The 2025-26 Philadelphia Flyers made an important step in the development of their young core, making the playoffs for the first time since 2020. The team was swept by the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Semifinals and looked overmatched for much of the series.
Carolina has been very successful in the Rod Brind’Amour era, having last missed the playoffs in 2018. They were the best team in the Eastern Conference and the second-best team in the NHL this past season.
The Flyers barely got into the playoffs, having secured a spot against the Hurricanes’ B-squad in Philadelphia’s second-to-last game of the season.
These are teams in wildly different spots. The Flyers showed great strides this past season, but they are simply not ready to take on a team like the Hurricanes yet.
The Flyers can learn from their own team 20 years ago
This precedent has held true for previous Flyers teams that reached the Eastern Conference Final. The last team to get there was the 2009-10 Flyers, who painfully lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Final. That team had been to the Eastern Conference Final in 2008. The ‘07-08 team is an interesting comparison to the current squad, with 22-year-old Mike Richards and 23-year-old Jeff Carter being two of the key components to that team. However, they did have some notable vets in the mix.
Mike Knuble was 35 at the time but still contributed a significant number of goals that season, putting up 29 goals in 82 games, including 15 on the power play. Trevor Zegras led the Flyers with 10 goals on the man advantage, and the next highest was Matvei Michkov with 4. This team would kill for a scoring touch like Knuble had.
Guys like Derian Hatcher and Jason Smith brought experience to the blue line for the ‘07-08 team. Kimmo Timonen was just hitting his prime at the ripe age of 32. Part of what helped that exciting, young Flyers team get to the Conference Final was that mix of youth and experience. Our current Flyers have youth in spades, but they’re sorely lacking when it comes to experience.
The 2025-26 Flyers’ youth have had some incredible moments in these playoffs.
Porter Martone was a stud in the first two games of the Penguins series and was one of the team’s best players in their final two games against the Canes.
Denver Barkey and Alex Bump have both had standout games and scored their first career playoff goals. But this is their first time in the playoffs, and they can only do so much.
Matvei Michkov had a rough go of it, but even he got a great moment assisting on the game-winning goal in overtime in the clinching game against the Penguins.
This was an invaluable experience that showed these guys what it takes to succeed in the postseason.
That leads us to the big addition to the ‘07-08 Flyers: the guys that led the way in the playoffs. And you might recognize this name: 30-year-old Danny Briere.
Briere put up 16 points in 17 games (9 goals, 7 assists) during his first playoff run with the Flyers. His total playoff numbers for the Flyers were fantastic, with 72 points in 68 games played. Briere’s 72 playoff points have him between Claude Giroux and Tim Kerr in the Flyers’ all-time playoff point rankings.
If you look at it from a points per game ranking, he is fourth all-time behind Eric Lindros, Ken “The Rat” Linseman, and Peter Forsberg (Forsberg only played six playoff games for the Flyers, but had eigh points in those games). Briere, in his prime, was a key part of the Flyers’ two trips to the Eastern Conference Final in that era. He helped bring the plan together and gave the Flyers a player who they could rely upon when the spotlight was at its brightest.
It’s okay to be disappointed in the Flyers being eliminated by the Hurricanes. It was a fun run, and being back in the playoffs feels oh so good. However, the future is bright, especially as these young stars emerge.
If Briere can find his own version of himself to help bolster this lineup, we could be looking at a trip back to the Eastern Conference Final sooner rather than later.
