After looking over some of the Flyers defensemen on the bubble earlier on this week, it’s time to move onto a couple of more concrete roster staples in Cam York and Jamie Drysdale.
Both players had seasons filled with positive moments, and scored goals that served as a bookend to a memorable Flyers series win against the Penguins in round one, with Drysdale scoring the first goal of the series, and York potting the last, (the Flyers beat Pittsburgh in Game 6, if you didn’t remember). Heading into the 2026-27 season, both defensemen seem to still be on the ascendancy, and will serve as key cogs on the Flyers top two pairs, however they may be configured.
Cam York
What did we see from York last season?
While he’s never quite hit the offensive heights that were prophesied for him when he was drafted 14th overall in 2019, York has turned into a very steady option that can play alongside some more offensively talented partners. His puck moving and mobility is still one of the strongest parts of his game, and he serves as a more cool-headed compliment to someone like Travis Sanheim whenever he decides to go on some more marauding adventures up ice.
And the coaching staff seemed to agree with that sentiment, as the Flyers’ most used D-pairing was the duo of York and Sanheim, who played over 660 minutes and 73 games together as the team’s top pair.
And while his regular season scoring numbers weren’t overly sexy, with just four goals and 22 assists in 74 games, he did provide the sort of insulation that allowed Sanheim to freely gallop up and down the ice while serving as one of the more effective play drivers on the team. However, York quietly amassed the second-most expected goals amongst Flyers defensemen, just slightly behind Sanheim, and ahead of Jamie Drysdale, despite Drysdale being deployed as the power play quarterback more often.
York may not have provided eye-popping personal numbers, but he did provide the sort of support that buoyed the players around him, and contributed to a positive offensive environment. He may not be dynamic, but he is a positive contributor.
But all of this is sort of a moot point, because the one thing that everyone will remember about York’s 2025-26 season is this:
Scoring one of the biggest goals in recent Flyers’ history would have been enough to make any player’s season a success, but for York, after all of the discussion regarding his selection over Cole Caufield, the sporadic trade talk, it all seemed to disappear once that stick went careening into the crowd. It capped off another solid season for him, and will etch his name in folklore for years to come. That alone would be enough to make his season a success.
What type of role do we expect York to play this season?
Realistically, it should be more of the same from York this season. At 25 years old and with over 300 NHL games under his belt, he will have the same sort of opportunities, likely while playing on the Flyers top pair alongside Sanheim, while also chipping in as an occasional PP2 quarterback. His role is solidified, and while he’s still relatively young for a defenseman, he seems to have graduated to the level of a mainstay, and his deployment suggests that there is a level of trust between him and the coaching staff that outstripes most of his peers on the back end.
He came into the league as a puck mover primarily, but with age and experience he has molded himself into a pretty effective defensive defender, which with his size and relative lack of physical snarl, has been a pretty surprising development. His defensive metrics have been on the upswing for the past three seasons, and even while playing against the stiffest competition on the top pairing, he seems to stifle a lot of the opposition’s chances when he is on the ice.
There’s no reason to think this trend won’t continue, and if it does, York will be one of the more relied upon members of the Flyers defense for the foreseeable future.
And while one play obviously doesn’t define a season, let alone a career, it’ll be interesting to see how his historic moment in Game 6 against the Penguins affects his future play. He doesn’t seem to be a player that struggles with confidence, but there have been some bumps in the road along the way for York, particularly under the John Tortorella regime. After scoring one of the franchise’s biggest goals of the past decade, there’s a chance that a bit of a weight has been lifted off his shoulders, and he comes into this season as a more confident, and effective, offensive piece on the back end.
Jamie Drysdale
What did we see from Drysdale last season?
Drysdale really grew as the season wore on, really hitting his stride at the right time and becoming a key contributor during the Flyers playoff run. While there’s always been globs of offensive potential with Drysdale, he was thrown into the deep end immediately with Anaheim, and as a result had to unlearn a lot of bad habits that kneecapped his game somewhat, especially defensively. It’s been a process, especially going from a run-and-gun paradise with the Ducks, to a more structured defensive environment with the Tortorella and Tocchet Flyers, but this year he finally seemed to grasp how to be a more stout defender, and while his raw scoring numbers weren’t necessarily fantastic (eight goals and 32 points in 78 games), Drysdale was able to improve leaps and bounds at a two-way level.
