A New Era of Orange: Philadelphia Flyers Season Preview
Well, it’s here. For better or for worse the Philadelphia Flyers begin their 56th season tomorrow. We’re beginning a “New Era of Orange” or at least we hope that it is.
This off-season saw a lot of changes for the Flyers on and off the ice. New president of hockey operations Keith Jones and new General Manager Daniel Briere lead this new era of Flyers hockey. For the second year, head coach John Tortorella will be behind the bench. On the ice for Torts will be quite a few new faces for him to lead as the Flyers have indeed gotten younger.
Some of the biggest departures of the offseason were Kevin Hayes, James Van Riemsdyk, and Ivan Provorov. Those departures have opened the door for some of the Flyers young and upcoming prospects.
The word rebuild, which was refused to be said by the previous management group has been embraced by the new guys in charge. A top ten pick in last years draft led to the Flyers landing one of their most anticipated prospects ever in Matvei Michkov. While it still could be three years until we see him in the NHL, the Flyers are continuing to embrace this rebuild as being shown with their roster to start the season. Let’s take a look at the forward group to start coming into this season.
Forwards:
Farabee-Couturier-Konecny
Tippett-Frost-Atkinson
Laughton-Cates-Brink/Foerster
Deslauriers-Poehling-Hathaway
The forward group at the start of camp had probably three spots up for grabs. By the start of week two, there was maybe one spot left to claim. Eight of the top nine spots were locked up already with the regular NHLers and Noah Cates who earned his spot with his performance from last season. The 4th line consist of your typical John Tortorella players. After their first few days of camp and the first preseason game it was clear that Deslauriers, Poehling, and Hathaway were going to be the fourth line to start the season.
That left one spot open for multiple guys to compete for. While most believed that Tyson Foerster was the guy leading the charge based off his performance from last season, Bobby Brink would make the decision on the coaching staff a lot harder. In the end as we saw yesterday the Flyers ended up keeping both guys as they sent Wade Allison to the Phantoms. We’ll see if one or both end up in the lineup come Thursday night.
This season the Flyers will be looking for continued progression from guys like Noah Cates, Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, and Owen Tippett. All of those guys took steps last year that gave the Flyers hope for the future and could speed up the rebuild process. Farabee isn’t coming off an injury and had a full summer of training and looked great during camp and preseason. Noah Cates looks like he is going to be a mini version of Sean Couturier and while Frost and Tippett didn’t necessarily stand out they should have plenty of opportunities to succeed this season with the addition of Coots and Atkinson back in the lineup.
The 4th line of Deslauriers, Poehling, and Hathaway should also be great in their role. They should also help the Flyers on the penalty kill as Poehling and Hathaway have gotten looks on the PK and have looked pretty decent. They also provide a level of protection for some of the young guys as we’ve seen before Deslauriers is never afraid to drop the gloves.
Defense:
York-Sanheim
Zamula-Seeler
Staal-Andrae
Extra: Sean Walker
IR: Rasmus Ristolainen
The defense group for the Flyers is going to be a lot younger this season and there are going to be some growing pains that is for sure. Cam York is going to be getting a lot more minutes now that Ivan Provorov is no longer in the picture. Travis Sanheim is going to be out to prove his doubters that he is worth the contract that Chuck Fletcher signed him to.
As for the young guys, Emil Andrae has shown flashes of how great he can be and has been praised by Torts throughout camp. Yegor Zamula has also been very impressive during training camp and it appears he will be getting another look in the opening night lineup as he did last season. While last season did not start the way he had hoped, it’s clear that he has come into training camp with something to prove and will look to be a regular in the Flyers lineup this season.
Marc Staal was brought in to be a veteran leader to this young group but it has been made clear he is not going to get in the way of playing the kids. Rasmus Ristolainen has had a quiet camp but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. During some of the practices he was being very physical with the forwards and that is a huge part of his game so you love to see that. You’ll notice though Risto will be starting the season on the IR as Torts stated he is “nicked up” but it is nothing too serious.
There are going to be times where it could be rough for the backend but the important thing is that these young guys learn from their mistakes and don’t become scared to take chances. As long as they aren’t leaving the goaltenders completely out to dry I think we might be pleasantly surprised by the defense this year.
Goaltenders:
Carter Hart
Samuel Ersson
Felix Sandstrom
There was no question who was going to be the starting goaltender this season as Carter Hart is the clear guy in Philadelphia. Who was going to back him up was not so clear though. Cal Petersen was brought in with the Provorov trade but after a tough outing in his first performance he was behind the 8 ball. It also didn’t help his case that Felix Sandstrom and Sam Ersson played very well during their preseason outings. This led to Petersen being sent down and will start the year with the Phantoms.
It became a two man race between Sandstrom and Ersson. Ersson proved that he deserved the job and he really took advantage of every opportunity that he got. Sandstrom didn’t play bad by any means but Ersson was just a level ahead of him. One thing that kept Sandstrom around a little longer was that he would have to clear waivers if the Flyers sent him down. Before the Risto injury John Tortorella announced that Hart and Ersson would be the goalie tandem to start the season. Now, the Flyers will be carrying three goaltenders to start the season.
We shall see what happens with Sandstrom as he could very well be put on waivers after Risto returns . Now, I’m sure there are better options out there for goaltenders but Sandstrom has shown that he can play at the NHL level so there’s a chance he gets claimed. Last season he didn’t really get a fair share as he mostly played the second half of the back to back games and was left out to dry most of the time. If he doesn’t get claimed it’ll be important for him to have good outings with the Phantoms so that he is the first call up if something happens with Hart or Ersson. Or maybe Sandstrom gets into some games an Ersson gets sent down since he wouldn’t have to clear waivers. Regardless the Flyers once again have a good problem with their three goaltenders all playing well.
While there’s a lot of talk about the Flyers not being a very good team this year, I wouldn’t be so sure about that just yet. Their young guys are hungry and have something to prove, they have a potential franchise goaltender in Carter Hart, and let’s not forget Sean Couturier and Cam Atkinson are back in the lineup and healthy. Yes, the Flyers landing another top 5-10 pick in the draft would be great for the rebuild but they aren’t just going to roll over and tank.
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-Walsh