It’s strange to think that the 2017-18 season was only four years ago. The Philadelphia Flyers looked prime to turn around their mediocre decade after posting pretty encouraging numbers, individually and as a team. Claude Giroux posted a career high 68 assists and 102 points, Jakub Voracek had 85 points, Sean Couturier broke out for a career-high 31 goals, 45 assists and 76 points, and Shayne Gostisbehere’s offensive prowess was on full display with a remarkable 65 point campaign. Who would’ve thought that four years from then, the Flyers would be battling Arizona, Montreal, New Jersey, and newly introduced Seattle for the final spot in the standings.
Their young prospects were churning their way onto the big stage, the veterans had career years, and the goaltending was relatively okay. They ended up losing in the first round to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games, but little did we know that was sort of the apex of their “refresh” under Ron Hextall. Everything since has resulted in a steep drop-off, with the exception of some phenomenal play in the first three months of 2020.
The Flyers finished with a 42-26-14 record in 2018, good for third in the Metropolitan Division and only two points away from home-ice advantage in the first round from the Penguins and 7 points from the division crown. The previous season was a down year for pretty much the entire team, as Giroux finished with 14 goals and 58 points, Voracek led the team with 61 points, Brayden Schenn had 25 goals and 55 points and Wayne Simmonds had 31 goals. There were also quiet rookie campaigns from Travis Konecny and Ivan Provorov and the goaltending was pretty subpar as usual, so 2017-18 was a welcoming sight since everyone of importance had a big season. They fell in the playoffs in dramatic fashion, losing to the Penguins after blowing a two-goal lead in Game 6 but things were looking up.
Young players and highly touted prospects were becoming focal points on the team like Nolan Patrick, Travis Sanheim, Provorov, and Konecny. Robert Hagg, Oskar Lindblom, and Phil Myers had yet to explode onto the scene and players like Giroux and Voracek were just entering their 30s. 2018-19 represented nothing but failure as the 8-goalie carousel was introduced with the likes of Brian Elliott, Calvin Pickard, Anthony Stolarz, Cam Talbot, Michal Neuvirth, Alex Lyon, Mike McKenna, and of course Carter Hart. Giroux, Couturier, and Voracek did well offensively with 85, 76, and 66 points, respectively, but the rest of the team failed to hit at least 50. As a team the Flyers had a collective .900 SV% and a 3.24 GAA. The only silver lining was the call-up and decent play from the rookie goaltender Hart.
The big story of course was the firing of general manager Ron Hextall and then a week later the dismissal of head coach Dave Hakstol. Chuck Fletcher was brought in and he remained patient before getting his hands dirty in the off-season. The biggest move he had to make was trading Wayne Simmonds, and he did so by sending him to the Nashville Predators for Ryan Hartman. So there’s the before, during, and after of what might have been the most exciting season of Flyers hockey in a long time. 2019-20 is a close second only because they started off so poorly before exploding in January but then having their hot streak come to an abrupt end due to the COVID-postponement.
A lot can happen in four seasons, especially in the NHL and having to adhere to a strict salary cap unlike other sports. It also didn’t help that the cap became a flat $81.5 million instead of jumping into the 90s like it was projected to do before COVID. In saying that, not many faces remain as Claude Giroux is now with the Florida Panthers, Jakub Voracek got traded in the summer to the Columbus Blue Jackets, Shayne Gostisbehere was a cap dump casualty sent to the Arizona Coyotes, Wayne Simmonds has played for four teams since, and Nolan Patrick is now a member of the Vegas Golden Knights. Players like Valtteri Filppula, Jori Lehtera, Jordan Weal, Michael Raffl, Andrew MacDonald, Brandon Manning, Radko Gudas, and Dale Weise didn’t last much longer on the team, or in the league for some.
Only Sean Couturier, Scott Laughton, Oskar Lindblom, Travis Konecny, Ivan Provorov, and Travis Sanheim remain, but the latter three have been popping up in trade rumours as the Flyers look to aggressively shuffle the deck yet again. The Flyers have gone from being aggressive in the summer of 2019, to sitting back in 2020, to being even more aggressive in 2021, and now they’re reportedly going to try to top it all off in 2022.
How they’re going to do that is a mystery but with Fletcher at the helm, no one is safe and nor should they be outside of Carter Hart and Joel Farabee. After what we’ve seen in the four years that have preceded, it doesn’t look promising. Every touted prospect that has come through those doors has either never panned out or have dropped off heavily. Questions remain about players like Provorov and Konecny, which is why they’re on very thin ice. The dream defense of Provorov, Gostisbehere, Sanheim, Myers, Morin, and Hagg never worked out, with most of them departing in short order. Patrick never fulfilled his potential, it’s tough to tell on Hart with how bad the defense is and has been, and the jury is out on Morgan Frost. Their leading goal scorer in Cam Atkinson only has 23 goals, and he’s the top point getter with only 50. They have the worst power play in the league, a near-bottom penalty kill, an anemic offense at best, a Swiss-cheese defense on a regular basis, and the only positive stat is their face-off percentage in large part because of the departed Giroux.
After a very promising and uplifting season, rebuilding teams usually continue to develop and excel. The Flyers came out of their rebuild, worst for wear, haggard, and hitting rock bottom. Now on the verge of what should be another rebuild, and they’re trying to take a page from their history books and re-tool yet again. Making extravagant trades and signings never worked for Bobby Clarke or Paul Holmgren and they haven’t worked for Chuck Fletcher either. The Flyers were on the right path after 2017-18 but as fate would have it, they “Flyer’d it up” with questionable decisions, boneheaded moves, and an unlucky streak of busted prospects and injuries.
