While it didn’t reach the heights of the undying anticipation to see Matvei Michkov take the ice while wearing the Orange and Black for the first time, Trevor Zegras earned some pre-emptive buzz for just how he would perform during his first quasi competitive appearance as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers. And, we can confidently say that he met expectations.
For the very first game of the Flyers’ preseason, Zegras and his new teammates traveled to Long Island to face an Islanders team stacked with some freshly drafted talent and other actual regular, full-time NHL hockey players. For the first instance of the 24-year-old center’s time as a Flyer since being acquired by Philadelphia a few months ago, Zegras was slotted comfortably in the middle of superstar-in-the-making Matvei Michkov and another recently acquired young forward in Nikita Grebenkin.
While we shouldn’t cement any opinion of anything that truly goes in the preseason, the highly talented trio looked like the most cohesive unit of any line or pairings for the Flyers on Sunday night. In the offensive zone, they looked like they had more than just a couple practice’s worth of time on the same team and more than literally zero time as a line throughout a training camp. Zegras has been paired mainly with Travis Konecny as his primary winger but with the Flyers veteran not making the trip, new head coach Rick Tocchet decided to load up the skill on the top line.
It wasn’t just at even strength that this Zegras-Michkov connection was forming, but the new center was able to become well-acquainted with the budding star on the power play. And, that’s where some of the real magic happened for this duo on Sunday night.
Loved this PP sequence from Zegras and his unit. That cross-ice pass right onto Michkov's tape was insane. Can't wait to see that all season.#LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/pKVZDczHJZ
— Flyers Clips (@Flyers_Clips) September 22, 2025
In this quick little sequence on the man advantage, Zegras spawns the zone entry for Michkov to actually cross over the blue line on the right side and after some scrambling of the puck deeper in the zone and it being eventually glided out to Jamie Drysdale at the point, Zegras receives the puck from his former and current teammate and absolutely wires it across the zone to Michkov. We’re not talking about something casual or a pass that has a goal to just continue the play — this is a pass with the full intention to put an end to it and hit some twine at the end of it. It didn’t end that way, but just the way that Zegras was able to send the puck across to an open teammate with such ease and being so casual about it — there should be much more of that to come.
When it comes to actually putting the puck in the net himself, the top-line center got so close to scoring his first (exhibition) goal as a Flyer when he rung one off the post in the third period, but was held without a tally for the full 65 minutes.
As for some numbers, because we all want to just rattle some statistics off for how Zegras performed in his first somewhat official game as a Flyer, only Michkov played more minutes than his centerman at 23:09 TOI. And in those minutes, Zegras had four shots on goal, two hits, and was 4-for-9 from the faceoff dot. Diving in even deeper — if we truly want to get into the muck for one single preseason appearance — Zegras led all Flyers with 10 shot attempts, seven individual scoring chances, and three high-danger chances, as well. And while Zegras was on the ice at 5-on-5, the Flyers were outshot 13-7, lost the shot attempt battle 22-18; and while he managed to get three high-danger chances himself, there were four for the Islanders while he was out there.
All in all, in that jumbled mess of numbers, it’s basically as advertised. There are moments where the 24-year-old center will wow you with his dazzling skill (typically on the power play) and he can generate loads of offense for himself and for his teammates, but when it comes to the overall impact on the game it feels like the goal is to just break even in every underlying category.
And to add just a sprinkle of negativity, there were moments where Bedford, NY native looked physically overmatched. It doesn’t help that the only physical player on his line has barely played in the NHL before and is still just trying to earn a spot, but it showed that there are still some things that Zegras brings alongside the overwhelming amount of skill. Some baggage, let’s call it.
Maybe as the season goes on, there will be a more perfect line combination that Zegras finds himself on and any negative aspects of his game can be covered up — just for him to go out there and do what he does best. But, with just one game of Flyers hockey in the Trevor Zegras Era, we are satisfied but understand some people’s concerns. Exactly as advertised.
