The Philadelphia Flyers have 26 games left of their season and while they are on track to miss the playoffs, there could still be something positive to take for a couple players.
We’ve already looked at how three Flyers should be looking at the rest of the 2025-26 season to avoid the worst-case scenarios. But it’s time to believe that the glass isn’t half-empty but half-full.
Here then is a look at three Flyers who have the most to gain the rest of the season with strong finishes. For some it’s a question of regaining some confidence heading into the summer while for another it could be a question of cashing in with a terrific finish.
Trevor Zegras
Trevor Zegras arrived as a rather inexpensive test drive. If he was not great this year, then it was only the last year of an expiring contract and the Flyers still retained his rights. If it didn’t pan out, it didn’t pan out. No harm in having Flyers general manager Danny Briere trying. However, Briere looks like he might have hit a homer with the acquisition. Everything for the most part has come up smelling like roses for Zegras and the Flyers in the 56 games he’s been with them. He loves the area, has friends who are teammates, and took Denver Barkey under his wing away from the ice. The forward is no longer on his point-per-game pace he was most of the year and has 49 points, including 20 goals. As well, he’s been essentially the only thing that has kept the Flyers power play from being under 10 per cent this season. He’s not dragged the special teams unit into the middle of the league, but he’s done a fantastic job from making it less of a laughing stock than it currently is.
If he hits the ground running, begins to pile up some multi-point games, and returns to what he looked like most of the season, then Zegras could be somewhere in the 70-point to 75-point range to finish the year. Such totals would be career highs for him. It would also solidify the fact (if he hasn’t already) that Zegras is going to be part of the future, and a key piece moving forward. It’s difficult to see Zegras (and possibly Travis Konecny) dragging the Flyers to a playoff spot, especially if goaltender Dan Vladar is anything less than stellar. However, a highly productive first season in Philadelphia should make Zegras a rather rich 25-year-old. It’s doubtful Briere would roll the dice on a short-term deal with Zegras to renegotiate a longer deal when he’s in his prime. Chances are the Flyers want to ink the forward to a rather lengthy contract extension. So it’s not a question of if Zegras remains with Philadelphia (unless he becomes part of a package that lands a stud A-list star), but for how long. And how much.
“Ziggy” looked like he hit a bit of a wall the last few weeks before the break. Maybe some fresh legs and a chance to prove himself down the stretch will make his cap hit a bit higher than expected. If he’s producing, he’s most likely worth the money. It won’t be the determining factor in what term or salary Zegras earns. But it will play a rather crucial role in how it plays out.
Denver Barkey
Denver Barkey was called up just before Christmas, and it was surprising. Nobody considered him being called up until perhaps late in the season if Philadelphia was playing out the string with nothing to lose or gain. But Barkey made the jump, and he initially responded in a big way. He made the line with Owen Tippett and Sean Couturier have a bit more jump. And his play on both sides of the puck was spot on. He impressed the front office and the Flyers coaching staff. The 20-year-old winger has a pair of goals and seven assists in 20 games thus far. He didn’t hit a wall of sorts the last 10 games, but he wasn’t quite as productive as he looked in the early games.
Now with the rest, Barkey should look at this 26-game stretch as a chance not to just prove he belongs with Philadelphia, but to also ensure that he has a better than 50/50 opportunity of making the club after training camp next year. It’s difficult to cut a forward who could possibly end up at just under a half-a-point per game pace over 40-something games. Of course he could have an awful camp and find himself on the outside looking in. One only has to look at Egor Zamula this past year to see that’s very possible. The winger has the next two months to make a very strong case for himself, particularly when the games seemingly become more important and divisional four-point games could be the difference between meaningful games in April and looking towards the NHL Draft lottery in the spring. It’s the perfect time for Barkey to seize the moment. Hopefully he does just that!
Matvei Michkov
After all the attention Michkov received at the beginning of training camp and throughout the early part of the year, he has begun to find his game more and more with each passing week. For all the talk about this season being a bit of a clunker, he essentially find himself with a similar number of points after a similar number of games in his rookie year. The winger is fifth in team scoring but is probably going to be far short of his point totals from 2024-25. So, with the last 26 games coming down the pipe, can Michkov do anything to salvage the year from a personal standpoint?
Absolutely. If he ended up with 45 to 50 points at season’s end, and began looking like the dynamic offensive playmaker he was during a lot of stretches last year, it would be a huge weight off his shoulders. The season might not have panned out the way he wanted to. He probably was hoping to be around the 50-point mark by the Olympic break. Yet, if he can put a run of multi-point games together while hopefully playing a few more minutes per game than he has, then Michkov should go into the summer feeling a lot better about himself. And the team feeling a lot better about the future.
Sophomore slumps are just that. They don’t define a player’s career, and are often just bumps in the road of lengthy, productive careers. Michkov and the team learned a hard lesson last training camp, and if both sides agree he’s better off on this side of the pond for his training and off-season regimen, he should enter 2026-27 a step up from this past September. It’s not like this sample size of games will determine his price tag on a contract extension. It could reset the course of his style of play, regardless of whatever speculation there’s been regarding the relationship between himself and head coach Rick Tocchet.
