Philadelphia Flyers
James: Things Are Finally Going Right for the Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers have been stuck in a cycle of sub-mediocrity for the last four-plus seasons. That sub-medocrity has been masked by terms like “rebuild” or worse, “retool”.
It had seemed to be a series of unfortunate events for the Flyers. No matter what they had done to improve the team and change the direction, they always wound up being unable to get over the hump.
Some of it was top prospects not panning out the way they hoped. German Rubstov played a total of four games for the Flyers. Nolan Patrick couldn’t stay healthy, Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee got traded, and, heck, Jay O’Brien never even signed.
It took until 2019 and 2020 for the Flyers’ first-round picks to start showing flashes with Cam York and Tyson Foerster.
Bad contracts have been in the way of the Flyers’ success. They still owe Ryan Ellis, who hasn’t played since 2021, $6.25 million for the next two seasons. Sean Couturier is getting paid $7.75 million a year for the next five seasons. He is playing much more like his old self, but injuries derailed his dominant career, and he’s making a fortune. Rasmus Ristolainen falls under that category. He makes $5.1 million a year and cannot stay healthy.
Contract buyouts and retained salary still loom over the organization. Kevin Hayes‘ ~$3.75 million still stings.
At a point, nothing could go right for the Flyers, but that changes now.
Read More: Flyers Mock Draft 1.0: Round One
Things Finally Seem to be Heading in the Right Direction for the Flyers
For the first time in a while, things are looking like they are heading in the right direction for the Flyers.
Let’s go back to the trade deadline–that’s when the signs began to show. That previously mentioned cycle of sub-mediocracy was partially due to the Flyers still being in “realistic” reach of the postseason at the deadline, so they got too conservative.
This year, Flyers GM Daniel Briere did what nobody could do before him, including himself, and finally made trades that a seller would make. They were true sellers at the NHL trade deadline.
Frost and Farabee, two underachieving first-round picks, were traded. Scott Laughton, a player who consistently generated trade buzz and significant interest, but was never traded because he was a glue guy, gets traded. Briere flipped Andrei Kuzmenko.
The Flyers were able to clear cap space all while recouping draft picks and loading up for a pivotal offseason.
Cap space opens up for the Flyers in 2025. If they choose to, the Flyers can afford to chase higher-end free agents this offseason to help turn things around.
Briere is done with the rebuild; it’s time to start winning.
Critical Change Necessary
Roster moves were not the only things that have gone right for the Flyers.
The Flyers have moved on from four members of the coaching staff since the deadline. Head coach John Tortorella was dismissed in late March, a move necessary to take a step forward.
Tortorella was a good coach for the Flyers. He taught the organization’s youth a lot of valuable lessons and aspects of the game. He got the best out of a lackluster team and almost had them in the playoffs last season.
It’s hard to judge his tenure with the Flyers purely based on the cards he was dealt, but the team seemed to hit a wall and wouldn’t improve under Tortorella. So, what did Briere do? Well, he made the call to move on from the coach. Surely, there were other factors in his dismissal, none more notable than his feud with Cam York. Nonetheless, the move has been made, and it was the first big change that will benefit the Flyers down the line.
No other changes were made during the season, but once the offseason hit, the Flyers fired three more coaches: Rocky Thompson, Angelo Ricci, and Darryl Williams.
Of the three, Thompson was the most significant fire, which, above all else, needed to happen this offseason. Thompson was the team’s power play coach, which was nothing short of abysmal under his control. The power play ranked at the very bottom of the league in his first two seasons with the Flyers, then 30th this past season. Firing Thompson had to happen to turn things around.
Now, the Flyers will have at least four coaching positions to fill, now that they know what the team needs to improve on to compete next season.
Read More: Flyers Moving on From Three Assistant Coaches
Draft Picks Galore
The Flyers will have the ammo needed to make some significant personnel changes this offseason. Seven picks inside the top-50 in the 2025 NHL Draft is absurd. There is no way they pick all seven.
