When Ron Hextall took over as general manager from Paul Holmgren, he had to build for the future from scratch, and it started with the defense. Holmgren’s final draft as general manager saw him reach for Samuel Morin with the 11th overall pick, a prospect who was ranked as the 23rd-best North American skater – he was the 76th-ranked skater at the mid-season. Max Domi was selected 12th (ranked 19th), Josh Morrissey was selected 13th (ranked 27th), Ryan Pulock was selected 15th (ranked 12th), and Shea Theodore was selected 26th (ranked 11th).
Shayne Gostisbehere was drafted in 2012 and Robert Hägg was drafted in 2013, before Hextall drafted Travis Sanheim in 2014, Ivan Provorov in 2015, and signed Phil Myers as an undrafted prospect.
Morin’s career was cut short due to injury as he only managed to play in 29 games across parts of 5 seasons at the NHL-level, coupled with 6 seasons with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms where he scored 8 goals and 44 points in 177 games. He was always seen as a rugged, defensive defenseman, with a little offensive upside but Holmgren and company likened him to another Chris Pronger and took the leap of faith.
Gostisbehere enjoyed a successful run at Union College before making the leap to the NHL. He made his debut in 2014-15 with the Flyers but truly made an impact the following season where he scored 17 goals and 46 points in 64 games. He only spent parts of 3 seasons with the Adirondack/Lehigh Valley Phantoms, appearing in 21 games. His first 3 seasons with the Flyers were electric after scoring 37 goals and 150 points in just 218 games, including a career-high 52 assists and 65 points in 2017-18.
Things took a turn in 2018-19 after scoring 9 goals and 37 points in the same amount of games as his 2017-18 season. Part of that was the coaching staff trying to turn him into something he wasn’t, rather than taking full advantage of an impactful offensive defenseman. Things only got worse when Alain Vigneault took over and he struggled to the tune of 14 goals and 32 points in 83 games across the next 2 seasons. He was shipped off in a salary cap dump to the Arizona Coyotes so the Flyers could facilitate a Rasmus Ristolainen trade. He seems like he’s back to his old self as he has scored 27 goals and 92 points in 157 games the last 2 seasons with Arizona and Carolina.
Robert Hägg was drafted in the 2nd round in 2013 and spent 4 seasons with the Phantoms before making the jump to the NHL. He was also another rugged, defensive defenseman but at the time of his draft, he was the 8th-ranked European skater. In 236 games with the Flyers, Hägg carved a niche as a bully in front of the net, blocking shots, delivering big body checks and playing a consistent brand of hockey in the top-6, sometimes top-4. He scored 13 goals and 47 points, blocked 371 shots, dropped 736 hits, and averaged 16:51 TOI. He struggled near the end of his tenure with the Flyers, akin to Gostisbehere, and became a Vigneault casualty as he was traded to Buffalo as part of the Ristolainen deal.
Myers was signed as an undrafted free agency in September of 2015 after posting 2 goals and 8 points in 60 games. He had a massive 2015-16 season where he scored 17 goals and 45 points in 63 games before adding 16 points in 20 playoff games. He spent one more season in the QMJHL before taking the leap in the AHL with the Phantoms. He scored 21 points in his first season before adding 33 the following year. Myers made his NHL debut in 2018-19, adding 2 points in 21 games. He became a near every day player in 2019-20 and really impressed everyone involved. Alongside Hägg and Gostisbehere, he struggled in 2020-21, became a permanent member of the press box and Vigneault’s dog house, and eventually became a casualty in the summer of 2021. Since leaving Philadelphia he has failed to replicate his 2019-20 season with stops in the NHL with the Nashville Predators and Tampa Bay Lightning, and in the AHL with the Toronto Marlies and Syracuse Crunch.
Provorov was drafted in the first round of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft with the 7th overall pick and broke into the NHL in 2016-17, scoring 6 goals and 30 points as a rookie, while averaging 21:59 TOI. The sophomore slump was not a thing for Provorov as he improved drastically the following season with what is still a career-high 17 goals and 41 points while averaging 24:09. The Flyers finally found him a competent partner 2 years later in Matt Niskanen and we were given a quick glimpse of what could’ve been with Provorov. He was fantastic, but it was cut too short with Niskanen’s sudden retirement. We’re not entirely sure what happened afterwards, but Provorov became a shell of himself and looked to have burdened the tolls of a shoddy defense on his shoulders.
Chuck Fletcher had also dragged his name in the dirt with trade rumours for his entire tenure and after a few trades went undone, Daniel Brière ended his tumultuous tenure in Philadelphia. Provorov scored 65 goals and 217 points in 532 games, only missed 3 games – all due to COVID – averaged 24:05 TOI, blocked 1,035 shots, and delivered 693 hits. He scored 3 goals and 11 points in 22 playoff games and averaged 25:39 TOI.
Travis Sanheim is the only remaining piece of that once-storied future, but part of that is because he now owns a very immovable contract. Sanheim was another defenseman that the Flyers reached for in the first round as he was the 53rd-ranked North American skater – drafted 17th overall ahead of Alex Tuch, David Pastrnak, and Adrian Kempe. In his defense, he had a great draft+1 season going from 5 goals and 29 points to 15 goals and 65 points in the same allotment of games. He spent one more season with the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen where he scored 15 goals and 68 points in 52 games, before making a quick appearance with the Phantoms.
Sanheim had 37 points in his first full season with the Phantoms, had 16 points in 18 games in 2017-18, before becoming an everyday Flyer from that point on. He had a great sophomore season where he scored what is still a career-high in 9 goals and 35 points, added 25 points the following season, struggled mightily in 2020-21, then had a resurgent second half in 2021-22, before succumbing to another dastardly tough season in 2022-23. He is signed for 8 seasons at a cap hit of $6.25 million and should be on the backend for years to come. He has had his moments, but the consistency has been missing from his game, something that is going to have to change without the minute-munching Provorov.
Before the Provorov trade, the Flyers got nothing out of Morin, traded Gostisbehere to Arizona alongside a second and seventh round pick to get out of his contract, traded Hägg to Buffalo alongside a first and second round pick for Ristolainen, traded Myers in a package deal to Nashville for Ryan Ellis, and then extended Sanheim to an 8-year deal.
It is truly an end of an era as we are now being ushered into Daniel Brière’s vision. Now the focus might be more on the offense as the Flyers have Cutter Gauthier, Tyson Foerster, Bobby Brink, and whoever they add in this year’s draft with the 7th overall pick – which could be one of Will Smith, Zach Benson, Oliver Moore, or Ryan Leonard.
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