Rodrigo Abols is a feel-good story for the Philadelphia Flyers that might have now come to an unfortunate end.
Despite being drafted by the Vancouver Canucks in 2016, Abols did not officially break into the NHL until the Flyers signed him to a quick little contract two summers ago, just to see if he can be anything — because who wouldn’t want a 6-foot-4 Latvian in your bottom six? He worked his way up after starting in the AHL and ended up playing in 64 games over two seasons for the Flyers.
But, due to an injury suffered in January, Abols was ruled out for the season and even got his dreams shattered by not being able to represent his country and play in the Olympics earlier this year. And now, it just seems like his time in Philadelphia is going out with a whimper.
Abols was a solid-enough center who didn’t do too much but also didn’t allow a whole lot going the other way. In the end, his performance was just not good enough compared to the other options the Flyers now before them. And with playoffs now the priority, they can’t really afford to have a just-alright player as one of their main solidifiers in the bottom six. Because, again, Abols didn’t do all that much.
| Games played | Goals | Assists | Points | PIM | Shots on goal | Shooting % | Average TOI |
| 42 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 22 | 43 | 7.0 | 10:30 |
Yeah, no one expected him to light the world on fire offensively, but 10 points from your fourth-line center just isn’t all that good. And considering that he didn’t even really get his shot off to force a save all that often — roughly once per game — is just, well, fine. I guess? It all depends on what you expect.
| (5v5) Goals For % | Expected Goals For % | Corsi For % | High-Danger Attempts For % | PDO |
| 45.83 | 41.67 | 43.60 | 43.20 | 99.8 |
This is where the stuff can truly matter and if your depth centerman is losing this underlying battle and allowing a considerable amount more than they are supplying, then it’s an issue. They can be as defensive as they want, and that would still reflect well in these numbers if absolutely nothing was going on. But, the Flyers were just not the better team while Abols was on the ice and it’s unfortunate.
| (5v5) Points per 60 | Primary points per 60 | Shots on goal per 60 | Shot attempts per 60 | Expected goals per 60 |
| 1.18 | 0.73 | 5.89 | 12.51 | 0.79 |
It’s not like the Flyers were expecting Abols to be some sort of secret offensive weapon down on the fourth line, but all five areas of 5-on-5 production per hour was much lower than just last season. He did play more games, but Abols was a less productive player while on the ice this season compared to last. And even looking at how he was next to regular-season Garnet Hathaway (who scored a whole three points), that line was just not expected to do anything at all.
The sentiment of just trying to win the minutes and not get absolutely shelled, pops its head up again. Abols just didn’t do much in the offensive zone, so the hope was that nothing happened in the defensive zone either. That didn’t happen, but it was at least somewhat minimal.
Did Abols live up to expectations?
Whether or not Abols truly lived up to expectations for the Flyers this season is a difficult thing to gauge. During the best part of the season, as the team surged into a playoff spot and played their best hockey, he was already deep in his recovery after suffering that mid-January injury. So, Abols just wasn’t at the front of our minds.
But, he was at least here when the Flyers were technically holding on to a playoff spot in the first few months of the season and wasn’t absolutely terrible. All he needed to do was be a fourth-line center, and he certainly did that.
The tricky thing is that after watching Sean Couturier go into that role when the Flyers needed some security down the middle and shifted the captain to that depth role while putting Trevor Zegras back as a full-time centerman — the position looked so much better on him than Abols. While we should expect a former Selke Trophy winner to be better than the European free agent the Flyers signed last summer, it is ultimately just doing the job and Abols lost the battle without even getting to compete for it.
So, maybe we can say that he did not live up to expectations of what a good fourth-line center looks like, but we also weren’t expecting Abols to be anything special or the team’s best player during any game of the season.
What can we expect from Abols next season?
Well, as we have already mentioned, Abols has been replaced. With Couturier accepting his new role — as long as Tocchet keeps the captain there in the lineup — Abols is not needed. And ultimately, the team should be looking to make a further upgrade on the center position somewhat soon so with the Latvian heading to unrestricted free agency, it does not make any sense whatsoever to bring him back.
Okay, maybe we lied. It would only make sense if he was completely fine with being a 14th/15th forward on the depth chart and spending most of his season down in the AHL. You can never be too deep at center and Abols being there in case of any injury to make sure the Flyers wouldn’t have to call up Jett Luchanko or Jack Berglund before they were ready, is useful.
But ultimately, he probably won’t be coming back and could look elsewhere for a more regular NHL gig.
How do we grade Abols’s 2025-26 season?
Abols was not anything spectacular and we never really thought about him after a game (other than when he was injured against the Rangers), so it’s tough to say. But he was perfectly amiable as a fourth-line center until he was replaced by someone who took a demotion extremely well.
We feel bad for him on a personal level with him having to miss the Olympics and a chance to represent his country in what would’ve been the biggest moment of his career. But for the Flyers specifically, Abols did what he could, maybe a slightly sub-par fourth-line center in comparison to the rest of the NHL, but still perfectly fine.
Grade: C-
