The NHL season is fast approaching.
After a pretty quiet offseason from the Philadelphia Flyers, a lot of fans will wonder how they bounce back from the implosion at the end of last season. With pretty much the same team coming back (besides one major addition), the Flyers’ goal this year seems to be developing the young talent on the team.
Will that goal result in a playoff berth? It could! But fans should lower their expectations for the Flyers this year. The entire Metropolitan Division improved greatly this offseason, making it tougher for the Flyers to sneak their way into the playoffs.
While I understand that fans aren’t going to like the idea of missing the playoffs for the 5th straight year, this year could still be a very fun year to watch the Flyers. They have loads of young NHL-ready talent that will be fun to watch develop. On top of that, they have fan favorite veterans returning to help mold and develop the young players on this team.
All in all, it should be an exciting season, but I have my eye on five players in particular that you also should be keeping a closer eye on this season.
Just like last year, I’m throwing two of the Flyers’ first round picks in an honorable mention tier because you should be paying attention to their development this year. Hopefully one of them doesn’t throw a temper tantrum and demand out from the franchise for no reason like SOMEONE did last season.
Oliver Bonk: London Knights – RD
When looking at the first round draft picks Danny Brière has made outside of the Matvei Michkov selection, there were definitely some questions surrounding the thought process when these picks were initially made.
Take Bonk for example. The scouting reports on him were that while he was good but not great defensively, his offensive game was below average for the type of player the Flyers seemed to have wanted him to be. Well, last season with London made those scouting reports seem very silly.
While a lot of his production on the power play came from the bumper where he most likely won’t be playing in the NHL, Bonk still had a great offensive season. In 60 regular season games, Bonk had 67 points (24 G, 43 A). He also contributed at the World Juniors for Team Canada, tallying three assists in five games played. Bonk also looked very sound defensively all season, which was expected.
If Bonk ends up going back to London after camp, it will be the last time he does so. Look for him to enter the AHL at the end of this season or possibly even play a couple games in the NHL after the Knights’ season comes to a close.
Jett Luchanko: Guelph Storm – C
As much as people were confused by the Oliver Bonk pick, even more people were confused by the Jett Luchank0 pick. With Zeev Buium still on the board, the Flyers decided to go a different direction, center, drafting Luchanko and having Flyers fans scream “WHO?” at their TVs.
Well during Development Camp, Rookie Camp, and the Rookie Series this summer, fans learned WHO Jett Luchanko was. He was so good in Development Camp he was rewarded with an ELC immediately after the Orange vs. White scrimmage. In Rookie Camp, he was praised very highly by Matvei Michkov, and exhibited his lightning speed and extremely high hockey IQ to those who watched at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees, NJ.
Being on one of, if not the worst, OHL team as a young 17-year-old might’ve had part to do why he wasn’t touted as highly, even though he seemed to carry Guelph the entirety of last season. If he has a good training camp, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Luchanko play nine games to start the season before the Flyers send him back to Guelph to develop more.
I’m extremely interested to see what happens with Farabee this season. Don’t get me wrong, Farabee seems to be a very, very talented hockey player, but he just seems like the odd man out right now in this Flyers top six. As of this moment, it seems the Flyers’ top six wingers consist of: Matvei Michkov, Travis Konecny, Owen Tippett, and Tyson Foerster. Now this could all be for nothing if Farabee jumps up to the second line this training camp. Foerster getting moved down to the third line just seems like something John Tortorella would do.
Farabee had his best season of his young career last season, but it just hasn’t felt like he’s put it all together yet. There were stretches last season where he looked like a great top six scoring winger that could be a major piece during a playoff run. Other stretches, he looked lost on the ice to the point that he was put on bench door duty by Torts during the third period of some games.
Now Farabee is only 24 years old, so obviously his game isn’t close to fully developed, but I don’t know how much more developed you can get when you’re being sheltered on a checking line when your main skill is your offensive ability. Hopefully Farabee finds whatever he needs to find to help finally reach his full potential. If he can, he’ll be a great player on the Flyers for a long time.
Ugh, are we doing this thing AGAIN? Morgan. Dude. I don’t understand you.
Two seasons ago I kinda understood. He was playing in his first full season in the league. Obviously there were going to be growing pains, but the end of that season showed the promise Frost has in his game.
Then last season happened.
The season once again started off rough for Frost. He was struggling and apparently in Torts’ doghouse. But in January there were reports that Frost and Tortorella had a meeting. We don’t know what was said, but since that meeting Frost had played his ass off and his numbers greatly improved.
His advanced stats showed he not only was improving offensively, but defensively as well. On top of that, he had a better point per game average last season than two seasons ago. Signs are pointing for Frost to develop into a pretty solid 2C if he continues on this path.
The one thing that could end up being a problem for him is his wrist shot. I think Frost has so much natural talent, but until his wrist shot doesn’t flutter lightly towards the opposing goalie, he’ll be seen as a pass-only threat. That could make it difficult for the Flyers to score when he’s on the ice. Keep an eye on the development of that wrist shot. If he can improve his finishing numbers, the Flyers might finally unlock the Morgan Frost so many of us hoped we’d see one day.
