In a season with rather low expectations for the Philadelphia Flyers, there are some reasons to be optimistic. With that comes some valid criticisms of the team, which could limit their success. What are the three strengths and weaknesses of the Flyers entering the season?
Strength: Goaltending
One of the biggest positives for the Flyers entering this season is between the pipes. Carter Hart was generally pretty streaky, but that didn’t stop him from having a solid campaign as the starter for the club. The defense in front of him didn’t necessarily help his cause last season, so if the goaltending is isolated then it is among some of the best in the NHL.
Last season, Hart started out red hot with a .938 save percentage (SV%) and a 2.31 goals-against average (GAA) in the month of October. After that point, it was sort of on and off for him. Again, that can be more attributed to the play in front of him rather than an indicator of his own issues.
With a goals saved above expected (GSAx) of 10.3 on the season, he finished with a better total than Darcy Kuemper of the Washington Capitals, and even beat out youngster Jake Oettinger of the Dallas Stars if the playoffs are included in the comparison. Hart was undeniably great for Philadelphia last season, and his team likely would have finished much worse in the standings without him.
To give Hart some rest, the Flyers also have some good depth at the position. Head coach John Tortorella confirmed that Sam Ersson will be the backup entering this season, and that could be excellent news for Philadelphia. His sample size was small, but that also worked against him with a dreadful seven-goal outing against the New Jersey Devils last season.
If Ersson were to have appeared in the same amount of games as Hart, his GSAx project to be at 7.8. For a rookie backup going into a bad situation, he was fantastic. Now that he has the chance to be the backup for the full season, he could be even better.
Regression is certainly possible, but he showed that he even has the potential to become a future starter down the road. In a lineup without too much optimism, the goaltending provides plenty of it.
Weakness: Defense
All the praises for Hart and the goaltending aside, its potential is rather limited if the Flyers’ defense performs anything like it did last season. Though there will be some new pieces and some level of improvement bound to occur, the defense as a collective being anything but a massive weakness has yet to be seen.
Though the Flyers had some good individual performances in the preseason and training camp from the defense, as a whole they didn’t really show that they were much improved from last season. This was one of the bigger worries for the team entering 2023-24, especially after they traded defenseman Ivan Provorov in the offseason.
On the bright side, they could be more offensively gifted than they were a year ago with a player like Emil Andrae having a chance to become a regular on the team and Cam York taking a step forward last season, but that won’t substantially improve the team’s play in their own end. Positional lapses and bad turnovers are more frequent with Philadelphia than with some of the better defensive teams in the league, so it won’t always be pretty. This crisis may not change for a while, but it could be less crippling.
Strength: Offensive Depth
Through most of the 2010s, the Flyers’ inability to acquire adequate offensive depth was one of the reasons why they were unable to live up to their full potential. It might have been a bit too late, but they seem to have gotten over that now. The team’s bottom-six may not just be good, but it has the potential to be one of the best units in the league.
A realistic third line for the Flyers this season could hold players such as Scott Laughton, Noah Cates, and Cam Atkinson. The first two of these players frequented the second line in 2022-23, while the last missed the entire season due to neck surgery. Even a playoff team would likely have a player or two here in their top-six, so the Flyers are certainly a deeper team than they were last season.
A fourth line of Nicolas Deslauriers, Ryan Poehling, and Garnet Hathaway has already been cemented by Tortorella. It’s hard to blame him, as that unit was rather impressive in training camp and during the preseason. There is some 5-on-5 upside with this trio, and it could catch teams by surprise.
Weakness: Lack of Superstar Talent
The Flyers’ depth can be as good as it wants to be, but the bottom line is that they lack a true game-breaking talent on the current roster that will win the team hockey games by themselves. The closest they have is Travis Konecny, but even he is not at that level at this point.
Konecny’s 31 goals and 30 assists in 60 games last season suggest he is a great player, but he is not a true superstar. If the Flyers want to have any success at either end of the ice, they will need to have output as a committee. This may be the case beyond just this season, so the Flyers are almost capped in their ceiling barring unforeseen progression.
Strength: Youth Leading the Way
For the 2023-24 season, the Flyers will be heavily relying on their young players to lead the way in not only their offense, but the defense as well. This gives the team some semblance of upside for the first season of the new era.
There will be several inexperienced players who will have a chance to shine this season, such as forwards Tyson Foerster and Bobby Brink and defenders Egor Zamula, and Andrae. If they earn consistent playing time on the roster, this is a positive for the Flyers’ rebuild regardless of if they see remarkable evolution in their game.
Related: Philadelphia Flyers’ Keys to Success in 2023-24
The best part about the Flyers having to rely on their young players is that each of them has earned the opportunity to play. While a lineup spot on a nightly basis is far from a guarantee, the fact that they have beat out veterans at all is a pleasant surprise. The sky is the limit for them, but the hope is that they can at least get something valuable from their time in the NHL.
Weakness: Special Teams
Over the last two seasons specifically, the Flyers have had some of the most abysmal special team units in the entire league for both the power play and the penalty kill. In fact, they have been the worst team on the man advantage and the seventh-worst team on the penalty kill in not just 2021-22, but last season as well. The preseason showed some sparks for the second unit on the power play, but that won’t do much to help the Flyers’ case.
The absences of Atkinson and Sean Couturier last season didn’t really help matters for either unit, but the team still struggled when they were both healthy in the 2021-22 season. Not too much weight should be put into preseason play, but the first unit with both of them on it looked stale overall.
The Flyers will need to experiment with both units to find what will give them the most success. It could take time, but some improvement in the special teams will be needed. A drastic shift seems more than unlikely.
The magnitude of the Flyers’ negatives for this season could very much outweigh the positives, but the good about the team must be a major focus. To have a successful campaign, they will have to pounce on their strengths.
