Could Claude Giroux fix the Flyers’ power play?

While it\'s still up in the air , the Philadelphia Flyers may be just days away from announcing the return of Claude Giroux. Now 38, Giroux might not be the elite scorer he was in his prime, but he would still bring a missing element to the Flyers\' lowly power play.

But would a potential reunion solve the problem, or would he simply make a flawed unit just a little bit better in the short-term?

The power play needs help

This isn\'t a new problem. The Flyers\' power play has finished last in four of the last five seasons, and third-worst in the other. And if they\'re going to continue to play low-event hockey at even strength, it is vital to improve the power play. Right now, it\'s actively dragging down a team that already struggles to generate offense.

What\'s concerning is the lack of any real year-to-year improvement. Different coaches have run it, different personnel have been given opportunities, and different formations have been tried. Despite the efforts, it remains a power play that struggles to do just about anything well with consistency. From entering the zone cleanly, to sustaining possession once it gets set, to generating dangerous looks, the Flyers\' power play has simply not been nearly good enough.

Since Giroux left, the Flyers haven\'t really had a true half-wall facilitator. They\'ve tried to build around different personnel and different systems, but they\'ve lacked the player who dictates the pace of a power play and forces penalty killers to react. They\'ve had talented forwards who should\'ve been able to do it, but for some reason it just hasn\'t clicked.

What history tells us

Throughout Giroux\'s tenure, the Flyers\' top power play unit was one of the league\'s best. While the second unit often dragged down the team\'s overall numbers, the first unit consistently ranked near the top of the NHL in shot generation, scoring chances, and goals. Giroux was the engine behind it. The power play ran through him, and since his departure, nobody has come close to filling that role.

While there were set plays with specific personnel over the years, that\'s not what made Giroux so difficult to defend. He would slow the game down. Penalty killers couldn\'t overcommit because he\'d wait for seams to open before threading passes through traffic, and if they cheated toward him, he\'d find the bumper or make a quick pass to the point.

However, by the time Giroux played what looked to be his final game with Philadelphia in 2022, things had taken a turn for the worse. His 4.06 power play points per 60 minutes were the lowest mark of his career, and while Giroux was off to Florida, the Flyers would end up finishing last in the NHL on the man advantage -- just as they did this past season.

That doesn\'t necessarily mean that Giroux could no longer run a power play. The talent around him had taken a significant step backward. It was the first time in six years that the Flyers\' top unit didn\'t feature both Jakub Voracek and Shayne Gostisbehere alongside him. Without those pieces, the unit reached what was, at the time, a new low.

Giroux might\'ve been the biggest reason why the Flyers\' power play was a strength for years, but the surrounding talent still needed to be there.

In his four seasons with Ottawa, the Senators\' power play has finished eighth, 23rd, 11th, and eighth again in power play success rate. Not perfect, but a much better track record than the Flyers, who finished in the league\'s bottom five in all four seasons.

In his first season in Ottawa, Giroux finished just fifth on the team with 24 power play points, but his scoring rate was the best among the Senators\' power play regulars at 6.39 points per 60 minutes. It was the most productive he\'d been on the power play on a per-minute basis since his 102-point campaign in 2017-18. That figure declined over the next three seasons, though much of the drop came from a lack of goal scoring. His assist rate has remained close to, albeit slightly under, where it was during his last few seasons in Philadelphia, while his primary assist rate actually increased in each season with Ottawa. His 3.03 primary assists per 60 this past season ranked among the top 20 in the league among power play regulars.

Those numbers suggest Giroux can still be an effective power play contributor, even if he isn\'t driving the unit the same way he did in his prime. His role has shifted from being the main threat to more of a complementary player, but he\'s continued to create chances at a high rate.

Still, age has had an impact. Giroux isn\'t the same player the Flyers traded in 2022. He scored just one power play goal and finished with 13 power play points this past season. While his assist rates remained above average, it was still his lowest full-season total outside of the shortened 2020-21 campaign. Per HockeyViz , this past season was also the first time a power play has ever generated offense below league average (-2%) with Giroux on the ice.

What it could look like now

While it\'s hard to imagine Giroux making the league\'s worst power play look any worse, there\'s also no guarantee that he\'d transform it in a meaningful way. Unlike the group he left behind in 2022, though, the Flyers at least have more offensive talent to work with this time around.

The Flyers found some success over the final stretch of the season , with the additions of Porter Martone and Tyson Foerster playing significant roles. Add Giroux to that mix, and suddenly there are enough playmakers to build two dangerous-looking units, at least on paper.

One unit could feature Foerster and Trevor Zegras on the walls, much like the Flyers found success with late in the season, while another could see Giroux with Matvei Michkov. Though, after struggling on the man advantage in the postseason, the Flyers could simply slot Giroux directly onto a stacked top unit and see what happens. Either way, there are plenty of options for the bumper and net-front roles, but one major question remains.

The blue line.

For years, the Flyers never had to worry about finding someone to quarterback the top unit. The transition from Kimmo Timonen to Mark Streit was clean, and later Gostisbehere fit in seamlessly.

Since trading Gostisbehere, though, they\'ve struggled to find an answer. Ivan Provorov never fit the role. Keith Yandle and Tony DeAngelo were short-term attempts that were regrettable to say the least. None of the current defensemen have established themselves as above-average power play quarterbacks, leading to the Flyers eventually defaulting to Rasmus Ristolainen simply because he has a heavy shot. That\'s not the profile of a first-unit quarterback on a contender.

The wildcard is David Jiricek, who certainly has the offensive tools, but he has yet to prove he can hold down an everyday NHL role.

The Flyers could also explore using five forwards on the top unit, though very few teams have committed to that approach long-term with sustained success. The Los Angeles Kings found some success with it after acquiring Andrei Kuzmenko at the 2025 trade deadline, but when they began this past season using five forwards again, the positive results quickly disappeared . If the Flyers don\'t add a proven power play quarterback while adding a forward like Giroux -- or, if we\'re really getting our hopes up, Leo Carlsson -- then using five forwards is at least an option worth considering.

Giroux would almost certainly improve the Flyers\' power play. Even at 38, there are few players better at slowing the game down, reading penalty kills, and creating offense from the half-wall. But he\'s at his best when surrounded by the right pieces.

With the current roster having far more offensive talent than the group that finished last in the league during his final season, Giroux might have some of those pieces again. But if the Flyers are serious about building a power play that can consistently rank among the league\'s best again, bringing back Giroux is just one part of the equation. And a temporary one at that. Finding a true quarterback on the blue line will likely be the most important piece of the puzzle.

Data via Natural Stat Trick unless noted otherwise .

The power play needs help

Talking Points