The Flyers will have the power to trade some of their surplus for a higher draft pick, or even use those picks as assets to acquire NHL talent right now. They have the picks to make things happen this offseason.
However, that may not be exactly “what went right” for the Flyers. What went right is that they ended the season with the fourth-best odds at winning the NHL draft lottery. Finishing the season with the fourth-worst record in the league is not a highlight, but the 9.5% chance at the No. 1 or No. 2 overall pick in the lottery is. They cannot pick worse than No. 6 overall, which guarantees them one of Michael Misa, James Hagens, Anton Frondell, Caleb Desnoyers, or Jake O’Brien. While one of the first three is ideal, they are all high-end center prospects in the draft class.
Barring a shocking move, the Flyers will bolster their room of center prospects, a position of great need.
Again, it’s not expected that the Flyers use all seven draft picks on prospects in the top 50, but they can give their prospect pool a significant boost this offseason.
Speaking of Flyers Prospects…
While on the topic of prospects, for the first time in a while, the Flyers have an exciting group of prospects that are all showing potential.
Denver Barkey, who has torn the OHL up, is set to turn pro after the London Knights’ season. Oliver Bonk, another fellow Knight, looks like he has the potential to be the physical two-way defenseman the Flyers need. Like Barkey, he’ll turn pro after the Knights’ season is over,
Carson Bjaranson, one of the Flyers’ promising young goaltending prospects, has already turned pro and joined the Phantoms. Jett Luchanko had a stellar year in juniors and may be playing a bit tired right now, but he is still showing off his incredible playmaking ability.
The Flyers acquired Nikita Grebenkin in the Scott Laughton trade, and he looks like he has untapped offensive potential. Last but not least, Alex Bump has been nothing but a great surprise. The organization loves him, and it is easy to see why. Since making the jump from the NCAA to the AHL, Bump looks just as good, if not better.
The Flyers now have cap space, draft picks, prospects, and have now moved on from coaches who needed to go. After years of things going wrong, things look like they are finally starting to head in the right direction.
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How can you say things are “heading in the right direction” when they are objectively just getting worse? Yes, subtractions have been made that COULD be used to help build a competitive team in the future, but things aren’t “heading” that way until POSITIVE steps forward are taken. Firing the majority of the coaching staff isn’t a step forward. Hiring the right staff for the future is. Dumping Frost & Farabee to cut future payroll/cap commitments isn’t a step in the right direction UNTIL THAT SPACE IS USED. Note that the Flyers apparently finished this season several million dollars under the cap which represents a misuse of “cap space as a weapon”. Cap space isn’t any good unless used. Are things set up to soon have some forward progress? Hopefully. Coming off a dismal finish to the 4th worst record in the NHL is in no way a step forward, though.
So, if possibly getting the #4 pick in the draft is not a step forward what do you call the three years in a row when the Penguins tanked and drafted three HOF’s with Fleury, Crosby and Malkin? They also got multiple cups out of it as well.
Exactly, and the frickin Blackhawks are now doing the same shit! The proud Flyers have always refused to tank like that! So, the Flyers haven’t won a cup since the early 70’s!
I call it the same general thing as the Sabres getting four #1 or #2 overall picks in the past 10 years: No a step forward until the picks are utilized for progress. Sabres have ZERO playoff appearances in past 14 years, look to be in poor shape moving forward now, and they had FOUR picks in that timeframe that were TOP 2 OVERALL.
Reread above and then get back to us. He laid it out very clearly.
I disagree with the 1984-esque doublethink: Performing badly on the ice is NOT good. Firing your head coach mid-season is NOT good. Firing the majority of the remaining coaching staff immediately after the season ends is NOT good. Are these steps that could lead to good results? Absolutely. But only if the right hires are made. Those hires are the progress, not the firings.
I also call “BS” on the whole section that Briere “finally made trades a seller would make”. “Finally”? What the heck was the Walker trade last season??? By some objective analytic evaluations, that move alone could have been what cost the Flyers a playoff spot last season. There’s no way to view that trade as anything other than a seller’s move.
