Five things we’re thinking about as Flyers preseason closes out

With the Flyers closing out their slate of preseason games with a win over the Devils last night, they\'ve more or less put a bow on this year\'s training camp. There\'s a long break before their opener next weekend, but all that\'s left is the final round of cuts, likely to come at the beginning of next week. So, as the dust is beginning to settle, we\'re equally taking a minute to settle ourselves, to sit with some of the big takeaways from this year\'s camp. Let\'s get into it.

Matvei Michkov

That\'s it. The number one thing we\'ve been thinking about throughout the whole of this camp is Michkov. And for good reason -- we\'ve been careful to manage our expectations for the impact he\'ll have right from the jump, given the enormity of the transition he has to make here, but he\'s risen to every challenge and performed at every opportunity, and it\'s been a real marvel to see. He led the team in scoring across the preseason with three goals and seven points in his four games played. He\'s been impactful at even strength, and he\'s given that previously pretty anemic looking power play some life.

In short, Michkov is making it really hard for us to manage our expectations. The logical part of the brain says that he cannot step in and be the immediate franchise savior, raising the team up and allowing everything to snap into place, but the feeling of excitement, of near certainty that things will be turning around here in short order is unavoidable. Things are fun again, and that\'s been a long time coming.

How the goaltending battle is shaping up

We\'ve been talking so much about the goaltending sage throughout these last few weeks that we almost don\'t want to talk about it anymore, but it\'s worth noting that the battle that we\'ve ended up with has been at once more and less interesting than we might have predicted.

On the one hand, while the starter\'s job seemed pretty well wide open as things kicked off, Sam Ersson has come in and, through some no-nonsense, very stable play, comfortably locked himself into that role. So that\'s all done and dusted.

But everything beyond that has started to build a bit of intrigue. Based on his standing in the organization, Ivan Fedotov seems all but locked into the backup spot behind Ersson, but he hasn\'t exactly lit the world on fire in his showings and overwhelmed us with confidence that he\'ll excel in that role. All told, through the four games he\'s played in, he\'s allowed eight goals and totaled an. 873 save percentage, and this largely matches what the eye has told us -- that at times he\'s struggled to get square to shots, and indeed at times has seemed less like he\'s reading play and more like he\'s reacting to shots as they\'re coming to him. And all of this makes things interesting for Alexei Kolosov, who did decide to come over and join the mix with the Flyers after all. We\'ve seen less of him, and while the results haven\'t been stellar (four goals against in just under 60 minutes of playing time), he\'s looked reasonably settled in. Which is all to say that while the spots are settled to start the season, one wonders how long of a leash Fedotov is going to be given, and how long before the door will open for Kolosov after all.

Emil Andrae is making strides

It\'s been something of a curious exhibition season for Andrae. He began with a showing in the rookie series which saw a good bit of pop, but also some quite major mistakes with the puck, and all of this came with a pretty clear challenge from his Phantoms coach to work on finding a way to ride the line of playing an uptempo and dynamic game while also cutting down on some of those mistakes. And credit to him, because he was able to do this pretty immediately, and showed a much calmer, less miss-play prone game as we moved into main camp.

In truth, he\'s looked more settled, more mature, and more impactful than he did this time last year, when his strong camp at the time earned him a spot on the NHL roster as the season opened, but this time around, it doesn\'t appear that he\'ll be able to leverage his camp into a roster spot in the same way. There are just too many bodies in front of him, and it doesn\'t really feel like it would benefit him to begin the season in the press box if the team opts to head into the season carrying eight defensemen. So, should he find himself back with the Phantoms to start the season, it shouldn\'t signal a job poorly done. If nothing else, Andrae has done well to lock himself into the position to be the first call-up from the AHL, as need be.

What more can Olle Lycksell do?

Speaking of training camp showings that have been on the upward trend, Lycksell has put together a really nice camp for himself, after a dodgy showing in his first game. He\'s been given a long look -- five games in total -- as the Flyers\' staff clearly wanted to get a complete look at what he\'s able to bring to the table here, and on the whole he\'s done well with that opportunity. He\'s put up two goals and two assists (both primary) in those five games, and in some ways it feels like he should have more, but the bounces didn\'t go his way. That\'s a testament to the work he\'s been doing -- driving play, balancing some higher skill or finesse plays with creating greasier chances from getting to the front of the net. Indeed, he\'s looked like one of the more engaged and determined players in this camp, and the results have born out.

And combining this with the positive impacts he found in his last stint with the Flyers last season, it feels as clear as it can be that Lycksell is good enough and mature enough in his game to be moved up to the status of NHL (more or less) regular. But still, it\'s looking like he\'s finding himself on the outside looking in, as we see him skating in the secondary group rather than with the main NHL group in practice today. So, what gives? To our eyes, be brought a pretty complete showing, what more did the powers that be need to see?

The Jett Luchanko of it all

Likely complicating the Lycksell situation is that fact that Jett Luchanko is still hanging around, is pretty locked in with the NHL group, and at this point looks like he\'s going to make the team to start the season, getting at the very least that nine-game audition. And this is, for a number of reasons, something of a curious decision. For starters, it\'s pretty inarguable that Luchanko has a higher upside and is more valuable to the organization long term than Lycksell, but Luchanko is still just barely 18, is still early in his development, and Lycksell has flat out had a better camp than him. For all the talk of the meritocracy that the team is running here, this really flies in the face of that.

The other side of this is the question of how much this audition really benefits Luchanko. We don\'t want to be too hard on him here, and we\'ll acknowledge that he\'s shown legitimate flashes throughout the preseason, but they\'ve been just that -- flashes. As the competition has ramped up, understandably, he\'s looked more out of his depth, and we can only expect this trend to continue when he\'s expected to face full NHL rosters and games when the results really matter. This is a difficult task ahead of him. And compounding that difficulty is the possibility that, once the nine game audition is over -- and it will be over at some point -- and he\'s sent back to Guelph, that he experiences a bit of a hangover, his confidence taking a hit, and the productive season that the Flyers were certainly hoping to see from him in the OHL is suddenly in jeopardy too.

The Flyers, up to this point, have been steadfast in their plan to take the patient, long-term focused approach, but rushing Luchanko to get into meaningful NHL games when he hasn\'t exactly been breaking the door down would be a curious departure -- and a potentially detrimental one.

Talking Points