The Philadelphia Flyers are back home for exactly one game and it just so happens to be a fairly big one. The New York Rangers front office had to write their fans a letter for the second time and this is the first game where the team have the opportunity to respond. And, well, the Flyers have issues of their own with a hefty losing streak. Should be a, well, interesting one?
Puck drop: 1:00 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
: NBCSP
: 97.5 The Fanatic
Pregame reading
- To really get a sense of how big this Saturday matinee can be for this team, Ryan Gilbert went straight for the jugular: If they don’t win against the Rangers then there should be massive panic. [BSH]
- Five burning questions that will define the rest of the Flyers’ season. Everything from special teams to whether or not we see some trade deadline action. [BSH]
- Denver Barkey was a healthy scratch in Buffalo but responded in a massive way against the Penguins, as he was one of the only effective forwards for the Flyers in Pittsburgh. [BSH]
- As the days progress since the Christian Dvorak signing, it really seems like the Flyers are flirting with disaster after signing the career depth center to that deal. [BSH]
Pregame watching
By the numbers
Philadelphia Flyers – 22-16-8 (5th in Metro)
Goals: Trevor Zegras (18)
Assists: Travis Konecny (25)
Points: Trevor Zegras (42)
New York Rangers – 20-22-6 (8th in Metro)
Goals: Mika Zibanejad (18)
Assists: Artemi Panarin (35)
Points: Artemi Panarin (51)
Projected lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Trevor Zegras — Christian Dvorak — Travis Konecny
Matvei Michkov — Sean Couturier — Carl Grundstrom
Denver Barkey — Noah Cates — Owen Tippett
Nikita Grebenkin — Rodrigo Abols — Garnet Hathaway
Cam York — Travis Sanheim
Emil Andrae — Jamie Drysdale
Nick Seeler — Noah Juulsen
Aleksei Kolosov
(Sam Ersson)
New York Rangers
Artemi Panarin — Vincent Trocheck — Alexis Lafreniere
Gabe Perreault — Mika Zibanejad — J.T. Miller
Brennan Othmann — Noah Laba — Will Cuylle
Taylor Raddysh — Sam Carrick — Jonny Brodzinski
Vladislav Gavrikov — Braden Schneider
Matthew Robertson — Will Borg
Storylines to watch
They really need to show something
The Flyers are desperate. Heck, we are desperate for the Flyers. After losing a game they should’ve won against Toronto, suffering two horrible losses to a Stanley Cup contender in the form of the Tampa Bay Lightning, and then dropping games against potential peers, the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins, they need to show some fight.
Maybe the team just used up a month’s worth of effort on January 6 to show off against the visiting Ducks and Cutter Gauthier, but it really seems like they’re drained out there and can’t get a whole lot going. Specifically when it comes to both special teams, the Flyers have been just falling down on their face while on the ice. It’s been a little hard to watch.
On Saturday afternoon, they need to show some sign of life. Not just a couple players playing well, or a nice little defensive showing, but a spark of firepower or someone like Matvei Michkov going off — it would just mean more to see something significant like that happen and maybe even win the game.
The Denver Barkey and Matvei Michkov connection
On Thursday against the Penguins, Denver Barkey and Matvei Michkov were put on the same line for the first time and almost instantly formed a chemistry that led them to actually producing some points. On the Flyers’ second goal, it was Barkey and Michkov doing all the heavy lifting before Nick Seeler put it home (only the former earned a point on the play) and then we all saw what was coming: An outstanding and somewhat classic Michkov goal on an actual goalie, directly assisted by Barkey.
Now, the question is whether or not they will be sticking together (they better) and if we will be seeing the same level of play. Barkey should theoretically keep his tenacious forechecking against the Rangers, and Michkov has been getting better — so maybe we’ll see it continue?
How will the Rangers respond after the letter?
In case you didn’t know, the Rangers published a letter again. And we mean again because under former general manager Jeff Gorton, the team wrote the fans a letter back in 2018 all about their expectation to rebuild and how there will be upcoming pain — all the flowery language to just say that they’re switching paths. Well, that was before they won a couple draft lotteries and Artemi Panarin and Adam Fox fell into their laps.
