The Philadelphia Flyers are hosting the Seattle Kraken for the only time this season and while the visitors are off to a surprisingly solid start to their season, the Flyers are no slouch either. There’s some hot and new lineup updates for our boys in the Orange and Black.
Puck drop: 7:00 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
📺: NBCSP
📻: 97.5 The Fanatic
Pregame reading
- It’s the Flyers 3 Stars of the Week! Check out who was the best of the bunch last week for this team before we start a brand new slate of games. [BSH]
- In the prospect world, Shane Vansaghi and Porter Martone really shone bright as Michigan State swept Boston University (and their own three Flyers prospects) over the weekend. [BSH]
Pregame watching
Projected lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Travis Konecny — Sean Couturier — Owen Tippett
Tyson Foerster — Noah Cates — Bobby Brink
Trevor Zegras — Christian Dvorak — Matvei Michkov
Nikita Grebenkin — Jett Luchanko — Garnet Hathaway
Cam York — Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler — Jamie Drysdale
Egor Zamula — Noah Juulsen
Dan Vladar
(Sam Ersson)
Seattle Kraken
Berkly Catton — Matty Beniers — Jordan Eberle
Jaden Schwartz — Chandler Stephenson — Eeli Tolvanen
Mason Marchment — Shane Wright — Ryan Winterton
Tye Kartye — John Hayden — Jani Nyman
Vince Dunn — Adam Larsson
Ryan Lindgren — Jamie Oleksiak
Josh Mahura — Cale Fleury
Joey Daccord
(Philipp Grubauer)
Storylines to watch
Michkov and Zegras reunited
It’s something that a large portion of the fan base has been asking for, but maybe it would’ve been in a different light if it wasn’t in the middle of a slump. Matvei Michkov has not looked good at all this season and while there are certain excuses such as being behind due to an injury issue last summer, it’s just overall unfortunate to see.
So, to get some juice flowing once again — and hopefully to not have him exiting the zone roughly 30 seconds before the Flyers even get possession back of the puck — Rick Tocchet has paired up Michkov with Trevor Zegras. It was a combination we saw throughout training camp and the preseason and every single little video clip of them working on drills after practice had us salivating at a potential superstar duo. We haven’t been able to have it so far through the Flyers season but now, next to Christian Dvorak, we get to see if it can truly work when the games matter.
Vladar in net, breaking up the Flyers’ rotation
Dan Vladar is making a second consecutive start and it’s a first for the Flyers this season. Before Monday night, they have been alternating starts between Sam Ersson and Vladar but after a little bit of a hiccup-laden start to the Swede’s season, Tocchet is trusting the player that has kept them in a lot of games.
When a goalie starts the season with a .934 save percentage and a 1.65 goals against average through three games, you kind of just have to see how it pans out, right? No sense going back and forth to give equal opportunity — Vladar has more than earned the chance to make the starts until there’s either a back-to-back or he really messes up.
Plus, throw in that it’s against a Kraken team that has some firepower but no superstars, there’s another reason to just hand the reins over once again.
Jett Luchanko back in for final chance?
After being a healthy scratch Saturday against the Minnesota Wild, Jett Luchanko (and Nikita Grebenkin) is back on the ice against Seattle. The 19-year-old center is about to play his fourth game of the season, so technically the Flyers have five more appearances after Monday night to determine if he should stick in the NHL or go back to the OHL’s Guelph Storm, but it certainly feels like we’re heading in the direction of Luchanko going back to junior hockey.
Unless something great happens, of course. Through the seven career NHL appearances and about 83 minutes played in the best league in the world, Luchanko has a total of zero points earned, three shots on goal (zero this season), and has a minus-5 rating. Basically, there’s not a whole lot going on when it comes to Luchanko’s impact for the Flyers. But, it might just be waiting for the right moment and against the Kraken could be a prime chance to get his first NHL point, or even just look like he’s driving play.
Berkly Catton makes his NHL debut
The eighth-overall pick of the 2024 NHL Draft is finally making his debut with the Kraken. After technically making the team out of training camp, Berkly Catton has been waiting in the wings, just trying to practice enough and get up to big-league speed for him to break on through.
Now, it might have been helped by Jared McCann being out of the lineup for Seattle, but Catton is going to be playing in his first ever NHL game anyways. In a similar but not really similar vein to the Flyers and Luchanko, Catton showed that he was way too good for the CHL. After scoring 109 points in the WHL last season, as a follow up to his 116-point campaign during his draft year, the 19-year-old forward had nothing left to prove. So, he’s been hanging around the Kraken and now finally gets his chance.
For the Flyers, he’s an unknown commodity but should really test the pace of play Philadelphia defenseman can reach on Monday night.