The Flyers stayed under the cap for two reasons: The first is that the Ryan Johansen contract could have been put back on our books at any time this season. That was 4 mill we couldn’t use.
Second is we stayed under so that any bonuses we needed to pay out would stay on this year’s cap, giving us even more flexibility with next year’s cap.
You make a couple of legit points. However, the bonus carryover risk was minimal. I don’t know the exact amount, but it was projected to be under a quarter million when I looked last. That’s peanuts compared to the retained salary the Flyers will have for 2025-26 just from the Laughton trade. The outcome of the RyJo situation is obviously fluid and unknown, but the Flyers ended the season with about $2.5 million in unused cap space. So, a full contract reinstatement puts the Flyers over the 2024-25 cap anyway. Note that if something like that did come from the RyJo arbitration, the league would likely “allow” (=“force”) the Flyers to consider RyJo to be considered to retroactively have been on LTIR all season…which would result in bonus overage carryover for 2025-26.
Excellent article. The only negative is that Kuzmenko trade. But I’m very optimistic for the future.
Thank you Danny and Keith !
Let’s go Flyers !
Like to see Danny B trade his pick and one of either the Avs or Oilers to move up to Nashville’s slot, at three. Unless of course the lads get lucky in the lottery drawing, and end up with the first or second pick.
As for the second round haul of picks….lean Russians–Kurban Limatov for one- and let them play and hone their craft in the KHL for a few years then bring them over.
I say tap the brakes on the whole “heading in the right direction” thing.
While we all like to think that we’re going to be Pittsburgh and drafting future Hall of Famers, we could just as easily be one of the bad teams that miss on their high picks year after year.
In short, we could be heading in the right direction, but we could just as easily not be.
All we have to do is pick the right players in the draft, make the right trades, find the right goalie, and find the right coach who can put the players in the right system to succeed. Doable, yes. Easy, no.
What I do know is that Danny B. and Jonesy are also on the clock now. They’ve gotten a pass for the last two years, but it’s time for some accountability in regards to them. If we don’t make the playoffs next season, we’re WAY off track. They own what comes next, good or bad.
The Flyers need a book end for Michkov. Misa is that book end. His stats are unreal and him and Michkov can work together for a long time. We trade up to get our big dog and supplement with the rest of our draft picks. We need a duo who can score 40 goals a year both. Not just one. All the great teams have them.
Last option circle back around and go after Demidov. The Flyers have the assets to pull this off. That would also be a nasty pair who knew each other from the KHL. Any way we can get it, get it done. Let’s go big game hunting Danny!!!!!
You are optimistic and that’s not a bad thing. We need hope. Briere has made some decent moves – trading Frost and Farabee, who have been just as unproductive in Calgary, getting a first-round pick for Laughton, and firing Tortorella when he had run his course. I wanted him to hold onto Kuzmenko because he has skill, which we need; he had 5 points in 7 games here and now has 2 goals and 3 assists in 3 playoff games for L.A. We likely could have re-signed him at a reasonable cost, but he was traded for a third-round pick that odds are will not turn into much.
A couple other commenters here have pointed out, correctly I think, that we need to see more good decisions made before we get too excited that they are moving in the right direction. Their scouting and past draft choices in particular worry me for the future. I’m not allowed to mention passing over Zeev Buium, so I won’t (ok, I just did), but I get distraught when I watch Cole Caufield and Cale Makar. I will feel more so if Luchanko turns out to be a third-liner.
Maybe more than ever, we need good decisions in this year’s draft. It’s hard to imagine them screwing up a 4th to 6th overall pick, but then it’s the Flyers, so you never know. A good summer trade or FA signing would also give me more optimism about the future. Let’s see.
How about saying “Flyers finally starting to get out of mess that Chuck Fletcher got them into”?
You forgot Hextall, he started all this shit and he did the same in Pittsburgh
what are the chances that they sign McDavid and hire coach Carle?
The same chance that you’ll get pregnant Lou.
Listen to Aerosmith “Dream on”