After what seemed like a promising offseason, the Philadelphia Flyers’ season is coming to an end almost exactly one month from today, and it’s almost a liberating feeling. For those who have stuck it out and watched every game, I feel your pain. For those who didn’t want to waste their time watching a 3 hour horror show, I don’t blame you in the slightest. Too bad this wasn’t another shortened season because we have been going through the motions since December. With only 15 games left on the docket, the Flyers are actually doing something positive in giving their youth a chance to make some noise.
From the season opener to last night’s game, there’s been a lot of personnel changes and movement.
October 15th against Vancouver:
Claude Giroux – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny
Joel Farabee – Derick Brassard – Cam Atkinson
Oskar Lindblom – Scott Laughton – James van Riemsdyk
Max Willman – Nate Thompson – Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Ivan Provorov – Ryan Ellis
Travis Sanheim – Justin Braun
Keith Yandle – Nick Seeler
Carter Hart
Martin Jones
March 29th against Minnesota:
James van Riemsdyk – Joel Farabee – Cam Atkinson
Oskar Lindblom – Kevin Hayes – Travis Konecny
Noah Cates – Morgan Frost – Owen Tippett
Hayden Hodgson – Patrick Brown – Zack MacEwen
Ivan Provorov – Cam York
Travis Sanheim – Rasmus Ristolainen
Keith Yandle – Nick Seeler
Martin Jones
Felix Sandstrom
Oh, how far we have come. The Flyers’ opening night roster was missing some key pieces in Kevin Hayes and Rasmus Ristolainen due to injury, but from that promising night in October to yesterday’s monotonous feeling in March, there have been quite a few changes. For starters Claude Giroux, Justin Braun, Derick Brassard, and Nicolas Aube-Kubel have found new teams to play with. Sean Couturier, Nate Thompson, Scott Laughton, and Ryan Ellis have missed a lot of games due to injury, some of them being of the season-ending variety.
The bottom 6 is entirely different, as MacEwen was claimed off waivers before the season opener but had some issues with his U.S. Visa, which delayed his debut. Patrick Brown was an early-season waiver claim, Morgan Frost has been yo-yoed around between the NHL and AHL, Owen Tippett was acquired in the trade for Claude Giroux, and Hayden Hodgson and Noah Cates just recently made their NHL debuts.
Not as severe as Frost’s situation, Cam York has found his way into the NHL lineup amidst a few trips between the AHL. However, with the Flyers finally having enough of a lineup that consisted of Keith Yandle, Nick Seeler, and Kevin Connauton, plus with Justin Braun being traded to the New York Rangers, it was finally time for York to cement his name into the everyday lineup. The Flyers’ back-end will welcome the arrival of Ronnie Attard sometime during the weekend as he just signed his entry-level deal. With Yandle staying put till the end of the season, Seeler will find his way to the press box alongside Connauton for the young 6’3″ defenseman to make his debut.
Bobby Brink will most likely be the third and final collegiate signing for the 2021-22 season, following in the footsteps of his fellow competitors in Cates and Attard. His collegiate season is coming to a close in the coming days and his signing and entry into the lineup will enshrine the 2019 draft class as a positive one for Chuck Fletcher and company. York was drafted in the first round, followed by Brink in the second, and Attard in the third. Bryce Brodzinski, who is also still participating in the Frozen Four, was drafted in the 7th round.
Fletcher made it quite clear that moving forward and into the summer, he wants a core of players under the age of 25. He alluded to the fact that he is currently working the phones on deals that will take place in the offseason and with names like Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim, and Travis Konecny in the mix, the summer of 2022 might be even bigger than 2021’s rendition.
Morgan Frost, Owen Tippett, Joel Farabee, Cam York, and Carter Hart seem like locks for next year in terms of the youth movement and the under-25 core. Trading Sanheim would be a little fool-hardy considering they always mention his name when talking about Rasmus Ristolainen. One has to believe that extending Ristolainen to a five-year deal has everything to do with Sanheim, and his play of late has been nothing short of extraordinary.
We have all come a long way from seeing the Flyers constantly prioritizing veteran leadership over youth. It’s nice to see the infusion in their every day lineup, even if it’s only for the last 20+ games. Players like Frost and York were ready to make strides for some time but weren’t being utilized to their skillset. Frost is now playing upwards of 15 minutes a night, playing a prominent role on the power play, and has been playing pretty good defensively as well. York has been paired up with Provorov since the departure of Braun and he hasn’t missed a beat either. His game against the Nashville Predators on Sunday represented a career-high in time on ice with 24:57 and is becoming a quarterback on the power play unit before our eyes.
Before all the noise of the upcoming offseason takes over Philadelphia, maybe we can get a little excited about the final month of the 2021-22 campaign. It might still be tough to watch, losses are going to come in abundance, but for those who have been clamouring for youth and prospects to make their strides; now is the time to be tuned in. Frost, York, Tippett, Hodgson, Cates, and soon-to-be Attard, mixed in with the likes of Farabee and Hart will make it somewhat palatable. Kevin Hayes and Travis Konecny have been producing at point-per-game paces over the last few weeks and Oskar Lindblom and Travis Sanheim are enjoying second-half resurgences. Just something to think about.
