There has been a lot of talking points this season regarding the Philadelphia Flyers whether you want to take a deeper look into Matvei Michkov’s rookie season, Travis Sanheim’s emergence, and Rasmus Ristolainen turning back the clock among so many others. While Travis Konecny does get talked about, I feel it’s not nearly enough for the type of the season he’s currently having to date.
Konecny is off to a blistering start after signing an 8-year extension over the summer with a team-leading 15 goals, 21 assists, and 36 points in 31 games. It should come as no surprise as the 27-year-old has taken his game to new heights under John Tortorella as he has compiled 79 goals and 165 points in 166 games dating back to 2022-23.
Konecny has always shown flashes of brilliance but it wasn’t nearly as consistent as it is now. After notching 24 goals in 3 consecutive seasons between 2017-18 and 2019-20, Konecny went through a dry spell between the bubble playoffs in 2020 to the end of the 2021-22 season.
He scored 27 goals and 93 points across 145 games, including 0 goals in 16 postseason contests and just 11 in the ensuing shortened 56-game 2020-21 season. His shooting percentage then dropped to a career-low 7.3% in 2021-22 and while he finished on a high note with Mike Yeo, his start to the year was nothing to write home about with Alain Vigneault stunting development.
The 8.4% shooting clip he endured during those two seasons was always going to be the outlier, considering he converted on 14.4% of his chances from the previous three seasons and has been even better over his last 3 seasons at 15.3%; however at the time it wasn’t as plain as day.
Previous GM Chuck Fletcher also dangled his name in trade talks but was never able to get a deal done, mostly because the other teams were lowballing the Flyers. Fortunately for us, the Flyers kept Konecny throughout and now he’s finally blossoming into a top player in the league.
Konecny sits tied for 16th in the league in points with 36, tied for 13th in goals with 15, and tied for 22nd in assists with 21. While that might not jump off the page, it has been eons since a Flyer has been anywhere near the top-10 or top-15 in offensive categories league-wide. You would have to go back to 2018-19 when Claude Giroux tallied 85 points.
For his efforts, Konecny also earned a spot on Team Canada ahead of the 4 Nations Face-Off, which is quite the feat considering how difficult it has always been to make the national roster as a Canadian. Several marquee players got snubbed – as expected – but Konecny’s two-way play, snarl, and grit earned him his stripes.
Amongst his Canadian peers, Konecny is tied for 7th in points, tied for 4th in goals, and 9th in assists, further encapsulating what has been a great start to the season. He is within reach of some of the superstars in the league and he is finally getting recognized, ever so slightly.
Even when comparing him to his peers from the vaunted 2015 NHL Draft class, Konecny sits in 8th place for most points among them all-time. He only trails Connor McDavid, Mitch Marner, Mikko Rantanen, Sebastian Aho, Jack Eichel, Kyle Connor, and Mathew Barzal.
While his contract extension drew the ire of some within the fanbase, it wasn’t always going to be an easy decision from the front office group. Technically in a rebuild, extending a soon-to-be 28-year-old to an 8-year extension isn’t what is typically done. However, the Flyers have shown they are not going down the “traditional” route during the rebuild.
Konecny is arguably the face of the organization – at least until Michkov takes off in the coming years – and the Flyers wanted to build around a core of NHL-ready players, with the London, Ontario native leading the charge.
He is 2nd on the team in ATOI and 1st amongst forwards at 21:10 per game, his +1 rating – while nothing to write home about – is tied for 6th-best on the team, he leads the team with 6 power play goals and is second with 8 power play points. He also has the most shots on goal with 82 and the 3rd-best shooting percentage at 18.3%, and his 45 hits are 5th-most.
Konecny has accrued 45.2 minutes while shorthanded, 88.4 minutes with the power play, and carries above average numbers across the board when it comes to CF%, FF%, CF% rel and FF% rel. He is doing it all for the Flyers on a game-by-game basis and only the sky is the limit as he enters his prime years.
Saddled with Michkov from time-to-time while on even strength as well as the top power play unit, look for the pair to entrench themselves as the next dynamic duo for the Orange and Black.
