it’s encouraging to see them all playing together and building chemistry.
3 - No-nonsense tactics
This one’s an interesting take, but it jumped out at me as the season went on. General manager Daniel Briere held players and former coach John Tortorella more than accountable, and if they messed up too many times, he cut ties with them. We saw this more recently toward the end of the season with Tortorella, when he was sent packing for more than a few speculative reasons.
Earlier in the year, two would-be players of the core I mentioned above found themselves playing north of the border, Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost. With both players going elsewhere after inconsistent play, it showed us that Briere raised the floor in Philadelphia.
So, while the team struggled to make anything happen this season, Flyers fans can rest assured that Briere won’t give his players many chances. Yeah, that could be a curse in the eyes of a few, but if he wants to raise the accountability scale, moving talent that’s not improving should be the gold standard.