Can Trevor Zegras Reverse Notorious Flyers Trend in Shootouts?
The Negadelphian tropes swirled in conversations for years. The Flyers ALWAYS lose the shootout! While history validates the criticism mostly, the Philadelphia Flyers have somehow won their first three shootouts…
The Negadelphian tropes swirled in conversations for years.
The Flyers ALWAYS lose the shootout!
While history validates the criticism mostly, the Philadelphia Flyers have somehow won their first three shootouts to begin the 2025-26 season. Human highlight-reel Trevor Zegras and emerging superstar Matvei Michkov have fans second-guessing a weakness the franchise has shown through almost the entire salary cap era.
Flyers Always Struggle in Shootouts
The NHL began the skills competition to decide regular-season games tied after the five-minute overtime to begin the 2005-06 season as part of the lockout rule changes.
The Flyers held the worst winning percentage of any NHL team in games decided by the shootout during the first 16 years of its existence through the 2020-21 season.
Frankly, the numbers weren’t even close. Their .363 rate was 40 percentage points behind the Florida Panthers, who ranked 30th of 31. The gap between the 22nd and 30th teams was also 40 percentage points.
Photo by Len Redkoles/Getty ImagesThe statistical anomaly wasn’t indicative of a franchise without offensive firepower. Peter Forsberg, Danny Briere, and Claude Giroux were some of the most creative skill players of their respective eras.
While notorious goaltending struggles contributed, the Flyers posted a brutal record in the coin flip shootouts mostly because of bad luck in an area that no NHL front office deliberately prioritizes when building a roster.
The Seattle Kraken now occupy Philadelphia’s old place in the basement. The NHL's 32nd franchise has won only eight of 21 shootouts early in their fifth season since expansion.
Has the Rebuild Somehow Fixed the Problem?
The Flyers have improved in shootouts drastically during the rebuild. They’ve finished with a record above .500 in three consecutive seasons with the second point on the line in the decisive skills competition.
Goaltender Sam Ersson owns the seventh highest shootout save percentage in NHL history at .787. Adding a top-end skill player like Michkov also improves Philadelphia’s firepower. He’s scored on five of 10 opportunities early in his career.
However, it’s Zegras with the most captivating breakaway skills. The 24-year-old has converted on 15 of his 23 career shootout opportunities. The 65.2% success rate is the highest in NHL history among players with at least 20 chances.
“These guys are really creative. They’re really good. They do it on their own. We don’t specifically have (practice) breakaways, but Kim Dillabaugh, our goalie coach, will grab about four or five (skaters for) breakaways at the end of practice... Zegras has his moves where he’s getting so much deception. Obviously, Michkov’s really good on that move that he does. Bobby Brink – obviously, that double-deke (in a shootout win over the Penguins) was unreal.”
Success or failure in the shootout won’t define the rebuild. It’s not an integral characteristic of an NHL team, and shootouts don’t even occur in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. However, a Flyers team with unfavorable playoff odds will focus on banking every single point available.
The niche success also encourages newer and younger energy for a rebuilding team in a changing NHL where skill players have entered the spotlight as fighting gradually fades.
“When it comes to breakaways and the skill part of it with the shootout, I kind of stay out of it. I might give a little advice here and there, but they’re skilled guys. I let them do the creativity... If you watch before they shoot, they’ll talk to each other, ‘Hey, this goalie tends to back in, so we might want to shoot this high,’ or ‘This goalie really challenges out a lot, so we want to fake, and then we want to deke.’”
