Nikita Grebenkin pops in Flyers debut

Last night\'s game in Raleigh might not have gone exactly how the Flyers might have liked , and there\'s a real case to be made that they deserved to come away with the overtime win, but the league Situation Room call went against them, and the quibbling here won\'t change that outcome.

This game, then, instead of a celebration of the team\'s first win of the season, becomes about finding the positives in a well-fought game. And the good news is that in this one, there were positives aplenty -- Sam Ersson played a largely pretty stable game, while Owen Tippett scored his first power play goal since March 14, 2024, and Noah Cates\'s line continued to pop and Bobby Brink brought with that his best and most engaged game in recent memory. And amidst all of this, we also saw a more under the radar positive showing, as Nikita Grebenkin brought a lot to like in his performance in his Flyers regular season debut.

His role was pretty limited, as the started on the fourth line -- though he did get a brief look up in the lineup late in the third period, getting a shift in the top-6 while Matvei Michkov seemed to be benched and the lines were shuffled -- and was given just 8:36 to work with across all situations (a total that likely took a hit due to all of the time spent sidelined while seven special teams situations played out), but he posted very positive results in that limited usage. Looking at the underlying impacts, he graded out towards the top of the lineup in each of the shot-based impacts, averaging a score adjusted 61 CF% (second among all skaters) and 54.61 xGF% (fourth among skaters) at 5-on-5. So despite the fact that the Flyers were both outshot (27-19) and outchanced (59-40) pretty handily on a collective level at 5-on-5 in this one, they were comfortably getting the better of play when Grebenkin was on the ice.

And this, on the whole, lines up well with what they eye would tell us, that while he wasn\'t absolutely perfect in this showing (notably, he had one tough turnover and got caught a little too deep and having to play catchup on the Hurricanes\' third goal), he was making plays and doing a lot in the way of subtle plays to help support his teammates. Grebenkin made some nice plays along the boards, standing up physically to pressure and winning his battles, flashed some of his forechecking ability by forcing a couple of turnovers, and also stepped up with one nice quick-up pass from his own end after a Hurricanes rush was broken up to spring Jett Luchanko for a rush up-ice, bringing a nice subtle effectiveness across the board.

And it was just this type of work, two, which set him up to collect his first point as a Flyers -- it wasn\'t a flashy play, but he made nice no-panic play in front of the bench under a bit of pressure, finishing off a long shift by making a clean short pass to Noah Cates to ensure the Flyers maintained possession in the offensive zone before he went off on a change, and with that puck received, he was able to get it up to Bobby Brink to score his first of the season. Not a highlight reel assist for Grebenkin, but exactly the type of subtle play to extend a good possession that will quickly endear him to his coaching staff.

BOBBY BRINK!!!! WHAT A SNIPE!!! NIKITA GREBENKIN FIRST CAREER POINT! 2-1. #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/M9NDTsoifr

— Flyers Clips (@Flyers_Clips) October 12, 2025

Perhaps one of the strengths of Grebenkin\'s game is that, stylistically, it\'s one that can work in the same ways no matter where he\'s playing in the lineup -- his forechecking tenacity, his strength along the boards, his generally steady defensive play does lend well to the prototypical fourth line checking role, but when he\'s elevated in the lineup, that\'s easily translated to doing the bit of dirty work to help open up some more space for the more finesse types of players, but he also brings enough finishing ability on his own to be able to keep pace with them, as well. Grebenkin\'s game is a versatile one, and he\'s showed a nice preview of what he can do when given the nod to get into the lineup.

Now, the bigger question will be whether Grebenkin is able to maintain this level of play as he racks up more games and any adrenaline boost that may have come in the making of his proper Flyers debut wears off -- as they say, it\'s one thing to earn a role, but keeping it is another thing entirely -- but as it stands, he couldn\'t have built up a better foundation for him to build off of. Grebenkin is facing something of an uphill battle to prove that he should stick in the lineup over a league veteran like Nic Deslauriers, and while it\'s bound to be a lengthier process towards solidifying that point, he\'s certainly well on his way to doing just that.

All stats via Natural Stat Trick.

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