But now, even with those very good players, they really stink. The Rangers are at the bottom of the Eastern Conference with a roster full of overpaid veterans and no real path to get to contending with the current assets they have, so current general manager Chris Drury penned another letter. But now it’s a “retool” instead of a “rebuild” — basically saying they will suck this year and maybe next year and they might trade off some long-time players (like Panarin) before the trade deadline on March 6.
So, now, in the first game since that new letter has been published and conversations with the team have been had, the Rangers are visiting the Flyers. It might just be a personal opinion, but this team might be as fired up as ever to try and prove that they don’t need to trade anyone away and they can win some games with the current situation they have going on.
In 2018, the first game after Gorton published his letter had the Rangers earn a 4-3 win over the Calgary Flames and then travel to Winnipeg for a 3-1 win over the Jets. And then, well, they went on a seven-game losing streak after that. So, they really put all the effort they had left into those games following that first letter — could they do the same here and we’ll see the floundering Flyers face a fired-up Rangers team?
Source
When former Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher signed Nic Deslauriers to a four-year, $7 million deal ($1.75 million AAV) on July 13, 2022, many didn’t see the logic behind the deal. Deslauriers had a 10-goal season for Montreal in 2017-18 in just 58 games. But he wasn’t a playmaker, nor a sniper. In short, he was an enforcer. A fighter. Somebody who was the Flyers’ policeman on the ice, and tried to deter liberties being taken on star players or smaller players by the opposition. Deslauriers understood the role, and in his first year with the Flyers, he ended up with 136 penalty minutes in 80 games. He dropped the gloves a lot, delivered good shots, took good shots.
That season, according to Hockeyfights.com, he had 14 fights. He was paid to do his job. And he did his job. In 2023-24, Deslauriers engaged in 11 bouts, perhaps none more famous (or infamous) than his titanic tilt with Rangers youngster and giant Matt Rempe in February of 2024. Both threw haymakers, both connected, and both parties believed they fared well in the fight. Of course, Deslauriers’ face looked bruised and swollen afterwards, but the crowd’s reaction in Philadelphia was boisterous.
One of the BEST hockey fights you’ll ever see
Matt Rempe vs Nicolas Deslaurierspic.twitter.com/Vuy7lp1g3R
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) February 24, 2024
The Flyers winger and fourth-liner fought twice more that season. But since that Rempe fight, Deslauriers has fought quite sporadically. Last season he dropped the gloves three times. And this season he’s fought four times. And with half a season left in the contract, it seems rather unlikely that the Flyers would resign the soon-to-be 35-year-old to a short-term, team cap-friendly extension in the summer. Most likely Deslauriers’ time in Philadelphia is coming to an end. After 80 games in his first year with the Flyers, he’s seen his ice time diminish. In 2023-24 he played 60 games while the following season he appeared in 31 games. Given how this current season is playing out, Deslauriers will probably be in the 25-game to 30-game range barring a rash of Flyer injuries the rest of the year. He has 17 games thus far, and looks to be playing in his eighteenth game Wednesday night against host Buffalo. Bobby Brink is unable to play and Denver Barkey looks to be a healthy scratch.
So, with Deslauriers’ time with the Flyers in the homestretch it appears, is it safe to say that he will be the last true enforcer the franchise will have? It seems to be trending in that direction, just going from his own usage over the last four years. With the fourth lines of most teams now preferring to score 15 to 20 goals or more if they can to add offensive depth, the likes of guys like Deslauriers seem to be dwindling somewhat in terms of need. Of course, some teams will always wish to have an enforcer in their lineup. But nowadays a lot of teams are opting to draft bigger, stronger, and more talented players who can do more than fight or patrol the ice for 10 to 12 minutes a game. A guy like Washington’s Tom Wilson, as dirty as some of his hits have been, is also able to put between 20 to 30 goals in the net also. So the fighting aspect is just part of his game, not all of the skills in his proverbial toolbox. That appears to be the trend more and more teams are subscribing to. Not simply finding a guy who only has one trick up his sleeve.
