Flyers may or may not be better next season, but they should at least be more interesting

New York Times

22-07-2025

Travis Konecny is cognizant of the plan. Prior to the Philadelphia Flyers' moderately eventful 2025 offseason, the team's best player for the past few years acknowledged that this thing is still a work in progress.
In Konecny's final media conference on the day he cleaned out his locker for the summer on April 18, the winger was asked how far he believes the team is from a postseason berth. And while Konecny was hopeful then that 'they're not that far from playoffs … depending on what happens this summer,' he also knows that the 2025-26 season will still be considered a transitional one for the organization that he's committed to for eight more seasons.
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'I would say, being a consistent contender … two years (away)?' Konecny continued. 'We've still got a young team; we've still got guys developing. But I think all of the pieces we have right now, we're capable of getting in, for sure.'
We'll see about that, because there remains a pretty decent chance that the Flyers still won't be all that dangerous next season. This is, after all, a club that finished with the fourth-worst record in the league in 2024-25. Even after the offseason additions of Trevor Zegras, Christian Dvorak and Dan Vladar, gigantic question marks remain about the goaltending, the forward depth, the skill on the back end and whether key young players are going to develop the way that everyone in the organization hopes they will.
But something that does seem certain, as the current hockey operations regime enters its third season? The Flyers — as long as the bottom doesn't drop out — are about to become much more interesting.
Consider:
There is a solid group of young players on the NHL roster who are at the right age to take off.
Tyson Foerster, as long as he doesn't miss too much time to start the season as he deals with an offseason arm infection, looks like a future 30-goal scorer and maybe an elite defender, too. Owen Tippett, even with his step backward last season, still has the tools to score 30-40 goals himself. There's reason to believe Cam York could get back on track under new coach Rick Tocchet, if he can move on from how things ended last season with John Tortorella. Jamie Drysdale had a solid second half of last season, and at just 23 years old, could still reach his full potential as a defensive rover.
And then there are the two guys who could become legitimate stars: Zegras, still just 24 years old, and, of course, 20-year-old Matvei Michkov. Both are going to be extra motivated heading into 2025-26, for different reasons: Zegras, to prove the hype around him from earlier in his career when he burst onto the scene was warranted, and Michkov because, well, that just seems to be who he is.
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Seeing which guys are able to progress and reach their respective ceilings — and which aren't — is going to be compelling, either way. This season will be key in that regard for a whole bunch of them.
Other youngsters are arriving, too.
Porter Martone heading to Michigan State in the fall removes one potential training camp news item, but there are enough other youngsters turning pro that there should be some intriguing battles for roster spots.
Alex Bump's performance at development camp only increased the excitement about what the 21-year-old winger can do. At this rate, it would be more surprising if Bump starts the season in Lehigh Valley, particularly if Foerster is unavailable. Jett Luchanko, who still doesn't turn 19 until next month, could also make a play for a spot depending on how much he's progressed and how the center position shakes out in camp. Late 2024-25 adds such as Nikita Grebenkin and Karsen Dorwart, and prospects already here such as Hunter McDonald, Helge Grans and Emil Andrae will come to camp with their eyes on a roster spot, too.
Oliver Bonk and Denver Barkey, who starred for OHL London for the past two seasons, will likely begin with the Phantoms but could still conceivably make their NHL debuts at some point this season.
Regardless of who makes the team out of camp, though, which players earn recalls throughout the season will be worth monitoring. Is there a young player or two that could arrive sooner than expected, while pushing a veteran out? That will be much more likely to happen this season than it has in the past few.
They aren't planning on being strictly sellers anymore.
I touched on this in my recent mailbag, but it's worth repeating. If all goes to plan this season and the Flyers are at least hovering around a playoff spot, they're not going to be actively looking to trade key players off of their NHL roster to the detriment of the group.
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That doesn't mean they won't make any trades, of course. But they won't look like deadline deals of the past two seasons, when the Flyers traded Sean Walker, Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee and Scott Laughton — all of whom were contributing, to varying degrees — solely for future assets/cap space.
I think it's evident that Briere feels he owes it to the current group of veterans, who have endured two years of frustration while losing some of their good friends, a shot at qualifying for the postseason. It will be up to them to show him whether they can do it or not. If they hang around the playoff line, he'll almost certainly let them make an honest push.
Yes, there is reason to believe they could be more competitive in 2025-26.
One argument I've always hated goes something like this: 'If the Flyers had a better power play and better goaltending, they'd be in the playoffs.'
Well, yeah, sure. But you can go through just about every non-playoff team in the league and make a similar argument by identifying their various weaknesses.
At the same time …
The Flyers' goaltending and power-play numbers have been SO bad; they really have nowhere to go but up. Vladar, while probably not a future All-Star, plays levels above both Ivan Fedotov and Aleksei Kolosov, two goalies who had no business even being in the league last season. And there is reason to believe that if Vladar is able to give the club just average goaltending, that will give a boost to Samuel Ersson, too.
As for the power play, Tocchet has shown he knows how to coach an effective one, unlike the previous staff. He's going to be much more patient with his young roster than Tortorella or Rocky Thompson showed to be, which should help. Further, the power play should already be better with Zegras and a more experienced Michkov on the top unit, too.
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Remember, too, the Flyers were not a complete disaster at five-on-five last season, despite their poor record, if you believe the underlying stats. Far from it. Moneypuck had them eighth in the league with a 52.86 expected goals percentage, while Natural Stat Trick had them ninth (52.05 percent).
If they do meaningfully improve the goaltending and the power play, perhaps the Flyers end up as one of the league's more pleasant surprises next season. But even if they ultimately miss — still the likeliest scenario, despite Konecny's optimism — there should be no lack of intriguing storylines when camp begins in September, and in the months that follow.
(Photo of Matvei Michkov, Tyson Foerster and Travis Konecny: Eric Hartline / Imagn Images)