Underrated and Misunderstood, Noah Cates Quietly Contributing for Flyers

He doesn’t score a lot of goals, he doesn’t chip in offensively as much as the Philadelphia Flyers need at the moment, and they’ve drafted two-way players ad nauseam over the last decade and a bit, however Noah Cates remains a pivotal cog in the engine for the Flyers moving forward.

Currently sitting with just 1 goal in 22 games, Cates has been a non-factor offensively. However, this year he has been strictly used in a defensive manner and has provided the Flyers with much-needed depth down the middle, which has also allowed them to use Scott Laughton more on the wing than at centre.

While the Flyers need more offensive punch down the middle with just Sean Couturier and Morgan Frost ahead on the depth chart, what Cates brings to the table can often be misunderstood, forgotten, and ignored.

Cates was originally drafted by the Flyers in the 5th round of the 2017 NHL Entry Draft after spending parts of 2 seasons with the Omaha Lancers of the USHL. In his draft+1 season, Cates exploded for 21 goals and 55 points in 60 games before attending the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

In 4 years at the collegiate level, Cates tallied 49 goals and 99 points in 139 games. He signed his entry-level contract with the Flyers at the end of his 2021-22 season and played in 16 games at the end of the year, where he tallied 5 goals and 9 points.

2022-23 was technically his official rookie season and in 82 games, Cates scored 13 goals and 38 points, while holding a +3 rating in 17:46 TOI for a downtrodden Flyers team. Last year was a bag of mixed tricks with injuries getting in the way, as he appeared in just 59 contests while accumulating just 6 goals and 18 points in 13:48 ATOI.

While his offensive numbers have paled in comparison, what Cates is doing off the puck has been a huge factor as to why John Tortorella deploys him the way he does.

In his rookie season, Cates ended up finishing 9th in Calder voting and 15th in the Selke Trophy race. He finished the year with 65 blocked shots and 86 hits as well as a lopsided 60:13 takeaway to giveaway ratio.

While limited to just 59 games last year, Cates improved on the faceoff dot from 39.5% from the year before to 44.5%, he blocked 35 shots to 53 hits, and had a 33:5 takeaway to giveaway ratio. His analytical numbers also increased with a CF% of 51.6 and a FF% of 56.

This year, those numbers have dropped to 43.3% and 44.6% respectively, but he’s also started in the defensive zone 72.4% of the time compared to 54.8% last year and 57.1% in 2022-23. Cates has also done much better in the faceoff circle with a 51.7% success rate this year, and while his ice-time has dropped once again, that has more to do with the amount of forwards ahead of him in the depth chart.

Currently on a line with Bobby Brink and Tyson Foerster, Cates has realized some of his offensive potential with 4 points in his last 10 games, but he also holds a +8 rating in a stretch where the Flyers have gone 6-3-1.

His +9 rating on the season leads the team by a wide margin with Emil Andrae (+5), Travis Sanheim (+2), and Rasmus Ristolainen (+2), Matvei Michkov (+1), and Garnet Hathaway (+1) as the only other plus-rated Flyers who have played more than 8 games this year.

Additionally, while Cates’ takeaway to giveaway ratio, blocked shots, and hits are a little lower than from previous seasons, he’s still sitting at 9 takeaways to 4 giveaways, 15 blocked shots to 27 hits, and he has 0 defensive zone giveaways, which is startling considering how often he starts in the defensive zone.

In contrast, Laughton and Owen Tippett lead all Flyers forwards in defensive giveaways with 9, Couturier and Ryan Poehling have 7, and Frost, Foerster, and Michkov all have 6.

With Laughton struggling more so this year than in previous seasons and his name constantly in trade rumours, Cates’ play is magnified even more. If he continues to thrive, succeed, and help the Flyers in a bottom-6 role, it would make Laughton a little more expendable than he currently is.

While the Flyers are still reluctant on moving the veteran forward, several teams continue to inquire and a game of chicken has ensued over the Flyers initial asking price – that has not wavered since Daniel Brière has taken over as the general manager.

The Flyers entered Thursday’s game against Florida with an 84.9% success rate, good for third at the time, before allowing 4 power play goals to the Panthers. Despite now clicking at 80.8% – 11th place – the penalty kill has been very productive as a whole again this season, and Cates has a lot to do with it.

At this rate, it seems like Cates will be a tertiary scoring option at best when the Flyers are at full strength. However, his defensive game and metrics allow the Flyers to use their offensive players to the best of their abilities, while players like Cates, Poehling, and Hathaway take on the bulk of the gritty work and penalty kill situations at a higher rate of success.