Currently, Philadelphia have two guys besides Deslauriers who can fight: fellow fourth-liner Garnet Hathaway and defenseman Nick Seeler. Both guys have skills besides fighting, whether it’s on the penalty kill or blocking shots. Yet both can also handle themselves and some other opponent if they see one of their teammates on the ice hurt. One would be hard pressed to describe either guy as an enforcer though, which is what Deslauriers has been for the last three seasons and change. And with Flyers general manager Danny Briere looking forward, it appears he’s not keen on finding the next younger, fresher Nic Deslauriers to add to the roster. If he did sign such a guy, most likely it’s a depth player who, like Deslauriers current is now, going to be relegated to between 20 to 30 games. And be rather inexpensive.
So where does Deslauriers sit in terms of all-time Flyer enforcers?
Nic Deslauriers will probably be remembered as the last true enforcer for the Philadelphia Flyers. But as far as where he sits among others who have played for the team since 1967-68, Deslauriers isn’t really in the top 10 or top 20. To put it in perspective, Wayne Simmonds — who was a strong net-front presence while also being able to fight — has 784 penalty minutes with the Flyers. That might seem like a lot of minutes. Yet on the Flyers all-time list, that puts him at nineteenth overall. Simmonds is behind the likes of Behn Wilson, Terry Carkner, Ed Van Impe, Scott Hartnell, and even Eric Lindros who sits in twelfth position (948 penalty minutes).
The top 10 is like a Murderer’s Row of fighting: Rick Tocchet, Paul Holmgren, Andre “Moose” Dupont, and Bobby Clarke are the top four Flyers for penalty minutes. Tocchet has 1815 minutes, 215 more than Holmgren who is second. Meanwhile, behind those players sits Dave “The Hammer” Schultz, Dave Brown, Bob Kelly, Gary Dornhoefer, and Craig Berube. Glen Cochrane rounds out the Top 10 with 1,110 penalty minutes. As it stands now, heading into the Buffalo game, Deslauriers has 264 penalty minutes in 188 games with the Flyers. So while he has done his job over these four years, in the bigger picture he’s dwarfed by a glut of players from the ’70s and ’80s.
Few will truly miss Nic Deslauriers when his time in Philadelphia is up. They’ll remember the Rempe fight but probably little else. But his leaving might be noteworthy for a team that prided itself on being rough and tumble dating back to NHL expansion and year one at the Spectrum. Deslauriers could fight with the best of them. Yet his departure probably makes him the last of the true enforcers the Philadelphia Flyers will ever dress.
Source
The 2026 World Juniors have come and gone and all six Flyers prospects who took part in the winter tournament up there in Minnesota, have now returned to their leagues around the world. Finishing off the second half of their seasons as they aim for brighter and bigger futures and potentially even moving up a division or maybe even signing an NHL contract to start that whole new journey.
There were a variety of outcomes at the World Juniors for the Flyers’ prospects. Some excelled on the biggest stage so far in their careers, while other shrunk in minor depth roles and were never truly an impact player while representing their country. We already had a look at just how all six of these lovely, super cool prospects fared at the tournament, but what has happened since then?
It’s been over two weeks since everyone went home and all six of them have at least played a couple games for their respective teams. So, let’s see if any mid-season tournament performances have really kickstarted these guys, or they’re in a bit of a rut.
Porter Martone
Martone had a productive but fairly quiet World Juniors — he racked up the points to be among the leading scorers but never truly looked the dominant part that some were expecting. Canada sheepishly took the bronze medal after being heralded as an instant favorite and Martone was a part of that. But, he took that momentum of being able to score some points and ran with it back to Michigan State.
In the very first game back for the Spartans, the Flyers 2025 first-round draft pick scored two goals and added two more assists to that total, setting a new season-high in points in a single game with his four. It was a great performance but the three games after that, Martone has managed to register just one goal and two assists. It is great to see him score in every single game he plays in (Martone has only ever left a game for Michigan State without a point four times) but it’s not the world-beating totals that some would expect.
The Spartans did face some tough competition in Wisconsin, the fifth-ranked school in the nation, and didn’t get to beat up on New Hampshire or Northern Michigan again, so the point totals in some close wins is somewhat explained. Still, he’s scoring at a great rate for someone who was just drafted several months ago and certainly didn’t let some mid-season tournament mess that up.
Jett Luchanko
While Martone enjoyed the heights of being at the top of the lineup for Canada, Jett Luchanko rounded out the roster as a regular member of the bottom six. This sort of defense-first role might have continued with Luchanko as he returned to his new OHL team in the Brantford Bulldogs after the tournament.
