PECO Power Outage: Persisting Struggles on Flyers Power Play

Before the United States shifted their focus to a legendary gold medal performance, the Philadelphia Flyers slipped out of Eastern Conference playoff position with 12 losses in 15 games heading into the Olympic break.

While the issues run deep during the organization’s first long-term rebuild, the most glaring statistical weakness is with the man advantage.

The Flyers have failed with cringy performances on the power play in five consecutive seasons. The issues have persisted through changes on the coaching staff, on the roster, and even in the front office.

What could possibly reignite the roar of the crowd when Lou Nolan announces the iconic PECO Power Play?

Yogi Svejkovsky joined the staff in 2025-26 under first-year head coach Rick Tocchet. He inherited a struggling unit that's shown underwhelming progress. The Flyers escaped the basement and jumped to 28th in the NHL with a short streak in their final five games before the Winter Olympics.

Rocky Thompson coached a power-play unit that couldn’t maximize its underwhelming (but not completely absent) skill for three seasons under John Tortorella. The Flyers collectively rank 32nd among NHL franchises** over the past five seasons by a 2.9% gap, a bigger difference than the gap between the 24th and 31st teams. 

The Flyers even gathered accomplished former NHL players within the organization in the summer 2024 for a meeting to propose solutions. General manager Danny Briere, advisors John LeClair and Patrick Sharp, scout Dany Heatley, and others didn’t effectively lay out a plan to fix the struggling unit.

Flyers commentator Brian Boucher joined Unfiltered with Ricky Bo and Bill Colarulo to discuss the struggling power play. The former NHL goaltender analyzed personnel deficiencies that have kept the unit from gaining rhythm in 2025-26 under Tocchet and Svejkovsky.

He first pointed to the lack of a threatening defenseman who can fire slap shots from the point.

Jamie Drysdale and Cam York have both played the point on the respective first and second units this season. Both young defensemen bring skill as power-play quarterbacks skating in transition and distributing in the offensive zone. However, neither has the blast that the coaching staff craves. Rasmus Ristolainen, a stronger 6-foot-4 shooter, hasn’t gained rhythm as a unit regular.

Boucher also questioned the lack of a complement piece to Trevor Zegras, who usually plays toward the top of the right circle as a primary puck-handler on the power play.

The coaching staff has shuffled power-play personnel without consistently using Matvei Michkov on the top unit. Although his specific skill set doesn’t necessarily fill the obvious voids, arguably the most skilled forward on the Flyers represents the potential to improve a struggling unit.

Owen Tippett has the skill set to play in the flank position, but he’s reached his NHL prime age without developing as a feared power-play shooter. He also has the size to play lower in the zone as a physical presence in front of the net, but he hasn’t played the role often in over 400 career NHL games. The Flyers also miss the skill set of injured winger Tyson Foerster. 

*through the Olympic break, 56 games into 2025-26
**Arizona Coyotes and Utah Mammoth statistically marked as one franchise