5 Flyers players who must bring their A-Game to play meaningful games in March

Travis Sanheim needs to take the two-way approach up a notch

From a points-based perspective, we are seeing a breakout year from Travis Sanheim. Unless he sustains an injury or a spectacular fall-off in play, Sanheim will set a new career-high in points, assists, average time on ice, and hits. He has already set a new best in takeaways with 27, so expect him to keep shattering his previous high of 23 that he set in 2021-22. 

Overall, you can’t help but like what you see from Sanheim’s productivity, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been areas of his game when he needs to make something happen. When you look at some advanced statistics, mainly possession metrics at 5-on-5, you see turbulence, and that’s a growth opportunity for the 27-year-old blueliner.

When Sanheim is on the ice at 5-on-5, the Flyers are boasting an offensive zone start percentage of 53.4 percent, yet Sanheim’s Corsi and Fenwick For percentages sit at just 48.9 and 50.5, respectively. These aren’t awful numbers, but it would be great to see him help pitch in a little more when the Flyers are in the offensive zone. 

Their on-ice save percentage in the same situation when Sanheim is on the ice is a paltry 88.0. So although Sanheim is enjoying an excellent season from a statistical standpoint, we need to see more of the little things when Sanheim is on his respective shifts.