Since returning to the Bulldogs, Luchanko has scored just one goal and two assists in five games. Three points in five games as his team went on to win four of those games and the only loss came in an overtime bout. It doesn’t feel all that good. For any Draft+2 forward in the OHL who was a top-15 pick, the expectation is that they are leading the team in scoring, or at least dominant in all three zones. But for Luchanko, it’s a much more subtle role than most would want out of the 13th overall pick.
Maybe it is still getting used to his new environment in Brantford — he did just play six games for the Bulldogs before leaving to go participate in the world Juniors — but the recent performances really seem to fuel even more concern that fans had before the trade that sent him to the best team in the OHL.
We’ll have to keep an even closer eye on just how Luchanko is doing, but there is a desperate need for him to just go off one game and not make him look like just a point-per-game 19-year-old in the OHL, which rarely even become NHL players.
Heikki Ruohonen
Okay back to being positive and seeing Flyers prospects go off.
Heikki Ruohonen impressed a whole lot of people at the World Juniors. He scored three goals and nine points in seven games but beyond that was a transition machine for Finland and was the real second-line driver for that star-starved squad.
The 19-year-old center was having a fairly normal year as a freshman at Harvard, but after gaining some more scoring confidence while playing among his peers, Ruohonen went crazy. In his first game back they had to face a hard-nosed Boston University team, who promptly beat them 4-1. But since then, against St. Lawrence and Clarkson (yeah, not great schools), Ruohonen has managed to score two goals and five points in those two contests.
Heikki Ruohonen with the power play goal
https://t.co/QzBI2PwUwZ
https://t.co/EbQzOnw2Ue#GoCrimson | #OneCrimson pic.twitter.com/XFud21hyhe
— Harvard Men's Hockey (@HarvardMHockey) January 17, 2026
Those are some numbers against some lesser schools (Harvard isn’t that great, either) that make you feel confident that maybe Ruohonen could be ready for the next step. Is it crazy to think that a player that was just playing in the USHL last year could turn pro as soon as this spring? Maybe, but we’ll just have to see. Either way, there’s some good signs from the 2024 fourth-rounder.
Max Westergard
Max Westergard has a big opportunity after his World Juniors performance. The 18-year-old was a bottom-six winger for Finland for most of the tournament, but still managed to score four goals. And after that, his team back home decided that they should really think of developing him better.
The Flyers’ 2025 fifth-round pick was caught in a hard place — too good for the junior level back in Sweden, but not good enough to carve out an impact role in the SHL and never got more than a few minutes per game in the top division. So, he was loaned to the Allsvenskan (the Swedish second division) to go play for IF Bjorkloven.
Westergard did not score a point, or register any statistic at all, during his first two games in the Allsvenskan, but he is getting much more ice-time, registering 16:10 TOI in the first game and 14:25 TOI in the second. Now, it’s just seeing if he can add a scoring touch to his game in what should be a true test for his level.
Jack Berglund
The Flyers prospect that upped his stock the most at the World Juniors has to be Jack Berglund. Captain for the gold medal-winning Team Sweden, Berglund scored 10 points in seven games and just used some brute force to push aside some of his peers to play some winning hockey.
But, he has not been able to do too much of the same in the SHL currently. It is one of the best domestic leagues in Europe (maybe the best one), to be fair, but in the three games since returning, the Flyers’ 2024 second-rounder has scored one goal and it happened on his one shot on goal in those three games. He’s not really a offensive powerhouse over there.
Again, top league in Europe, but we at least hoped to see a little more oomph to his post-World Juniors games. We’ll just have to keep an eye on Berglund and see if he can finish the season out strong — he’s certainly being given the opportunities as he registered over 16 minutes of ice-time in two of those three games.
Shane Vansaghi
Shane Vansaghi didn’t have a great time at the World Juniors. He played in just three games and was a healthy scratch for the rest of them as Team USA got knocked out even before the medal round. But now he’s found a little bit of juice.
In the four games for Michigan State, Vansaghi has managed to score a goal and two points — it’s not some crazy number, but considering his season total now stands at eight points in 20 games, it’s certainly an improvement.
