While the city is caught up in Red October and another 5-0 Eagles start, something weird happened to me last week – a buddy of mine asked if I caught the Flyers game the night before.
Preseason hockey is for the sickos, extorted season ticket holders, and bloggers mining for content, so, yes, I did. What surprised me was that this friend fell into none of those categories and was weeks removed from telling me how he’s never felt less invested in the team.
More surprisingly, he told me how much more he enjoyed watching a young lineup than he expected to.
For the first time in years, it feels like the perception of this organization is changing.
Nobody expects a Stanley Cup in the immediate future, but losses are much easier to stomach when they’re publicly acknowledged as a part of the process, in service of developing young players like Tyson Foerster, Bobby Brink, Egor Zamula, and Emil Andrae in hope of long-term payoffs. Unlike year’s past, there is a clear logical plan in place. It’s finally easy to enter a season content with the state of the Flyers.
But emotions are merely moments. How can the Flyers ensure that we are still pleased with the team’s direction this time next year? As we start the season, we put together a wishlist that would help maintain the same optimism a year from now.
- We go into next summer not dreading the arrows on the Flyers’ CapFriendly page. The Flyers have three players with five or more years left on their deals – Sean Couturier, Joel Farabee, and Travis Sanheim. Farabee pushes 30 goals as he gets his career back on track more than a year removed from disc-replacement surgery. Couturier isn’t quite the two-way force that helped earn him a Selke, but remains a stellar defensive forward with scoring touch. Sanheim flashes the skill that made him an analytics darling on the middle pair, showing that 2022-23 was merely a blip. Suddenly, the Flyers have a palatable cap outlook for the future.
- While the defense is overmatched for much of the season, the Flyers finish the year with hope that Cam York, Emil Andrae, and Egor Zamula could fill prominent roles on a good team. We write a post in May analyzing how Cup-winning teams acquired their No. 1 defenseman.
- Tyson Foerster and Bobby Brink each top 35 points and Owen Tippett takes a Travis Konecny-ish jump that solidifies him as a top-line winger. Along with Noah Cates, Morgan Frost, Scott Laughton, Couturier, Konecny, Farabee, and the army of promising young defensemen, we talk ourselves into a core that is an elite top line and pair away from really contending.
- Cutter Gauthier, who started his sophomore season at Boston College with an overtime winner over the weekend, goes on to establish himself as a Hobey Baker candidate before signing his entry-level contract after leading BC to the Frozen Four, making his Flyers debut in the regular-season finale. He more than holds his own and provides hope that he can be a legitimate No. 1 center on a Cup team.
- Matvei Michkov continues his torrid pace, breaking Kirill Kaprizov’s Under-20 KHL scoring record. Kaprizov finished 2016-17 with 42 points in 49 games. Michkov already has 12 in 12, showcasing advanced puck protection, stickhandling, and vision since he was loaned back to Sochi. While it’ll be a long time until Michkov makes it to Philadelphia, he makes it easy to maintain excitement.
- Danny Briere shows a savviness that eases any nerves regarding his inexperience. Garnet Hathaway, Ryan Poehling, and Marc Staal all yield day-two picks at the trade deadline. Briere finds a way to land a third first-round pick in next year’s draft. We are less excited for the consternation over how many minutes Sean Walker plays.
- Despite some promise, the team finishes with top-five lottery odds as it lacks the horses to keep up with the league’s elite talent and deals with inconsistency due to its young lineup. We spend May and June arguing if the Flyers should use the pick to fill a need with a defenseman or draft a more projectable forward. I also write about this, but it’s never posted because Thomas finishes his version first.
This is probably going to be a tough season, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be boring. Between riding the highs and lows of developing players and confirming which veterans can and should remain key parts of the core moving forward, we may be watching the supporting cast for the next great Flyers team come together. With a plan finally in place, it feels like this might be the first chapter in that story.
Maybe the young players hit, maybe they don’t. It’s at least reason to dream of a time when we’re taken aback by a question about April baseball during a playoff run.
