The Philadelphia Flyers season has come and gone. It was a memorable one — full of hills and valleys, upsets and major wins, and just a whole lot of finding out what this team can do under pressure.
Now that we have tasted what playoff hockey tastes like in this era of Flyers Hockey, we look forward to the future. The body of this team is still warm, but let’s just kick it to the curb and dream up what we might just see on the ice in orange and black when the puck drops for the 2026-27 campaign.
We predict there will be some moves made — maybe some big trades but most likely some small ones — so this might become obsolete as soon as a few weeks from now, but we’re still going to do it.
What the Flyers’ forward lines could look like next season
Let’s start with the forwards. The lines that we love to look at before every game and then wonder what could be different. How would this play look playing with this different player? Is this line truly getting the most out of each player? What if we just made this one quick switch?
We found out some key things about the Flyers forwards during the post-Olympic break stretch run that jolted them into a playoff spot and we found out even more during the playoffs. Knowing just how some players have either raised their stocks or lowered them heading into the offseason, we could theorize that the lines are going to look like this:
Tyson Foerster — Trevor Zegras — Porter Martone
Owen Tippett/Alex Bump — Christian Dvorak/Trade — Matvei Michkov
Denver Barkey/Alex Bump — Noah Cates/Christian Dvorak — Travis Konecny
Nikita Grebenkin/Denver Barkey — Sean Couturier — Garnet Hathaway
It’s a jumbled mess but it’s our jumbled mess.
That first line feels like a lock. While it might not be what head coach Rick Tocchet starts the season with, it shouldn’t surprise anyone if we see this trio come together and they lead all forwards in ice-time next season. Tyson Foerster and Porter Martone will be able to rifle off any pucks that Trevor Zegras sends their way and with two big bodies flanking the smaller centerman, it feels like a line that won’t get outmatched. There’s defensive responsibility in there with Foerster, but the offensive potential is very high.
Now, we get into the mess. Owen Tippett showed up a lot in these playoffs and pairing him with Christian Dvorak feels like a possibility just because it’s the other two forwards who played a lot this season. And we are banking on Matvei Michkov having a killer summer — it’s off to a great start — and Tocchet rewards his efforts by putting him in a more offensive situation to start next season. That leaves Travis Konecny being the offensive driver on a line with Noah Cates and then the youngsters like Alex Bump or Denver Barkey. While it might technically be a demotion for Konecny, it is an opportunity to really bring up those other players to his level. And you cannot tell us that having Barkey and Konecny flanking Cates wouldn’t be the most annoying line to deal with every for an opposing team.
That leaves the fourth line. While Nikita Grebenkin might start next season still out with an upper-body injury, he will be a mainstay on this line for almost the entire season and could form some kind of bond with Sean Couturier and Garnet Hathaway, as we hope that the fourth line continues to be a little of a physical powerhouse like we saw in the playoffs.
But of course, there are options for some spots and that leads us to acknowledging something we all know.
The elephant in the room with the Flyers’ forward lineup
There has to be a trade this summer. You can see it right in the projected lineup. There are just too many wingers.
Alex Bump’s rise to being a solid contributor in the playoffs has almost made it certain that — barring catastrophe — he should be starting next season in the NHL. It’s not impossible that he’s on the Phantoms for the first month or so, but it would be simply just because of the roster makeup and not having a spot available for him.
But, the logic is that there has to be a trade and unfortunately, Owen Tippett still feels like the leading candidate to be moved. We don’t want to see him go since he brings a much-needed speed into the lineup, but considering that the other wingers feel untouchable — unless some team offers the world for Tyson Foerster or the Flyers go against everything they’ve said and try to convince Travis Konecny to waive his no movement clause — it feels that it is most likely Tippett being shipped out.
And that is where we think, thanks to his performance down the stretch and in the playoffs and seeing how much they missed him after his injury, that the Flyers can get a haul for him. And that could include a second-line center to then bump Christian Dvorak down.
But then it gets messy and Noah Cates doesn’t really have a home since Sean Couturier has firmly established that he shouldn’t be out of the lineup at all (and the whole “he’s the captain” thing).
Again, it’s a gigantic puzzle that general manager Danny Briere is going to have to solve but that’s what we think. The most logical path is trading Tippett for either something to add to your roster and keeping the centers, or you upgrade at center at the same time and you have to make another difficult decision.
But let’s move on.
How the Flyers’ blue line might look like next season
Now we move to the defensemen. It’s a much more stable group than the forwards, just because we know who will be at the top and the middle and possibly at the bottom, but it’s filling in the little gaps and trying to answer one big question.
Anyways, without knowing anything at all and just guessing based on the breadcrumbs that we have in front of us, this is what we think the Flyers’ blue line is going to look like for next season:
Travis Sanheim — Jamie Drysdale
Cam York — Oliver Bonk/Trade
Nick Seeler — David Jiricek/Oliver Bonk
It’s a fairly simple equation. The top pairing feels destined to be who is at the top after Travis Sanheim put in another stellar season and Jamie Drysdale has more than earned some top-pairing prestige, even if he was playing similar minutes this past season.
And now we get into the big decision that Briere is going to have to make this summer and it most likely involves a couple of current defensemen being moved in the summer.
It’s not set in stone whatsoever but Emil Andrae feels likely to be traded and Rasmus Ristolainen could join him too. As for the former, we all know that Flyers brass wants the blue line to be bigger and keeping around Andrae, who didn’t perform all that well in the playoffs, feels like the opposite of that. How much value does he have around the league? Probably not a crazy amount but we could envision something like getting a third-round pick for the young blueliner.
As for Ristolainen, it was a move that was speculated to death about at the trade deadline and while it is good that they decided to not do it since the hulking Finnish rearguard certainly helped the Flyers get into the playoffs, it is something that Briere should try to do this summer. Heading into the final year of his contract, it’s either now or at the deadline and moving Ristolainen before the season feels like the best opportunity to then put your young players in the right opportunity.
Oliver Bonk was given just one regular season game and one playoff game last year, but he certainly did not look out of place and it would be surprising if he were to be in the AHL for large stretches next season. He could start there again, but he should quickly make his way back up. Meanwhile, David Jiricek has lost waiver ineligibility so he will be forced on the Flyers blue line, unless he looks completely abhorrent in all situations of the game and they just can’t even waste a roster spot on the 22-year-old defender.
But then there is a big possibility of a trade (or free agent signing) going down.
If the Flyers do trade Ristolainen, it would be shocking if they were comfortable having a Drysdale-Bonk-Jiricek right side of the blue line. That’s a whole lot of youth and uncertainty for a team that wants to make the playoffs again. We could see them still going younger — maybe someone like 26-year-old Michael Kesselring out of Buffalo? — but not running the risk that Jiricek is nothing in the NHL and Bonk still needs some more time with the Phantoms, and then being left without a paddle.
It’s also not impossible that the Flyers move on from Nick Seeler instead of Ristolainen as their big move to make the blue line slightly younger this summer, but it does feel less consequential.
Anyways, we all know that we are going to be so, so, so wrong about all of these predictions and looking back at this lineup in July is going to be hilarious.
