The Philadelphia Flyers had a pretty busy offseason, shuffling around their roster in an attempt to have a different result than last season. In doing so, 11 players who played games for their team are now in new places. This includes five forwards, four defencemen, and two goaltenders.
They made a couple of big moves and let a lot of depth players who played a few games for them walk this past offseason. Let’s see where all these players ended up and how they’re performing.
Forwards
Jakub Voracek
A big trade to bring in a new face at forward saw Jakub Voracek go the other way to the Columbus Blue Jackets. After 10 seasons in Philadelphia, he returned to the only other NHL team he’s played for.
In Voracek’s first season back with the Blue Jackets, he has had no trouble at all putting up points. The only concern comes with his one goal in 29 games. But he has 23 points and 10 power-play points, on pace to do much better than last season — he already has more power-play points than he did last season with the Flyers.
Voracek is back playing with Patrik Laine since his return, so that should boost his production even more. Though he is playing the least amount of time per game since his first year in Philadelphia, he has bought right back into the team mentality of how the Blue Jackets play hockey and has been a huge contributor to the success they’ve had so far.
Nolan Patrick
After a generally healthy first season back after missing an entire year due to injury trouble, Nolan Patrick has once again found himself being held back by injuries. He’s played a total of four games this season for the Vegas Golden Knights after the Flyers decided to trade him.
He has scored one goal this season in those four games and was looking to be the third-line centre for the Golden Knights with the opportunity to move up into their strong top-6. COVID and a ton of injuries on the part of the team would’ve given him a great chance to grow and show what he can do.
Related: 5 Flyers Who Probably Won’t Be Back Next Season
But it seems like the same story in Vegas that it was in Philadelphia, injuries have made it really difficult for Patrick to grow and develop at the NHL level, and it has hurt his career.
Andy Andreoff
For the past two seasons, Andy Andreoff has split time between the Flyers and Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League (AHL). He recorded just one assist in 20 games for the Flyers in that time.
This season, he is with the New York Islanders, but has also spent the majority of the time in the AHL with Bridgeport. He has done well in the minors, scoring five goals and 14 points in 22 games. He also scored one goal in five games during his time up with the Islanders so far. With all the COVID concerns and players on and off every day, he may find himself playing more games for the Islanders by the end of the season.
David Kase
After playing just one game for the Flyers last season and seven total games in the NHL, David Kase returned home to the Czech Republic to continue his career.
This is his third different team in the top league in Czechia. He last played there at the beginning of the 2020-21 season for Karlovy Vary HC, recording 25 points in 27 games. This time, Kase is playing for Sparta Praha. He is seventh on his team in scoring this season with two goals and 15 points in 27 games. Four of his teammates that are ahead of him in points have played in the NHL: Filip Chlapik, Michal Repik, Roman Horak, and Vladimir Sobotka.
Carsen Twarynski
Of all the available talent that the Flyers had left unprotected, the Seattle Kraken opted to select Carsen Twarynski. A not so young player anymore who has only seen 22 games in the NHL.
He hasn’t been the most dominant at the AHL level either, recording 20 goals and 47 points in 134 games. This season, Twarysnki has spent the season with the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL, where he has just two goals and nine points in 27 games. The Flyers are definitely not looking at this as a big loss like what other teams experienced at the expansion draft.
Defencemen
Shayne Gostisbehere
The biggest concern over the past number of years for Shayne Gostisbehere with the Flyers has been his defensive play and inconsistency. Though he was and still is a great power-play defenseman, his cap hit seemed too much for the team to continue to put up with. This resulted in a cap dump trade to the Arizona Coyotes.
Gostisbehere has really thrived once arriving in Arizona. It has given him the much-needed fresh start, and he’s played well at both ends of the ice. His strong play especially helped at the beginning of the season when Jakob Chychrun was really struggling.
With Chychrun now on the injured reserve, Gostisbehere continues to be the go-to defenceman on the team. The Coyotes also run two defencemen on the power play when everyone is healthy because of the impact Gostisbehere brings while on the man advantage.
After the first 20 games of the season, Gostisbehere had an even plus/minus on a team that was and still is horribly negative. This season, he has five goals and 20 points in 30 games while playing the most he has in his career by over 30 seconds per game on average.
Philippe Myers
Philippe Myers has been underwhelming for the Nashville Predators this season after he was a piece sent over to acquire Ryan Ellis. Myers has struggled when he has been in the lineup, and more often than not, he has found himself out of the lineup.
Myers has no points this season, and the Predators have elected to play Matthew Benning and Mark Borowiecki over him, as well as playing almost the same amount of games as Ben Harpur. Though Ellis has been injured most of the season thus far, the Flyers look to have won this deal easily.
Robert Hagg
Another defensive trade saw Robert Hagg as the sole player, along with a couple of draft picks sent to the Buffalo Sabres in order for the Flyers to acquire Rasmus Ristolainen.
Hagg has been an everyday player for the Sabres, but he has also been one of the least utilized defencemen on the team. Among the defencemen who have played at least five games, Hagg has the second-fewest minutes per game at 17:50, just one second more than Will Butcher.
Nate Prosser
There’s not too much to say about Nate Prosser. He recorded one goal and an assist in six games for the Flyers last season, the only game action he saw all season in any league. This season, the 35-year-old defenceman is unsigned and hasn’t played a game.
Goaltenders
Brian Elliott
Brian Elliott signed a one-year deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning to be their backup goaltender after spending four seasons in Philadelphia. The Lightning were looking to upgrade from Curtis McElhinney, who didn’t perform very well for them. Elliott has been better, but not great.
He has a 3-2-1 record this season with a 2.78 goals-against average (GAA) and a .903 save percentage (SV%). His GAA and SV% are better than either of the previous two seasons with the Flyers. But his career hasn’t really been the same since he joined the Flyers, and now it may be too late to make any real strides back to being a solid goaltender.
Alex Lyon
Alex Lyon has played just a total of 23 games and has started 16 times in his career over five seasons. It is his first season as a member of the Carolina Hurricanes organization. He has gotten into one game this year for the team, where he picked up a win. Now, Lyon has been assigned to the taxi squad.
He has done very well down in the AHL with the Chicago Wolves, going 9-1-1 with a 1.79 GAA and a .929 SV%. Lyon has been a solid goaltender for the organization thus far, and the team can’t be upset with having him as a third option in net if something happens.
It is worth noting that there were a few more players that played for the Flyers last season, but since they were sellers at the trade deadline, these players found themselves on different teams before the offseason. The three players I’m talking about are Erik Gustafsson, Michael Raffl, and Mark Friedman.
Some of these moves were significant, while others had barely contributed to the Flyers in their time there. Some of these players are finding success elsewhere, while the Flyers got lucky on a few names. Though fans and teammates alike are sad to see certain players go, it creates the opportunity for someone else to step up.