Vansaghi’s game is more about being a disruptor than a scorer anyways, so he has been effective in that sense as he’s been getting some solid minutes in some very big wins over Wisconsin last weekend. The expectations weren’t super high to begin with but it’s good to see his name on the score sheet.
Source
Unlike the other professional sports leagues, the NHL has yet to undergo an efficiency revolution. There is no one way to build a team in terms or composition, style of play or concentration of talent. Without a guiding force like baseball’s three true outcomes, basketball’s corner threes and football’s explosive offense, hockey general maangers are largely left to their own devices to implement a vision.
In the 2010s there was a prevailing sentiment as whatever team LeBron James was on, or the Golden State Warriors traded titles for the decade that the NBA was a superteam driven league. That if you didn’t have at least two perennial All-NBA caliber players, there was no point in playing out the season.
No one told the NHL that because over the last 15 years, the NHL has fewer unique champions than the NBA. That’s right, between the Chicago Blackhawks (3), Los Angeles Kings (2), Pittsburgh Penguins (2), Tampa Bay Lightning (2) and Florida Panthers (2) hockey, the ultimate team sport is more star driven than the NBA.
That makes acquiring stars the single biggest imperative to contending for a Stanley Cup. Setting the benchmarks for what contender status looks like is an ever-moving target year over year as the league evolves. But one thing remains true, you need as much cost controlled high-end talent as you can compile to compete at the highest level.
When it comes to the Philadelphia Flyers in year three under Danny Briere, one thing remains clear: The team has a long way to go to look like a contender.
The Stakeholders
The value of an NHL coach is pretty limited in comparison to the other major North American sports. As an execution, not tactics sport, hockey coaches are left at the mercy of the players at their disposal. A strong coach might be able to squeeze slightly more out of a group, but for the most part, there isn’t a clearcut prevailing philosophy within the NHL that correlates with success.
Amongst the last 15 Stanley Cup champion winning teams a few patterns emerge.
Number one and most significantly, Stanley Cup winning teams are led most often by those who’ve coached before. While the insularity of the NHL coaching carousel is undoubtedly frustrating and a driving force in the trend, retread coaches have won the lion’s share of cups since 2010. Just two coaches, Jon Cooper and Jared Bednar, were first time bench bosses when they won their respective championships.
In addition, as the NHL coach turnover rate increases, we are seeing the tenure of coaches that win championships get shorter. The average coach was behind the bench for three and a half seasons when their team won the Stanley Cup. That lines up with the fact that the average NHL coaching tenure is only 2.3 years long, the shortest of the four North American sports leagues.
It’s not just behind the bench either, the average general manager of a Cup winner being on the job 3.6 years. Big picture, this means leadership groups are getting shorter than ever opportunities to build out their visions. With owners having the macro evidence of both coaches and general managers winning championships in short windows, they have justification for the frantic environment.
This also points to executives and coaches likely being finishing touches on teams that have largely done the heavy lifting already. The idea of a caretaker manager exists in soccer, someone who knows they won’t be around long enough to reap the benefits of their work, but an integral component of developing a team in the long-term.
When it comes to the Danny Briere and Rick Tocchet combo, they are seemingly in strong standing with Flyers’ ownership. But, Briere is coming up on that benchmark 3.6 years on the job and fast. Tocchet in year one has time, but he’s inherently connected to Briere’s timeline. A new general manager would want their own guy, regardless of what Tocchet may or may not have achieved.
The Physical Makeup
Getting back to the initial premise of there being no one way to win, the data is relatively consistent when it comes to physical size. Now, as the league at large gets more homogenous as skillsets blend together to optimize for the environment it makes sense that players would largely have similar physiques.
Within any large cohort, players will typically fall along the lines of a normal distribution. The average NHL player this season is 6-foot-1 and weighs 201 pounds. Therefore, it’s unsurprising that the last five Stanley Cup champions, dating back to 2021 all fall into similar boxes.
The average Cup winner checked in at 6-foot-1 and a weight of 199 pounds. So not a whole lot to glean there. That said, it is notable that for all of the gushing over the Florida Panthers physical play, their average team weight last season was 196 pounds, the lightest over the last five years.
