2024-25 Player Review: Production from Flyers’ next men up

It\'s that time of year again! We\'re taking our deep dives into how the Flyers\' players fared over the whole of this wild and long season. But before we tuck into the details of some of our big name players, let\'s roll through some quicker recaps of how things went for some of the shorter stint havers.

Rodrigo Abols

This was a big year for the Flyers as far as the number of call-ups needed from their AHL squad, but also a particularly interesting one in terms of how a number of those players fared. Abols, for starters, has had kind of a wild year. Having signed with the organization in the offseason and starting the season with the Phantoms, he got his first taste of AHL action after a short stint in Springfield five seasons ago, and a longer stretch in the interim of playing in the SHL, carved out a role for himself there, and made himself a top option for a recall to the Flyers when the door opened up, and ultimately making his NHL debut at 29 years old. It\'s a great story on its own, but it was also a good impression that he made at this top level. He stuck around for 22 games over the course of a couple of different recall stints, beginning in a bottom of the lineup role, but eventually working his way up into some middle-six minutes, and time playing alongside Matvei Michkov, who he showed some legitimate chemistry with. The numbers game meant that the Flyers weren\'t able to keep Abols around over a longer span of time, but he accomplished something that\'s somewhat rare among non-prospect recalls -- he hit the ground running to such a degree as to force some tough questions on the management group.

Anthony Richard

We\'ll stick with that thread, because that was largely the same experience we had with Anthony Richard this season. Richard spent a total of 15 games up with the Flyers, spread across two stints -- the first in November, and the second in January, spilling into February -- and those games were, on the whole, good ones. The first stint was more productive, when he put up two goals and six points across seven games, and, adding that production in with the jump that his speed game gave the team, it also prompted some tough questions about whether he deserved a longer look (he did not get it). And while he couldn\'t quite tap into that same level of production in his second look with the team, he still brought some notable energy and speed just by virtue of the style of play he brings, and he looked like he was fitting nicely back in with the group (even if he didn\'t seem to gain the full trust of his coach). He stepped in as a useful addition to the team, and even if it wasn\'t the same role as he was used to playing, as he does with the Phantoms, he took it in stride and did what he could with it.

Jacob Gaucher

What a year it\'s been for Jacob Gaucher. His hot start to the season with the Phantoms, the leap forward in the development of his offensive game, earned him his first NHL contract in December -- a huge marker in his career for him, but also a good thing for the Flyers, as with a very thin organizational depth at the center position, they would end up needing him as a reinforcement come February. His four-game stint was an unflashy one, but in a reasonably good way. His role was a limited one, as he played around seven and a half minutes a night, and got no special teams deployment, but he held up reasonably well in those minutes. There were certainly flashes where he looked a little bit out of his depth -- Gaucher doesn\'t have a ton of raw foot speed, and while he\'s able to use his brain to work around that at the AHL level, that got more difficult as he moved up a level -- but on the whole, he settled in nicely as his stint went on (notable, too, as the system he\'s used to down with the Phantoms wasn\'t the same as the one being run at the NHL level, adding another piece to the list of things he needed to adjust to on the fly). It\'s hard to glean a lot from such a short stint, but while Gaucher wasn\'t able to use that to bang on the door for a longer look, like those last two players, he still handled the job asked of him well.

Adam Ginning

We only saw Adam Ginning for one game this season -- he was recalled at the end of January to fill in for a game against the Islanders, but that\'s all his services were needed for -- and for not very long in it (just over 12 minutes), but it was a fine showing on the whole. Ginning by and large plays something of a no-frills, tight defensive game, and while he does still have a little bit of offensive capability in his toolkit (at least, we\'ve seen it at the AHL level), the recall to fill in in a depth role under Tortorella was not the time to be a hero and try to showcase that as well. To echo this sentiment one last time, Ginning did just about exactly what you want to see from a player that\'s brought in on what\'s sure to be a quick recall, jumping seamlessly into the lineup, filling a role, and not creating any fires.

Nicolas Deslauriers

We didn\'t see a ton of Deslauriers this season, between him being in something of a rotation of players coming in and out of the bottom of the lineup through the early goings, and then simply being out of the lineup for an extended period of time at the end, while he worked his way back from a back injury, but the cobbled together 31 games he was in the lineup for were fine. He didn\'t put up big scoring numbers (just two goals and an assist on the year), and the underlying numbers were a bit of a mixed bag (49.76 CF% and 47.21 xGF% while Deslauriers was on the ice), and while those are figured that, in a vacuum, we\'d like to see improved, it\'s also fair to acknowledge that scoring and playdriving aren\'t really why Deslauriers is in the lineup in the first place. First and foremost, he\'s in as a physical force, and he certainly did maintain a high level of physical engagement in his time in the lineup. He\'s a role-player in this lineup, and fans can quibble about whether we feel that type of player\'s presence in the lineup is wholly necessary, but we also won\'t take it away from Deslauriers that he did well in the task that was asked of him.

Erik Johnson

Johnson, too, played in a very limited role for the Flyers this season. In some ways, it was even a little bit of a surprise that he returned for another season after being acquired from the Sabres two trade deadlines ago -- in his availability after the last game of the season, he was thoughtful, and it was clear that retirement was at least a consideration -- but something convinced him to come back for one more season, play some games when called upon, but by and large serve in the mentor role for the team\'s young players (something the organization has sought out in various forms over these last few seasons). Seeing as we\'re not in the room, we\'re not going to make any sweeping judgements on Johnson\'s mentorship abilities, and rather stick to the on-ice results -- results which were not, expressly, hugely positive. Across his 22 games played, the Flyers were limited to just 44.15 percent of the share of shot attempts while Johnson was on the ice, and a similar 44.3 percent Expected Goal share, so certainly at a disadvantage. But with that said, it feels hard to pile on too much on a player who was shipped out at the deadline and is likely, for real this time, at the end of the road on his career. If nothing else, Johnson brought some extra character to the room, and that\'s valuable as well.

Talking Points