By the time the Flyers entered the playoffs, Drysdale had patched up a lot of holes in his game that don’t necessarily show up on the stat sheet. He looked more confident heading into the corner with forecheckers chasing him down, he looked more capable of defending one-on-one and odd-man rush scenarios, and he played with a bit more physicality, even though he is a bit slight of frame and will never realistically be bodying opposing forwards through the boards.
It was a year of improved intangibles for Drysdale and, like York, he seems to be rounding out into a bit more of a two-way factor than what was envisioned for him when he came out of the draft as a top-10 pick.
With a stable defensive foundation now under his feet, Drysdale can now turn his focus back to his role as a presumed power play quarterback, where he’s struggled to gain a footing, but can be forgiven after watching the Flyers as a team flounder consistently with an extra man.
What type of role do we expect Drysdale to play this season?
I smell a potential breakthrough year coming for Drysdale. He is still exceedingly young for a defenseman, and the more he gets acclimated to playing in the Flyers system, the more he should expand his game beyond the more simplistic confines he currently plays within. He’s grown in the exact ways that a coach like Rick Tocchet would have wanted him to, and there’s a great chance that elevates him up the pecking order in all situations, not just on the power play. His playoff play in particular showed him to be a lot more of a stabilizing presence then he was in his early career, and while it’s not like he’s going to immediately be thrown into a shut-down role as a result, it doesn’t feel like a hindrance with him out there for say, a defensive zone faceoff.
He’ll likely be locked in on the second pair, behind the York-Sanheim pairing, but his partner is still a mystery as of now. Drysdale actually played most of his minutes with the aforementioned Cam York, but it’ll be hard for York to play both with him and Sanheim at the same time.
The confusion is only compounded when you consider that Drysdale’s second most common partner was Emil Andrae, who was shipped to Toronto as part of the package that landed Joseph Woll. That leaves Nick Seeler as the only name that Drysdale played any significant minutes alongside, with the more physical and defense-first rearguard serving as a good compliment to Drysdale’s skillset.
Perhaps Rasmus Ristolainen could be a fit alongside Drysdale, in a similar way that Seeler was deployed, but both players are right handed shots, which makes it pretty unlikely that they’ll be deployed as a pairing. Names like Simon Benoit and David Jiricek still need to prove that they are legitimate game-by-game NHL options, so saddling Drysdale with them would seem like a bit of a misplay.
So, it could very well be a steady diet of Seeler-Drysdale again this year, although I’d be personally intrigued by the possibility of bringing Oliver Bonk up midway through the season to serve as a potential foil to Drysdale. Bonk is a right-handed shot as well, but he has a bit bigger frame at 6-foot-2, which would help alleviate some of the size concerns that naturally arose from a pair like Andrae-Drysdale. Both players have that sort of puck-moving gene, too, and would give the Flyers a set of top-four defenders who are all capable of breaking the 35 point mark.
Ultimately that is still all up in the air, but maybe the best thing you can say about Drysdale’s game now is that it may not even matter. He’s looked so much more secure in himself that he could probably serve as the clear #3 defender who is the more talented half of a second pair, night in, night out. It doesn’t necessarily feel like he needs to be sheltered anymore, and that he’s proven his worth to the point where even if he isn’t needed to kill penalties or protect leads, he’s at least capable.
What Drysdale will be needed for is the power play, and while he hasn’t been able to turn the struggling unit around singlehandedly, his added confidence after a really steady season should only boost his ability to run the man advantage for a team that sorely needs it. Him and York split time quarterbacking the power play last year, and while York did score the biggest goal of his career off a point shot, he doesn’t have the same potential to be as dynamic on the power play as Drysdale does. It’s been a structural problem for the Flyers at 5-on-4, and it’s going to take a village to really turn it around, but the tools are all there for Drysdale to be the beneficiary this year. If it all goes right, he could be looking at his first 40-point season, and maybe something even more.
