In his first full season, Tyson Foerster had a pretty solid campaign for the Philadelphia Flyers. He scored 20 goals, recorded 13 assists, delivered 106 hits, logged over 17 minutes of ice time, and stole the puck 36 times. He finished seventh in the Calder Trophy balloting for Rookie of the Year and he even, surprisingly, recorded enough votes to finish 37th for the Selke Trophy Award. Not bad.
So, here is where we are. Where do we go from here? His 20 goals as a rookie tie him for 14th all-time in Flyers history and are the most since Matt Read scored 24 in 2011-12. Which brings us to a concern. Is this the best we've seen out of Foerster or is the best still to come?
Read had a great rookie year, but kind of faltered from there on out. He only scored 20 goals one more time in his career. While he was a decent role player, he never became the star that we saw glimpses of that first season.
Can Tyson Foerster build off of a solid rookie season?
Foerster is not likely to head down that road, barring injuries. Of him, John Tortorella has complimented his play. That might not sound like much, but when he is speaking, it is a mouthful. Foerster sat only five games all year. He was in the lineup a lot. Only Travis Konecny and Sean Couturier logged more ice time as forwards. It is obvious that Tortorella sees a lot in Foerster and is nurturing that. He is giving him lots of chances to prove himself and it is working.
Foerster played a lot shuffling around the top two lines this past year. He played alongside Konecny, Couturier, Owen Tippett, Joel Farabee, and Morgan Frost. I can easily envision a line with Foerster and Matvei Michkov riding up the wings.
The kid has a lot of promise. If he can build on it, like we've seen Tippett grow and improve, he will be one of a core group of young players the Flyers can continue to build around.