Since the Flyers opened the season, it feels like they’ve managed to shuffle their forward line combinations once a week. That’s not exactly shocking, given that Rick Tocchet has been trying to get a look at as many new units as possible to see what works in his first year as head coach, but it has been a frequent occurrence nonetheless.
This morning, ahead of their matchup against the Canadiens, the lines got tossed in the blender once again following back-to-back shootout losses to the Hurricanes, and once again, they came out looking a little bit different.
#Flyers lines at morning skate
— Jackie Spiegel (@jackiespiegel93) December 16, 2025
Not sure if Ristolainen is in or not. Will find out soon.
Zegras-Dvorak-Konecny
Grundström-Couturier-Tippett
Michkov-Cates-Brink
Deslauriers-Ābols-Hathaway
Grebenkin
York-Sanheim
Andrae-Drysdale
Seeler-Ristolainen
Zamula-Juulsen-Murchison
Vladař
The Zegras-Dvorak-Konecny combo remains, but Carl Grundstrom’s strong play has been rewarded with a promotion up in the lineup to play alongside Sean Couturier and Owen Tippett, while Matvei Michkov will attempt to provide a spark to the Noah Cates and Bobby Brink duo, who both have struggled since the injury to Tyson Foerster.
While these moves are all pretty intriguing and show a willingness to change things up if they aren’t working, the fourth line remains an uninspiring trio that is unable to generate any positive on-ice results.
With Nikita Grebenkin taking a seat after a five game stretch without a point, Nic Deslauriers draws back in to reunite a unit that simply exists to allow the heavyweight to have a scripted fight with another team’s enforcer once every 10 games. Of the seven Flyers forward lines that have played over 60 minutes together, the Deslauriers-Abols-Hathaway line has been the second-worst by expected goals, garnering just 39% of the expected goal share in their ice time.
The physical aspect of the game cannot be forgotten, we know why Nic Deslauriers is playing against the Montreal Canadiens, and his name is Arber Xhekaj. Situations like that will continue to happen for the rest of this season at intermittent points, and everyone will have to accept it. The real problem arises when you compound the issue by playing him alongside the ghost of Garnet Hathaway, and a fringe NHLer in Rodrigo Abols.
None of them have proven to be very effective in any capacity, and Deslauriers winning a fight is really the only thing that they can do positively. A fourth line is normally supposed to buy time and, ideally, hem the opposing team in their own zone while the more skilled players are taking a shift off. Hathaway and Ryan Poehling provided that sort of play and jump last year, and seemingly gave the Flyers a blueprint as to how to construct a proper fourth unit, but it hasn’t been re-created, even as Flyers seemingly try to actually compete.
The Flyers could be trying to cycle through some of their more intriguing AHL options, like Devin Kaplan, Anthony Richard, or Karsen Dorwart, all players that have been given NHL cups of coffee, and off-hand mentions by management, in the past. Instead, they are repeatedly throwing out a line that cannot keep up, even when compared to the equivalent fourth lines that they normally play against. The one recent time that they did actually make a meaningful change, and inserted the aforementioned Grundstrom, he had two goals and three points in four games, and was immediately given a chance up the lineup. That could be a more common occurrence, if the Flyers would just be willing to mix some things up.
This is made all the more frustrating when you contrast the situation with the decisions the Flyers have made on defense, where they overlooked more obvious options in order to bring up Ty Murchison, who subsequently had a great game and now looks like a potential piece for the future. That sort of forward-thinking decision making is how you build up organizational depth from within, and whether or not those players ultimately become a part of the future, at least you get an answer on their potential NHL viability.
The Flyers are not going to win a Stanley Cup this year, so that alone should be all the more reason to audition as many depth options as you can. But even if the brass is internally trying to compete, there is more value in having another line that can push the tempo while also acting as a proving ground for young and hungry players. Ultimately, someone like Grundstrom or Murchison playing well enough to unseat someone further up the lineup is a good problem to have, and there’s really no harm in shuffling out the only part of the lineup that has remained largely the same.
