Entering the 2023-24 regular season, the Philadelphia Flyers essentially walked into the new campaign with no expectations, whatsoever.
Things were so dreary that most – if not all – pundits and insiders had the Flyers finishing in the bottom-5 of the NHL’s standings with some having them in the bottom-3 with fully rebuilding clubs like Chicago and San Jose. The players made mention of the low expectations several times throughout the season and ultimately played far better than anyone expected until a late-season collapse essentially shrouded an otherwise great year.
As we enter the 2024-25 campaign, what are the expectations now? Are we expecting a bottom-5 finish? Are we expecting them to play at or near the same level of their playoff push that saw them holding onto a spot for nearly 5 months? The club is almost identical to last year’s with the exception of Matvei Michkov replacing Cam Atkinson, Jamie Drysdale and Rasmus Ristolainen expected to start the season with the Flyers, and Ivan Fedotov starting the year in North America. The only main subtractions from the mainstays last year would be Sean Walker (traded at the deadline), Carter Hart (leave of absence in January), and Marc Staal (scratch late in the year and walked as a free agent).
As things currently stand, the Flyers roster is all but finalized. CapFriendly has the Flyers at -$829,761 in projected cap space with a roster size of 22 players out 23 and 45 contracts out of a possible 50. Placing Ryan Johansen and Ryan Ellis on LTIR would solve their salary cap issues – or at the very least 1 of them – but in terms of their NHL roster for Opening Night, what you see is what you get.
Last year the Flyers opted not to dip their toes into the LTIR space to avoid overages. They were also afforded the luxury of having open salary cap, which allowed them to take on the Johansen contract at the trade deadline, which netted them a first round pick in 2025 from Colorado. This year things are slightly different but it seems that the rebuilding Flyers are much more concerned with the summer of 2025.
Johansen and Cal Petersen will officially be off the books – barring any unforeseen transactions from here on out – Tony DeAngelo‘s buyout will come off the books as well and after the buyout of Cam Atkinson and the extensions handed to Bobby Brink and Egor Zamula, the Flyers are in line to have around 27 million in projected cap space. While it’s a lot of money for a team that has rarely been afforded such a luxury, they have Travis Konecny, Noah Cates, Morgan Frost, Tyson Foerster, and Cam York in line for extensions with the latter 4 being RFAs.
On top of what is going to be a busy summer for extensions surrounding core pieces, the Flyers will presumably enter the 2025 NHL Entry Draft with 6 picks within the top-50 – more or less. They have their own first round pick as well as Colorado’s and Edmonton’s and they own their own second round pick as well as Anaheim’s and Columbus’. The latter two picks should be early in the second round based on their current trajectory and the latter two firsts are top-10 and top-12 protected but are coming from Stanley Cup-contending teams.
The Flyers seemingly overachieved last year but they still possess a roster that isn’t going to be bad enough to draft a top-5 pick without lottery luck. Drysdale, Ristolainen, and Sean Couturier are expected to be ready for training camp after undergoing offseason surgery for their respective injuries, Fedotov should be able to lessen the load on Samuel Ersson and provide stability at a very important position, and Michkov will assuredly outperform Atkinson offensively and give the Flyers a boost in the top-6, and most importantly on their deplorable power play that has finished dead last in three consecutive seasons for the first time in NHL history.
The Flyers’ jump last year was also aided by the drop-off of the New Jersey Devils, the inconsistencies from the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals, and the Columbus Blue Jackets remaining in purgatory. This year should provide several questions within the most unpredictable division in the National Hockey League, but will it help or hinder the Flyers?
The Devils beefed up this summer by trading for goaltender Jacob Markström, signing defensemen Brett Pesce and Brenden Dillon, and signing Stefan Noesen. They had already addressed their goaltending ahead of the trade deadline last year by bringing Jake Allen into the fold, Dougie Hamilton and Jack Hughes are expected to be ready and healthy, and they still boast Timo Meier, Jesper Bratt and Nico Hischier. A lot of talent to unpack for newly-hired head coach Sheldon Keefe. Not to mention they drafted Anton Silayev with the 10th overall pick after many had him slated as a top-3 selection.
The Capitals made some interesting moves as well as they traded for forwards Pierre-Luc Dubois and Andrew Mangiapane, defenseman Jakob Chychrun, and goaltender Logan Thompson before signing defenseman Matt Roy to a 6-year deal. They also addressed their depth by signing Brandon Duhaime and Taylor Raddysh. Thompson and Charlie Lindgren should provide ample stability in goal a come in at a combined cost of $1.866 million.
The Penguins were a lot quieter but they traded for Kevin Hayes and signed forwards Anthony Beauvillier and Blake Lizotte as well as defensemen Matt Grzelcyk and Sebastian Aho. They didn’t make any barnburner moves but they still possess Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Erik Karlsson, and Kris Letang and were a completely rejuvenated club after acquiring Michael Bunting at the deadline last year. Their power play finished 30th last year, which was absolutely bizarre, but they only missed the postseason by 3 points. A better power play coupled with continued consistent goaltending from Alex Nedeljkovic could bode well for the Penguins in 2024-25.
The New York Islanders always represent a wild card as well because you just never know how they’re going to perform. Sometimes you forget about them, sometimes they go on a lengthy winning streak, and other times they’re randomly languishing at the bottom of the division before pulling out a post-season berth. They will be coming into the year with a relatively identical squad but they did sign Anthony Duclair and Mike Reilly as depth options. They will need Mathew Barzal, Bo Horvat, and Brock Nelson to lead the way offensively but their bread and butter comes from their back-end and goaltending with Noah Dobson and Ilya Sorokin. They will assuredly be a thorn in the Flyers’ side yet again in 2024-25.
Those are four teams that the Flyers will more or less contend with should they try to make the post-season this year. The New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes remain the teams to beat in the Metropolitan Division but after a summer of departures for Carolina, perhaps they won’t be as strong. They lost Pesce, Noesen, Jake Guentzel, Brady Skjei, and Teuvo Teräväinen and still need to re-sign restricted free agents Martin Nečas, Seth Jarvis, and Jack Drury with a shade over $11 million to work with.
The Columbus Blue Jackets signed Sean Monahan and Jack Johnson but will be entering the season with a similar roster that finished at the bottom of the Eastern Conference and 4th to the bottom in the NHL. Granted the injuries piled up but they are an extremely young team with plenty of prospects ready to take the next step, however that doesn’t leave much to desire in terms of the post-season this coming year.
It will be difficult to try and earn that third and final divisional spot in the Metropolitan but the wild card won’t be a walk in the park either with the Atlantic Division always boasting 4 perennial playoff contenders in Boston, Florida, Tampa Bay, and Toronto – with one all but locked in to the wild card. Detroit has always had the makings of a playoff team and with another off-season in the books, they should be a competitor for that final spot. Ottawa, Montréal, and Buffalo are the epitome of Wild Card as the possess solid core pieces that can surprise if they come together cohesively – as we saw from Buffalo 2 years ago – but the odds are stacked against them.
Depending on who you ask, the Flyers are somewhere in the 4-7 range within the Metropolitan Division and should be better than the bottom-3 of the Atlantic. We know how they can play when they work as a collective unit and under John Tortorella’s system, Michkov’s arrival should spark the offensive game, and a tandem of Ersson and Fedotov could be a boon for the club if they look to split their starts like Boston did with Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark.
It’s going to be a dogfight all season between the Capitals, Penguins, Islanders, Flyers, Red Wings, Senators, and Sabres – with the possibility of improved Canadiens and Blue Jackets teams.
The Flyers have solid pieces all throughout, but only time will tell which version shows up.
