Which Flyers are Close to Their Next Career Milestone?

Flyers’ captain Sean Couturier scored his 200th goal in his 850th game in the NHL during Saturday’s 6-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers.

That got me thinking about which other Flyers are nearing career milestones.

While some may not be as significant as the others, here are some career milestones coming up for Flyers players:

Travis Konecny: 200 Goals

Alternate captain Travis Konecny is up next when it comes to Flyers players joining the 200-goal club.

Konecny currently has 196 goals, making him four goals away from the career milestone. The Canadian forward has played his entire NHL career with the Flyers and will look to be the second Flyer this season to reach 200 goals, all in a Flyers uniform.

Konecny is averaging .38 goals per game this season, putting him on pace to reach the milestone in 11 games when the Flyers take on the Lightning on March 17th. Of course, knowing how hot he can get, it could come much sooner.

Owen Tippett: 100 Goals

Owen Tippett is the next closest for a goals-based milestone. Currently, at 89 career NHL goals, Owen Tippett is just 11 shy of reaching the 100-goal club.

Tippett was a part of the return in the Claude Giroux trade way back when and played parts of three seasons with the Florida Panthers before donning the orange and black. 14 of his 89 tallies came during his time in Florida.

He is playing at a .30 goals-per-game pace this season, putting this milestone out of reach this season if he sticks at the current pace. However, like Konecny, if Tippett can get hot, the goals will fall at a great clip, so I am not ruling this one out for this season.

Rasmus Ristolainen: 250 Assists

Rasmus Ristolainen is getting closer to 250 career assists. The Flyers defenseman has 247 assists to this point in his career, earning the bulk of those assists during his time with the Sabres.

Ristolainen has found himself on the Flyers’ top power-play unit, giving him ample opportunity to reach that career mark.

250 assists are in the middle of 200 and 300, making it not much of a celebrated milestone. He likely won’t get much recognition when he does reach helper No. 250, but it is certainly worth noting that he’s close.

Garnet Hathway: 600 Games

Flyers forward Garnet Hathaway is nearing the 600-games played mark in his career. Currently at 597, with Tuesday’s game likely being No. 598, Hathway is drawing closer and closer to that 600th game in the NHL. Hathaway will join a group of just over 200 active NHL players to have played more than 600 games in the league.

If he remains in the lineup, Hathway should hit that mark when the Flyers take on the Winnipeg Jets this coming Saturday.

The Flyers are the fourth stop Hathaway has made throughout his career. Though he played four seasons in Calgary, his four years in Washington are where Hathaway played most of his games.

Jamie Drysdale: 200 Games (Currently at 193)

Jamie Drysdale was sent to the Flyers just over a year ago today as the centerpiece in the Flyers’ return in the Cutter Gauthier trade.

Drysdale has played in parts of six NHL seasons since entering the league with the Ducks in 2020/21. Despite having six years in the league, games have been hard to come by for the 22-year-old defenseman. The injury bug has plagued him for his entire career. He’s only played more than 50% of his team’s games once before this season.

With 46 games played this year (47 after Tuesday’s Keystone Rivalry Game), Drysdale has crossed that plateau for the second time in his career. He missed 12 games this season, and hopefully, that is all he will miss. Drysdale is on pace to hit 200 games in the national on March 9th, when the Flyers host the Devils.

Sam Ersson: 100 Games and 50 Wins

The Flyers’ number-one netminder is five games played away from reaching 100 games in the NHL. Since making his debut in late December of 2022, Ersson has had his ups and downs throughout his career. As he looked promising for parts of the 2023/24 season, but a heavy workload late in the season led to struggles. He started slow in 2024, partially due to a nagging lower-body injury, but has since turned it around.

Ersson will play in his 96th NHL game Tuesday night against the Penguins, putting him just three games away from his 100th NHL game.

That is not the only milestone Ersson is closing in on. The Swedish netminder is also just four wins away from career win No. 50.

Knowing only that he will get “the lion’s share” of the remaining games and not exactly how many games that will be, it is harder to estimate when Ersson will reach 100 games. It is even harder to pace out wins and losses as he gets closer to winning No. 50. What I can say is that Ersson will more likely than not reach both milestones this season.

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