In comparison, the Flyers do check in at 196 pounds this season. At face value, I’d have said that was a byproduct of being such a young team that a contingent of their group still had physical maturing to do and mass to put on. The curve of size from 18-22 is already big for men, then think about the jump of going from junior, college or European league hockey to an NHL team with a professional strength and conditioning as well as nutrition programs spurs growth.
How the Sausage is Made
The conventional wisdom in hockey is to tank, draft high and waltz your way to Stanley Cups on the back of superstar talent. With player mobility restricted until they reach 27 years old, there are tens of thousands of players who’ve played games in the NHL without ever reaching unrestricted free agency. With star players at such a premium, teams are going to capitalize on their value as best they can instead of losing them for nothing.
In just the last handful of years, Matthew Tkachuk and Quinn Hughes, two of the 15 best players in the league this decade were traded for massive hauls. That’s why on top of drafting well, it’s important to stockpile assets when not trying to actively compete. Then, once your team is ready to contend for cups, you have to embrace the Vegas Golden Knights’ mentality of being all-in all the time.
Despite conventional wisdom about the merits of building through the draft, that requires further depth. Overall, of the last five Stanley Cup champions, 68 percent of those rosters were acquired through trades or free agency. The addendum to the importance of the draft needs to be tied to high-end talent. With so little of it to go around and stars concentrated on a handful of teams, depth is always going to be available.
With the Golden Knights, as an expansion team the obvious outlier, the teams of the 2020s are built with stars through the draft. Tampa Bay and Colorado are headlined by a small army of future Hall of Famers. Florida had a strong foundation with Alex Barkov and Aaron Ekblad before going out swinging for Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Reinhart.
Most of all, it should only reaffirm the notion that while depth is important, stars are what win in the NHL.
The Flyers at present are 44.8% drafted players which tracks with an organization rebuilding. In the mean time it’s of the utmost importance that the Flyers give their young players ample playing time to make informed decisions. The more action their pieces get, the better situated they’ll be to supplement them with high-end talent when the opportunity strikes.
On the Roster
There are times where making the playoffs over and over again without any real hope of advancing is Sisyphian. No matter what, you know the path ahead of you isn’t going to break your way. The team simply isn’t good enough. The Los Angeles Kings have had some solid seasons the last handful of years. None of those teams could beat the Edmonton Oilers regardless of the tweaks around the edges.
That said, there is so much value in experience when it comes to players. It might be a chicken or egg situation where the better a player is, the more experience they’ve cultivated or experience makes them into better players, but the proof is in the pudding. To eventually win a Stanley Cup, a team needs to be in the playoffs, consistently.
The Lightning drafted Steven Stamkos in 2009 and didn’t win a cup until 2020. The Panthers drafted Barkov in 2013 and they didn’t win until 2024. The Avalanche took Nathan MacKinnon in 2014 and didn’t win until 2022. Meaning that your organization needs to be in the mix for the long haul. You’ll go through multiple iterations of supporting cast, coach and general manager before breaking through.
When it comes to the Flyers, they’re in the earliest stages of their window. Going into Wednesday’s game against the Utah Mammoth, they had a combined 7,534 regular season games played. Their roster has a total of 163 combined playoff games under their belt.
In comparison the average of the last five Stanley Cup winners had a total of 9216 regular season games and 966 playoff games. Now, experience isn’t everything and talent can overcome that rawness. But, based on the roster the Flyers have at present, it’s still too early on in their life cycle to make any final conclusions about their core.
The Talent Question
It’s a reasonable reaction to get defensive over prospects. The Flyers have a small army of prospects ranging from teenagers to those in their mid-20s. With so much volume, it’s only natural that not every player is going to make it. That’s just a simple matter of fact when it comes down to the nature of drafting. There are hundreds if not thousands of variables that go into the development of a player and the capacity to reach their full potential.
Since Flyers have so many players in the nascent stages of their careers, it’s only natural that the group at large still needs time. At this point, Philadelphia’s top priority needs to be high-end talent acquisition. It’s done an admirable job assembling a reasonably competitive group and based on the weakness of the Eastern Conference at large, very much can hang around in the mix for a playoff birth.
In spite of the playoffs being a plausible goal this year, until the Flyers iron out who the key pieces on their next contender are, they’ll be stuck in wild card purgatory. The last time a team from one of the two wild card spots or the 7/8 seed in the old 1-8 format won the Stanley Cup was the 2011-2012 Kings. Trying to be the once in a 15-year period team is not nearly good enough odds to divert from the current course.
