Philadelphia Flyers 2024-25 Player Preview: Noah Cates

Noah Cates is one of those guys that continues to defy the odds. The Flyers forward will be entering his fourth year as a professional player in the NHL. The former fifth-rounder has made an impression on team management and has greatly impressed. Can he continue to make that leap forward or has he peaked already?

Cates came up at the end of the 2021-22 season. He appeared in 16 games, scoring five goals with four assists. Coming from college, that's not too bad. The following year, he was one of three Flyers, along with Ivan Provorov and Joel Farabee, to appear in all 82 games in John Tortorella's season debut as Flyers' head coach. He scored 13 goals with 25 assists. His efforts, in what was essentially his rookie season, earned him ninth place in the Calder Trophy balloting and 15th in the Selke Trophy voting. Expectations for him ran high.

Last year would not be a repeat performance, however. Injuries took their toll on the young forward and he never seemed to get it back together. It's not that he played badly. He scored six goals with 12 assists, but you could tell that he was never 100%. He probably played through a lot of stuff that he didn't disclose to his coaches as he wanted to contribute to the team.

Is Noah Cates ready for his breakout season?

Cates can play left wing or center. With Sean Couturier and Scott Laughton, the Flyers have three solid centers when you include Cates. Laughton seems to be thriving as a third-line center. Ryan Poehling has played well enough on the third and fourth lines.

This leaves Couturier and Cates. To be honest, either one could be the center on the Flyers' top line. Depending on which wingers you want to match them up with (Owen Tippett, Travis Konecny, Matvei Michkov, Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, or Tyson Foerster), the top two lines appear to have the best combinations of defensive forward abilities with offensive thrust capabilities.

Cates has been a very solid defensive forward, controlling the puck well, moving it smartly, and winning the faceoffs. He is doing a lot of very fundamental things well and he looks almost as if he is a younger version of Couturier

The one thing his game lacks is a lot of offensive punch. Sure, he can score at times, but he is not a major threat yet. If he is centering Konecny and Michkov, for example, he could start to rack up a lot of assists quickly. If he is healthy, Cates could be ready for a career year this year.