The Philadelphia Flyers have struggled offensively all year, and that should come as no surprise considering the diminishing starts from core members outside of Travis Konecny and Matvei Michkov.
Sean Couturier, Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, and Tyson Foerster have been a bag of mixed tricks to start the season, providing very little offensive support for Konecny and Michkov. Owen Tippett found himself on that list earlier but his recent stretch has seen the 25-year-old regain his form in short order.
Tippett never realized his true potential with the Florida Panthers after being drafted 10th overall during the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. In parts of 3 seasons with the Panthers, Tippett managed just 14 goals and 33 points in 94 games while averaging just 11:56 TOI. The Stanley Cup-contending club were looking for the final piece to the puzzle and acquired Claude Giroux at a relatively high cost of acquisition.
With the Flyers, Tippett has reached new heights but there is certainly a few more levels he can strive for and reach. In his first full season with the Orange and Black, he scored 27 goals and added 22 assists across 77 games while seeing 17:26 ATOI. Head coach John Tortorella was so impressed he bumped his ice-time up to over 20 minutes a game in the latter quarter of the 2022-23 season.
The Flyers saw more of the same last year when Tippett added 28 goals and 25 assists in 78 games, although his ATOI took a hit at 16:35. He fired 289 shots towards the goal, accrued just 12 PIM which earned him some votes for the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, and he added 148 hits and 47 blocked shots.
He struggled a little at the end of the season with just 3 goals and 6 points in the final 11 games but that was the case for most of the Flyers’ personnel as they slipped out of playoff contention in a matter of weeks. Nevertheless it was a career season for the Peterborough, Ontario native, and he was rewarded with an 8-year extension mid-season for his efforts.
General Manager Daniel Brière hasn’t been so quick to hand out extensions as we currently wait on the likes of pending RFAs in Frost, Foerster, Cam York, and Noah Cates. However, when it came to Tippett, they saw enough of his potential to warrant an extension well before the July 1st deadline.
Tippett’s 2024-25 season – the first of an 8-year contract – didn’t start off too well as he recorded just 1 assist in his first 6 games to go along with a -5 rating. He would follow that up with 3 goals and 8 points in his next 12 games but the points came in bunches as he recorded 3 multi-point efforts sandwiched in between two 4-game pointless droughts.
That had him at 3 goals and 9 points in 18 games with a -10 rating, however over his last 16 games he’s tallied 8 goals and 13 points with a +2 rating. His ATOI dropped by nearly 2.5 minutes after several games where he saw less than 13 minutes of ice-time but he’s continued to plug away and is finally getting rewarded for his hard work.
His recent surge has helped immensely with a lot of his teammates struggling to chip in offensively. He has tallied 7 goals and 11 points over his last 11 contests, which is second to only Konecny who has chipped in with 13 points over that stretch. With just one more game remaining until the Christmas break, the Flyers will assuredly hope that Tippett can finish things off with a bang against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
And we might see exactly that, according to some of the post-game comments coming from Tortorella, as reported by Jordan Hall of NBC Sports Philly:
“I’ve got to get him his ice time because I think he’s about ready to really take off,” Tortorella said. “He was very important for us tonight.”
Tippett had a fantastic game against the Columbus Blue Jackets that was capped off by his overtime winner past a sprawling Elvis Merzļikins. On the ice with Rasmus Ristolainen and Cates, Tippett skated ahead of Cates before he found him with a perfect saucer pass to spring him on an abbreviated breakaway opportunity.
Prior to the game-winner, Tippett did a lot of the dirty work, which started on the team’s opening goal as he drove towards the net and brought the defenders and goaltender his way before dropping a no-look pass spin-around to Frost for the open goal.
Tippett did more of the same on the third goal that tied the game once again when he lifted the stick of Damon Severson, which allowed Frost to gather the puck unimpeded and fire away. Tippett jumpstarted the play by following his own rebound as his initial shot went wide of the net.
While the fourth goal was primarily Konecny’s doing, Tippett earned his third assist of the period after playing pitch and catch with Konecny from the front of the net.
Tortorella is always rewarding players with more ice-time, especially when it comes directly from the horse’s mouth. The fiery bench boss was very complimentary and happy with the new-look line that featured Tippett, Frost, and Konecny – a trio that did a lot of the heavy lifting last year when the offense completely dried up.
“That was a pretty good line when we put them together, him, TK and Tipp, it kind of took off a little bit. Hopefully that will give him a little bit of confidence and he’ll be there. Not just one in three games. Three in three games. And just be consistent.”
Tippett’s 11 goals has him tied for second on the team with Michkov (two away from the team-lead in Konecny) and his 22 points have him positioned third behind the usual suspects. If he can continue to add onto his current stretch, Tippett will be in prime position for a massive second-half that could have in-line with third successive career-best season.
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