Zegras and Drysdale are fixing the Flyers’ power play for good

Although it has become a bit of a repetitive mantra amongst Philadelphia Flyers fans over the last few years, if there’s one positive thing you can say about the team’s season through its first four games, it is that visually, the power play looked better.

Unfortunately, the numbers have not yet reflected this. Throughout the first four contests, the Flyers’ power play had once again assumed its position in the leaguewide bottom five, sputtering along at a 7.7% success rate, good for 31st. But the unit had shown the ability early on to create shots and chances in good areas, nonetheless.

Despite the Flyers being below-average when it comes to the quantity of their chances, they are able to sacrifice some of that for quality. On the man advantage so far this season, the Flyers are 26th in terms of shots on goal rate, 24th in shot attempt rate, and 24th in unblocked shot attempt rate as well. And while it isn\'t some crazy high number or anything, those bottom-third chances are counterbalanced with the Flyers having 8.71 xGF per 60 minutes on the power play, which is good for 20th in the league. And they are eventually getting rewarded for that level of quality chances too, as they are scoring 6.39 goals per 60, which also ranks 20th.

The chances have come, the Flyers just weren’t yet clicking to the same extent that the stats say they should\'ve been. And while yes, the NHL is a numbers game and the goals eventually have to come in order to say that this is a real improvement, the bar is so low for the Flyers man advantage that seeing any sort of sustained offensive pressure is cause for celebration across the entire state.

More cause for optimism also arose once they played a team that weren\'t the defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers, or juggernaut contenders like the Hurricanes and Jets. The Flyers found a bit more luck in their fifth game against Seattle, and their two power play goals against the Kraken on October 20th actually boosted them out of the doldrums, and up to 21st leaguewide, at a much less jarring 15.8%.

If the Flyers are to truly make a permanent change to their man advantage game as a whole, a big part of the solution may already be here, and helping create positive, process-based results. Jamie Drysdale arrived last season and found himself in probably one of the worst situations that a small, offensively minded defender like himself could have ended up in. John Tortorella is not exactly the most open-minded head coach, and there really wasn’t really a concrete partner that Drysdale could feel comfortable with for much of the year after his arrival.

It seems as if for the time being Drysdale has found his partner in Nick Seeler, who provides that savvy veteran size that compliments his skillset. And if he can take the next step, it’ll add another potential quarterback to a team that has already benefitted from a fully unleashed Travis Sanheim.

But the true x-factor for this season may end up being Drysdale’s former Ducks teammate, the uber talented Trevor Zegras.

The early season returns have flashed some of Zegras’ immense skill, with this slick feed to Sean Couturier being the number one highlight:

https://twitter.com/ArcainiLuke/status/1977911200550662457

Zegras has assists in each of his last five contests, and looks more like the player that the Ducks drafted, rather than the one they traded for scraps. His shiftiness and desire to want the puck in order to make plays, has created another focal point that the Flyers can play through with the man advantage. They have always had some sort of triggerman to finish passing plays, in theory. Owen Tippett, Travis Konecny, and Tyson Foerster all look like dangerous goal scorers to this point, but they were relying on rush chances, the odd Sanheim takeover play, or Matvei Michkov to get them the puck in the offensive zone, instead of set plays developed out of puck possession.

As recently as last game against the Seattle Kraken, the Flyers have used a “second unit” made up of the ever-dangerous Foerster-Cates-Brink trio, with the newly activated Cam York and Zegras as the point men. That sort of unit has the potential to actually give the Flyers two power play lineups with high end skill, as well as compatibility. And eventually down the line, it sets up a situation where perhaps Drysdale can sub and take the position of York, with the latter often being heavily relied on as the top pair partner for Travis Sanheim, who could use a break here and there in his own right.

And the Flyers are finding immense success with Zegras on the man advantage so far. While the 24-year-old forward is on the ice on the Flyers power play, they are scoring 11.65 goals per 60 minutes. Now, it\'s only been just over 15 minutes of power play for Zegras, but it\'s simply the most successful a prominent Philadelphia Flyers player has been on the power play since they started keeping track of on-ice statistics in 2007.

The next highest from a forward of any note is Claude Giroux\'s 2014-15 season when during the 265 minutes that he was on the power play for, the Flyers scored 10.65 goals per 60 minutes. That is the season where Giroux scored a career-high 14 goals and a total of 37 points on the man advantage. The Flyers throughout history that have the same level of on-ice success on the power play is largely just noise -- players who were briefly put on a unit and got lucky.

Zegras is different. He should finish with over 200 minutes on the power play this season and if he even comes close to sustaining this level of success, the Flyers overall should compete through the remainder of their campaign.

These two newer pieces give the Flyers more moves to make, and should allow them to have to rely less on their best 5-on-5 players to get the job done. The success of Zegras and Drysdale will determine just how much better the power play can get, and the early results are promising.

Stats via Evolving-Hockey.com

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