The Flyers still have quite a ways to go when it comes to accruing the value needed to win a Stanley Cup. While WAR is only one metric, it’s a good snapshot way to measure the differences in value between players and teams at large. When you take every player on each of the last five Stanley Cup winners’ average WAR in a season and add them up, the Flyers are nine wins above replacement below their average.
For context, a Hart Trophy caliber season is usually worth about 4 WAR. Now, the Flyers don’t need to make up that gap with just one or two players. At the moment the Flyers are icing several players who have 0.1 as their career WAR with how little hockey they’ve played. There’s still time for the in-house pieces to make up some of that gap.
Yet, until the Flyers unlock two or three star level skaters, they’re going to have a very defined ceiling. Amongst the group Philadelphia has now, the supporting cast of a contender is coming into focus. There are enough middle six forwards and capable defensemen to start wish casting a big trade into existence.
Those big trades are increasingly becoming a defining characteristic of contemporary NHL contenders. Now, it’s imperative the Flyers keep their eye on the ball. Time is both a blessing and a curse when it comes to rebuilds. The clock is always ticking, which in the early stages means opportunities to improve the situation with little pressure. Yet, the longer it takes for a rebuild to get off the ground, the less likely it ever gets there under the current leadership.
Source
The Flyers took five of six points on a three-game road trip, defeating the best team in the National Hockey League on the road by a score of 7-3. The statement game — which featured an Owen Tippett hat trick and a 32-save performance from Sam Ersson — may not solidify the Flyers playoff chances, but it will prove the team is far from done.
The basics
First period: 15:02 – Owen Tippett (Denver Barkey, Cam York), 18:57 – Denver Barkey (Matvei Michkov, Owen Tippett) (PPG)
Second period: 7:17 – Parker Kelly (Zakhar Bardakov, Jack Ahcan), 10:29 – Victor Olofsson (Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas), 11:01 – Bobby Brink (Unassisted), 12:12 – Cale Makar (Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas)
Third period: 0:56 – Owen Tippett (Sean Couturier), 2:00 – Matvei Michkov (Emil Andrae, Garnet Hathaway), 10:24 – Owen Tippett (Unassisted) (SHG), 16:52 – Matvei Michkov (Travis Konecny) (ENG)
SOG: 20 (PHI) – 35 (COL)
Some takeaways
Third time’s a charm for Sam
Sam Ersson was getting his third consecutive start on this road trip. And while he deserved to have two victories in Utah and Vegas, that didn’t end up being the case. Ersson was put to the test right off the bat on an Avalanche power play when he made two key stops early. He kept Philadelphia in the game in the opening period with a career-high 17 stops in the opening 20 minutes. There were a lot of strong stops, though none topped the glove save he made roughly eight minutes in as Colorado kept coming with the Flyers looking lost as they were being outshot 9-1. Ersson was showing some mental toughness, keeping the Flyers in it until they woke up. The period had to be huge for the Swedish goaltender’s confidence, as it seemed conceivable that Ersson hadn’t made 17 saves combined in the final two months of last season.
While there was speculation Dan Vladar might be taken off injured reserve and get the start, Ersson was stellar. The goalie allowed three goals in the second, but none of them could be blamed squarely on the netminder. In the third, Ersson was terrific on Colorado’s second power play of the period. With Denver Barkey in the box, the goaltender stood tall with some excellent saves in the first minute of the Avalanche power play. Ersson also ensured the Flyers were in great shape, maintaining their three-goal lead down the stretch with a lovely stop on Cale Makar.
Tippett rips it…thrice
Owen Tippett continues to play quite well. And after a rather dominating first period by Colorado, it was the Flyers who opened the scoring with a great snipe against Colorado’s Mackenzie Blackwood. It was the sixteenth of the year for Tippett who has shown a better skill set in his tool box in recent weeks.
The Flyers didn’t have much momentum after the goal. They did get their first power play when MacKinnon took a penalty in the offensive zone. It wasn’t a smart play, and Philadelphia capitalized on the power play. Yes, you read that correctly. Philadelphia set up a great play when Matvei Michkov fed Barkey in front, beating Blackwood on the blocker side to take a rather surprising 2-0 lead. The goal was the third power play goal for Philadelphia of late, certainly a small bright spot but one that might be extremely handy down the stretch.
