Ad Disclosure
Five Flyers Thoughts Heading into the Olympic Break
Published:
The Flyers lost 2-1 in overtime on Thursday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena. They’ll enter the Olympic break with a 25-20-11 record and 61 points, eight points behind the Islanders and Bruins for a playoff spot.
This game was super weird, a low-scoring affair with few whistles or power plays. The Flyers managed a grand total of 16 shots, which was still in the single digits through 40 minutes. They weren’t getting anything on net and the bored crowd could barely muster a “ref you suck” chant at the barn. It felt like a preseason game, like the last Friday of work before you leave for vacation. Only a late third-period goal salvaged a loser point before the Flyers were promptly dispatched in OT.
Alas, as NHL play comes to pause here, some macro-level takeaways from a hockey casual:
1) Matvei Michkov can put all of this to bed
Michkov played 14:58 across 20 shifts on Thursday and was credited with two shots. He goes into the break with one goal and one assist over his last six games.
For all of the turmoil surrounding Matty Ice this year, there’s a prime opportunity for him to finish on a positive note and really squash the toxic discourse. You’ve got almost three weeks, a 20-day break between games, and while on-ice team activities are restricted between February 6th and 16th, that’s 10 days right there to rest, reset, and do some individual work.
They’re coming out of the break with a 27-game sprint to the playoffs that includes six back-to-backs, and we’re feeling a whole lot better about Michkov if he plays well down the stretch. Put the guy on a comprehensive nutrition and fitness plan, get everybody on the same page, and let’s hammer that out now. No need to wait for the offseason.
2) at least the cap is clean..
The Flyers will clear more than $6 million in buyout and retained money when Cam Atkinson, Kevin Hayes, and Scott Laughton come off the books after this season. That gives the franchise its first clean cap in what feels like an eternity.
They’ve got four more years of Coots at $7.75 million and TK is on $8.75 until 2033, but there aren’t any big contracts weighing them down beyond that. Owen Tippett is their third-highest forward earner at $6.2 million. We’ll see how the Christian Dvorak contract ages, but the Flyers are projected to have $41 million in cap space going into next year, according to Puckpedia.
Danny Briere did the easy part in cleaning up Chuck Fletcher’s mess.
3) …but the free agent class is lean
The top three NHL free agents in terms of current AAV are Carey Price, Sergei Bobrovsky, and Alex Ovechkin. Two old goaltenders and Ovie. Then there’s Cale Makar, who will re-up with the Avalanche. Jason Robertson is a restricted free agent with the stars and Patrik Laine is the only other guy under the age of 30 near the top of the list.
So the pickings are incredibly slim. A dearth of talent. A lot of players already resigned with their own teams, which depleted the class. Extending Trevor Zegras is priority #1, and the Flyers have a half-dozen RFA guys to handle, but Keith Jones (Jonesy) touched on the cap quirks at the Flyers Carnival this past Sunday:
The other thing to consider is the attractiveness of the Flyers as a free agent destination. Is this where big names want to play? It used to be that way. Not so sure now. What is the selling point other than “we have money to spend and we think the fans will return to their previous glory at some point in the not-too-distant future“?
4) still need a 1C, 1D, and franchise goaltender
The Flyers started their rebuild without a top-line center, top-pair defenseman, and franchise goaltender. They still don’t have any of those things.
Dan Vladar has looked like a franchise goaltender at times this season, but Sam Ersson has not. Travis Sanheim has come a long way but isn’t making a top 20 listicle. Jamie Drysdale has played well. They’ve got some pieces but a lack of truly high-end talent.
These types of players don’t exactly grow on trees, but if the Flyers are done drafting inside of the top 10 (we’ll see), and there are no slam dunk free agents out there, then where is this high-end talent coming from? They’ve got Porter Martone in the pipeline and maybe somebody like Jett Luchanko or Jack Nesbitt pans out, or one of the recent 2nd rounders, but there does not appear to be some obvious and linear path to acquiring star power.
5) shooting the puck, or not
We can do the old joke about the fans yelling “shooooooot” at Jake Voracek every time he crosses the blue line, but this is a low-event and somewhat boring team. Typical for a Rick Tocchet squad, I guess.
The Flyers currently are 28th in shots, with 1,436 on the year. They’ have’ve allowed 1,438, which is 29th. They’ve score 162 goals and allowed 177, which is 23rd and 14th. Their 28th-ranked power play is 16.1% and the penalty kill is middle of the pack at 79.1%.
There’s just not a lot of action in most of these games. Their shot on goal differential is a flat 0.0. There was a play on Thursday night when Coots drove hard to the net and almost turned nothing into something, but they rarely force the issue and they just seem hesitant to get bodies in front and fire the puck into the mess. It’s not exciting hockey, but it’s better than a few perimeter passes and inevitably losing the puck. There was zero jam in the building on Thursday night.
Anyway, I’d like to be positive about the Flyers. I’m willing to jump back on the bandwagon and support the team, I just don’t see a whole lot to be excited about right now. Is that Negadelphia, or Pragmadelphia?
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com