The Flyers Are Worse Off Then They Were At The Start Of The Year
The Flyers outperformed expectations this season. Coming into the year, no one thought they had a chance at the playoffs. So if you only go off of pre-season expectations, they did well, despite the late-season collapse.
Things changed though. They were in the playoffs as of a couple weeks ago. But they have now rattled off 8 losses in a row. Barring a miracle, they are going to miss the playoffs. Worse than that though, their future is bleaker than it was at the start of the season.
How could that be you may ask. They played better than we thought they would, surely that means their future is bright.
Not really. Because as we can see over these past 8 games, this is not a good roster. Going on this run, just to miss the playoffs, doesn’t do all that much for them. If anything it means they will have a worse draft pick.
But that is not what I mean when I say they are worse off than they were in October. They have less talent to build around too.
Here is a list of what happened to the Flyers this year:
No More Cutter Gauthier
The most exciting part of projecting the future of the Flyers was the idea that Matvei Michkov and Cutter Gauthier would one day be on the same line. That is now not going to happen. Cutter Gauthier forced his way out of Philly after showing off how much potential he has at the World Juniors.
Is it the Flyers’ fault? We don’t know. We have only heard rumors of why Gauthier wanted out. It may very well be the Flyers Front Office did nothing wrong, and he was the problem. But whether or not it is their fault doesn’t really matter. The fact is they lost a very talented player. Not having Gauthier in their system makes them a worse team.
The guy they replaced him with could still be good. It is way too early to give up on Jamie Drysdale. Defenders take longer than other players to develop. And injuries have held him back to this point in his career.
But it was not the most inspiring first season. Even when healthy, he has failed to make the impact you would want from a guy you just gave up an elite prospect for. According to some analytics, he was among their worst players this season. That might be a bit extreme, but just watching him you can tell he still has a lot to work on.
It’s not Michkov and Gauthier anymore. It is just Michkov. Thats the only incoming prospect with star-level hype they have on the horizon.
The Flyers deserve credit for not letting the Gautheir drama leak until they made a trade. But if keeping it in-house did not net them fair trade value, does avoiding leaks mean anything? They lost one of the most exciting prospects in hockey and have only an oft-injured defender who has struggled to this point in his career to show for it. They better hope the 2nd round pick they got back as well turns into something, or that trade could go down as one of the worst ones in Flyers history.
Not the best way to start a rebuild.
No Star Goalie
You can’t blame the Flyers for the Carter Hart debacle. Him being charged for Sexual Assault is on him, not the Flyers. It was also something we could have seen coming given how big the Hockey Canada story was. They did their best to prepare for it by investing multiple picks in goalies. But losing him still hurts the Flyers.
He was supposed to be the franchise goalie they have been looking for for decades now. We saw flashes of it, but never the true dominance we were promised. But losing him leaves them worse off at goalie. There is now no sure thing in the net for the Flyers.
Samuel Errson has shown flashes of brilliance in his rookie season. I can’t fully blame him for his late-season struggles. The team around him has played terribly. But I also can’t say I am confident that he is a true franchise goalie. His GAA is well over 4.0 since the beginning of March.
The same goes for Ivan Fedotov. He is a fascinating prospect, but he is clearly a project. Allowing nearly 5 goals per game will tell you that.
They have some interesting names in their system, but none of them are sure things either. Goalie is suddenly a major question for them again.
Turned Down A 1st Round Pick At The Deadline?
After the trade deadline NHL insider Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) reported on The DFO Rundown podcast today that Daniel Briere has already turned down a haul for Scott Laughton:
25th or 29th overall pick, future 2nd round pick
St. Louis GM Doug Armstrong “had Scott Laughton at the Worlds and… pic.twitter.com/efj2IvjABX
The Flyers were semi-sellers. They didn’t go all in because they wanted to stay competitive and make a playoff push. But it cost them future value, and we now see it gained them nothing. Holding onto Laughton was not enough to keep them competitive. The Sean Walker trade demolished their defense anyway. If they were going to trade Walker, they might as well have just committed to being sellers.
That type of hybrid approach seemed okay at the time. In hindsight, it hurt them. If they really did have a 1st on the table for Laughton, they should have taken it. At least then they would have something more to show for this late-season collapse.
Nothing To Show For 83 Point Season
Is 83 points from them surprising given the pre-season expectations? Yes. That is an accomplishment. But what do they really have to show for it?
The young guys on the team aren’t going to get valuable playoff experience. It’s going to hurt their positioning in the draft. And while they discovered a few guys who might be players, this late-season swoon also exposed too many players we hoped could be part of the future.
It is weird to say because they did overachieve this season. But I come out of it feeling a bit worse about their future than I did going into the season. I can’t even blame them for all of that. But whether it is their fault or not, they have more question marks coming out of the season than they did going into it.
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The All-Time Roster of Homegrown Philadelphia Flyers
Claude Giroux (RW)
The Flyers selected Claude Giroux of the Gatineau Olympiques with the 22nd-overall pick in 2006. Bobby Clarke mispronounced the name of the future franchise center.
Giroux quickly became a key offensive threat for a championship contender early in his career. He scored 10 goals and 11 assists in 23 games during the run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2010, including an overtime thriller at the Wells Fargo Center in Game 3 to keep the Flyers in the final series.
The longest-tenured captain in franchise history is unfortunately associated with the worst era in franchise history, however. The talent pool dried up almost immediately after the Flyers gave the “C” to Giroux. He was a model of consistency in Philadelphia.
Only Patrick Kane, Sidney Crosby, and Alexander Ovechkin finished the decade of the 2010s with more points than Giroux. He played center through most of his career down the middle, but he transitioned to the wing in his final seasons with the Flyers.
Although Claude Giroux never led the Flyers to the playoff glory that fans dreamt of, he sits second in franchise history behind Bobby Clarke in points, assists, and games played. The number 28 will someday hang from the rafters with the all-time Flyers greats.
Bill Barber (LW)
The Flyers drafted Bill Barber with the seventh-overall pick in 1972. He scored more goals than any other player in franchise history. His record of 420 will stay secure for a long time.
Barber became one of the biggest offensive threats on a Broad Street Bullies team known more for their brutal intimidation than for finesse and scoring. The feared “LCB Line” with Reggie Leach and Bobby Clarke helped the Flyers to consecutive Stanley Cups in 1974 and 1975.
Barber played all 12 of his NHL seasons in Philadelphia. He entered the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1990, and he’s remained in the organization as a Flyers lifer in various roles for decades.
Shayne Gostisbehere
He only played 381 games in parts of seven seasons with the Flyers. He never reached the long-term status that fans hoped for, but Shayne Gostisbehere reached a higher level during his rookie effort in 2015-16 than any other homegrown defensemen achieved during their careers.
“Ghost” took the NHL by storm with 17 goals and 29 assists in 64 games. He provided a spark for a team in desperate need and pushed them from irrelevance into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He (somehow) finished second in voting for the Calder Trophy.
Chris Therien had a much longer track record. Ivan Provorov overtook Gostisbehere in the organization’s pecking order. Both played more games than Gostisbehere. Why is the slick, undersized blue liner on the list above them?
Consider that Gostisbehere scored five game-winning goals in the 2015-16 season alone. Therien scored just six in Flyers career, and Provorov scored 11. Gostisbehere edged Provorov for fifth in franchise history in points among defensemen in 151 fewer games.
Shayne Gostisbehere justifiably faded out of favor by the time he left Philadelphia in 2021 because of his defensive weaknesses and physical shortcomings. However, he still earned his spot as one of the two best homegrown defensemen in a limited talent pool.
