Among all the Flyers to take a step forward last season, perhaps no breakout was more impressive than Tyson Foerster’s.
From the outset of training camp, even with Foerster being substantially outplayed by Bobby Brink for what appeared to be the sole rookie spot on the opening roster – the Flyers loved Foerster so much that they preferred to let him work out of early season struggles with the big club rather than work in Lehigh Valley. He was a clear favorite of John Tortorella, and that’s not something that ever changed from September to April.
The biggest reason Tortorella was a massive fan of Foerster was his work away from the puck, along the boards, and in suppressing the opposition from a scoring chance perspective. By essentially all metrics, Tortorella was correct to be a fan of Foerster.
So, on the heels of his first full season, what exactly are feasible comparisons for Tyson Foerster? Could it be a less offensively-gifted Mark Stone? To investigate, let’s take a look at Foerster’s 2023-24 campaign side-by-side with other age-21 seasons in the NHL since 2013, as well as Mark Stone’s first full season in the NHL.
How good was Foerster, really?
For this exercise, let’s take the 58 highest scoring wingers who completed their age-21 season between 2014 and 2024. Foerster, in terms of pure points, ranked 47th on this list with 33 points, sandwiched between Joel Farabee and former Anaheim Duck Maxime Comtois on the list. For reference, the list spanned from Mitch Marner (94 points in 82 games) to Jakub Vrana (27 points in 73 games).
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