The Flyers summer was a lot like the end of the season. It was very exciting, ended with everyone feeling pretty good, but not much has really changed. Still, let’s get everyone caught up and ready for what should be a fun season in orange and black.
What Happened?
After an emotionally charged Round 1 win over the rival Penguins, the Flyers were blasted back to reality by the talent-superior and future champion Carolina Hurricanes. We were outclassed and that’s fine. Unlike the Phillies, the Flyers read the tealeaves that they needed to clearly upgrade and went for it, signing young restricted free agent center Leo Carlsson to a league bending offer sheet, 5/$90m. Sadly, and perhaps stupidly, the Ducks matched. Their cap situation wasn’t nearly as clean as the Flyers’ and had to make some moves. They are now handcuffed for the foreseeable future.
Because Carlsson didn’t work out, Philly didn’t have to do any cap maneuvering of their own and brought back their own restricted free agents Trevor Zegras (4/$36.5m) and Jamie Drysdale (4/$26m). Instead of waiting until next year for other extensions, big money was shelled out for Tyson Foerster (8/$56.8m) and Daniel Vladar (5/$27.5m). While I am a little apprehensive about the Foerster deal, with the salary cap on the rise, paying $7.1m for a still young goal scoring frontliner should never really be a bad deal. As for Vladar, if he plays like last year again, this is a steal. Maybe the biggest problem for the team last season (along with the power play) was the backup goalie situation (Vladar was 29-14, Flyers 14-13 in games started by anyone else). The Flyers traded for Joseph Woll to be the new backup, the former starter in Toronto who was probably miscast in a fulltime role.
More Business?
After two seasons in the league, Matvei Michkov is eligible for an extension. The problem is that his sophomore season left a lot to be desired after his promising rookie year. Michkov knows this. That’s why he dropped 30 pounds in the offseason. Reports out of camp are that he is completely rededicated to his craft. This is a VERY welcome sign to a team in desperate need of high end talent. If Michkov breaks out this year, the Flyers will gladly pay him anything he wants.
At nearly $13m, the Flyers have the 5th most cap space in the NHL. That’s a good chunk of change. There are two things the team can productively do about this. The less fun option is to lease the cap space to needy teams to facilitate their deals. The Flyers could get draft capital in a situation where if they don’t use it, they lose it. No one wants to do this. The more fun option is to use it for themselves obviously.
You never really know who could shake loose in an NHL season, but last year’s biggest mover, Quinn Hughes, could be up for auction again. After the blockbuster that sent him to Minnesota from Vancouver last year, everyone expected an extension to follow. It hasn’t happened yet. The Wild aren’t in a cap crunch next year or anything, but with a $15m+ cap hit coming, they could be gun shy to give him what he wants or he could just want to move East. If he doesn’t sign an extension, they have to move him or risk losing him for nothing. Other big names with less than 2 years on their deals include Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid, and Zach Werenski. I know, I know, but everyone seems like a pipedream until they get traded.
Of course, taking on too much long-term salary has its own problems. Getting one of those big names is one thing, but while the Flyers have about $25m in cap space next season, they also hope a lot of that goes to both Michkov and last year’s playoff wonder Porter Martone. If both level up this season, that space could be gone in a hurry.
Breakouts?
Michkov and Martone are the ones everyone will be watching and hoping on, but they aren’t the only ones. Denver Barkey and Alex Bump came on last year and were fan favorites thanks to always being around the puck. Barkey especially is just constant energy on a team that desperately needs a spark on most nights (can he play shortstop?). He pitched in a healthy 17 points in his 43 games and limited minutes last season as a 20 year old. Bump had 5 goals himself in only 17 games and even less ice time. Any expanded punch from those two make other forwards above them expendable in trades.
The two defensemen to watch this season are Oliver Bonk and David Jiricek. Bonk made it up for the final game of the season last year and is trying desperately to make the team out of camp as a 21 year old. Whether he makes it or not is immaterial because he will be the first guy called upon if needed. He isn’t expected to be a gamebreaker, but any kind of scoring punch the Flyers can get from their defenseman will be much appreciated. Jiricek was brought over last year from Minnesota and is simply an NHL puzzle so far. The Flyers are the third team to try to solve the former 6th overall pick. His shot is elite in power, but he doesn’t do enough other things right to be in position to use it. If he can’t carve out a role this season, there won’t be many more chances for him in the NHL. The Flyers seem to be optimistic though.
Finally, there is Foerster who just got his extension. In just 29 games last season he scored 13 goals. Over a now 84 game season, that translates to almost 38 goals. Considering he came up as a defense first guy, that would be huge.
What to Watch For
There are 3 keys to the Flyers being the kind of team we all want them to be this season:
- Michkov and Martone need to be good. The Flyers have not had blue chip forward talent since Claude Giroux left. The team’s last 40 goal scorer was Jeff Carter 17 years ago. The last player other than Giroux to break 90 points was Mark Recchi in 2000. We all love a good team concept and balanced scoring, but someone needs to be the straw to stir this drink.
- Vladar needs to show that last year was not a fluke. Much of the reason the Flyers pushed towards the playoffs was because Vladar kept them in every game he started. If he follows up last season and Woll proves to be a capable backup, that’s a good backbone to contention.
- The powerplay needs to be at least competent. Edmonton led the NHL last year with a 30.6% power play percentage and Dallas had 71 PPGs. League average was around 21% and 50 goals. The Flyers were dead last at 15.7% and just 37 PPGs. That’s completely inept. At least the team knows this and are working on it. Any type of improvement would be huge. How is the team so disadvantaged when they have the advantage?
Prediction: I don’t know if the Flyers will make it to the Conference Finals this season, but a post season appearance should come with much less anxiety thanks to all of the young guys showing up just a little bit more and our M&Ms starting to make us feel like we have something. Trevor Zegras steps up more than anyone though and finishes with 80+ points. Vladar steps back a bit but it still a reliable #1. The Flyers make a big move for a defenseman at the deadline.
Photo: Nfeld, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped)
Leave a Reply