Obviously a lot of eyes are going to be on Jamie Drysdale this season.
After everything that happened last season between the Flyers and Cutter Gauthier, Jamie Drysdale was at the center of it all while not being at the center of it at all. From here on out, Drysdale is the only player that the Flyers fans should be focusing on from that whole brouhaha this season (Besides January 11th… see you there Cutter).
Drysdale is going to have a lot of eyes on him, especially after last season where he was injured for most of his time with the Flyers. He also did seem to struggle a bit adapting to a new play style and marking system with the Flyers in the few games he did play in. Drysdale having a full offseason to recover, train, and learn the Flyers’ defensive system will be huge for his development.
I think there’s a very good chance Drysdale could have a breakout year, especially on the power play now that there is another highly skilled player that will be on that unit in Michkov. Last season Torts said that Drysdale could be considered a rover. To get that type of compliment from Torts means there is a lot of talent there.
It takes a while for defensemen to develop, and I think this season we’ll start to see Drysdale blooming.
No this is not cheating. The goalies are most likely going to be a tandem this season, so I’m going to talk about them as a tandem.
Last season at goalie for the Flyers STUNK. Carter Hart turned out to be an alleged perpetrator in the 2018 Team Canada scandal. Sam Ersson played really well to start the season but imploded since he was being ran into the ground after Hart was arrested. Ivan Fedotov finally came over from Russia after being kidnapped by the Russian military and CSKA Moscow. And Cal Petersen was there too… kinda… sorta… not really… well besides one game against the Penguins where he had one of the worst games I’ve ever seen from a goalie and probably kept the Flyers out of the playoffs (no I’m not mad, stop asking me if I’m mad).
This season seems to have some structure in goal. Well, besides Alexei Kolosov deciding he didn’t want to talk to any of his teammates in Lehigh Valley last season when they asked him to hang out. Oh, and then Kolosov decided to dip to Belarus because he didn’t get an automatic NHL position. You know, normal Flyers stuff at this point.
Looking at the tandem now, I think this is a major developmental season for both Ersson and Fedotov. Ersson is coming off a season where he was putting himself in the Calder Trophy race before he imploded down the stretch. Fedotov is coming off a season where he started in Russia and barely had any time to transition to the NHL before being shoved into a playoff race.
Obviously, neither scenario was great for the goalies. This season with a little more certainty at the position (no pending investigations), we could see a two-headed monster. Not having Ersson run into the ground and having Fedotov have a full offseason to transition to the United States is going to help this team so much. Both goalies are huge and can move very well. There is a good chance both of these guys can be top 15 goalies this season if things go well.
If the Flyers’ skaters play like they did all last season, the goalies can play league average all year and have the Flyers knocking on the door of a playoff spot.
I mean, was it going to be anyone else?
After shocking the hockey world and coming over to the United States two years early, Matvei Michkov looks to continue his development into being one of the best hockey players in the world.
Last season was tough for Michkov. SKA St. Petersburg wouldn’t play him early in the season, so he was loaned back to HK Sochi. Obviously going back to Sochi was tough for Michkov due to the loss of his father, but he ended up playing extremely well. Even though he had pneumonia for most of the season, he still played in 47 games and had 41 points.
In case you missed how special this kid is, let me repeat myself… an 18 to 19-year-old kid had 41 points in 47 games while battling pneumonia on the worst team in the second-toughest hockey league in the world.
Michkov is going to be special folks. His hockey IQ is off the charts, his hands are so good, his shooting ability is top tier, and he just knows how to manipulate defenders into doing what he wants them to do. Obviously he’s not going to come out and put up a 100 point season in his first year. That’s not what we should be expecting from him. What we should be expecting is seeing his transition from the KHL to the NHL and how he handles playing against the best players in the world.
I’m excited and you should be too.
There are four more players (and one coach) I want to touch on to end. These guys are still players (or a coach) to watch next season, but not in the top five.
Rasmus Ristolainen: It finally looked like Torts fixed him last season before he got hurt. Can he come back and play the same way while still being healthy? I sure hope so.
Sean Couturier: Did running him into the ground after he didn’t play hockey for two years cause his second half decline? Probably! Will he be better this season with a full healthy offseason? Probably! Will the same thing happen again this season? Probably!
Travis Sanheim: He was good last year. Can he finally put two good seasons together back to back? I honestly think so. Defensemen take a while to develop. I think Sanheim is finally reaching his full potential.
Tyson Foerster: 20 goals as a rookie is awesome. Playing incredible defense as a rookie as awesome. What I don’t know is if he can do both again this season. Sophomore slumps are real. Let’s hope he avoids one.
Rocky Thompson: Just please fix the power play dude. That was the worst unit I’ve ever watched in my years of existence. You fix it and you’re a top three team in the Metro this season. Besides the power play, I think Thompson has been phenomenal. As a 5v5 development, coach he’s been awesome. Most of the forwards had their best seasons ever last season 5v5 under Thompson. 5v5 development is goal number one right now in my opinion so having him keep developing the guys will be huge for their progression.
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