DENVER BARKEY GOAL IN DENVER#PHIvsCOL | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/r2KCZSDaa6
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) January 24, 2026
Early in the third, after blowing two different leads, Philadelphia took the lead. Owen Tippett buried a shot by Blackwood which was a lovely snipe on his glove side.
The dagger in Colorado’s hopes was delivered courtesy of Tippett with a short-handed goal. Tippett went full bore up the ice and beat Blackwood through the pads for a huge 6-3 lead with less than 10 minutes to go.
Tippett’s second career hat trick and a four-point night could not have come at a better time.
Undisciplined to start
Flyers winger Travis Konecny wasted no time doing something dumb. This time it was on Philadelphia’s opening shift and taking a hooking penalty. While Colorado has a great team, their power play for some reason just isn’t clicking. But why give Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar any more of an advantage than needed? The Flyers had a chance to clear but Christian Dvorak failed. A few good Ersson saves atoned for Konecny’s error.
Minutes later, Noah Cates took an interference penalty which might have looked questionable but was called. Philadelphia keeps playing with fire, yet on this second penalty kill they were again effective. Konecny nearly redeemed himself later in the first when he was able to redirect the puck to Dvorak who was at the back door. Unfortunately the shot hit the iron and not the twine. If there was any saving grace it was that the Flyers appeared to wake up from their early stupor.
The Flyers kept their noses clean for much of the rest of the game up until the third period. A dangerous trip by Emil Andrae on Zakhar Bardakov put Colorado again on the power play but Philadelphia had the majority of the great chances.
Barkey bites
Philadelphia had a strong close to the first period, with Denver Barkey being clutch with an assist and a power play goal. Barkey continues to impress on the line with Owen Tippett and Sean Couturier, being one of the most impressive play-driving trios in the league. Besides, with a name like Denver, it would be apt he gets on the scoreboard in Colorado. Perhaps his best shift was early in the second on the power play. Although Michkov and Noah Cates were causing a bit of havoc in front, it was Barkey and Tippett who were creating something out of nothing with some great stickhandling and passing between them.
Barkey hasn’t been up for a lot of games, yet the synergy he’s developed with both Tippett and Couturier is exciting. He can create offense for Tippett and himself while also being quite responsible on the other side of the puck, assisting a veteran like Couturier. Couturier was the beneficiary of a great pass from Barkey behind the net. But Couturier made just an awful pass out front which Colorado grabbed, went up ice, and tied things up. Ersson had no chance on the goal.
However, the Flyers answered that game-tying goal in a huge way. Bobby Brink was on an odd-man rush but didn’t initially score. Seconds later he did, giving the Flyers a quick response and a 3-2 lead.
Through 40 minutes, Brink was the only Flyers skater north of 50 percent in terms of Corsi For percentage at 57.14. On the other side of the metrics coin, nine Flyers skaters were under 30 percent by the same statistic. It was a rather damning indication just how well Colorado was playing. And how fortunate the team was being in a tied game through 40 minutes.
The only flaw in Barkey’s game on this night was taking a penalty midway through the third but the Flyers killed it off relatively well.
Turnover costly
The Flyers looked to have tightened up defensively in the middle period, which was necessary against the best team in the league and with the long change staring them in the face. Philadelphia looked far calmer and collected in the second. But a bad Christian Dvorak turnover resulted in Colorado’s opening goal courtesy of Parker Kelly. Kelly, a fourth-line center, managed to lift the puck over a sprawling Ersson to cut the deficit in half.
In the initial moments after the goal, Philadelphia began to move backwards in their own zone, forming a barricade around Ersson. It didn’t seem logical they could survive a shooting gallery for 31 minutes. The Avs nearly tied it halfway through the game, but flubbed on an excellent chance.
A bit of Michkov magic
Philadelphia added an insurance goal soon after Tippet’s second when Matvei Michkov perfectly deflected a shot over Blackwood for a 5-3 lead.
The goal made it a two-point game for Michkov, and his first multi-point game since Dec. 30 when Philadelphia doubled the Canucks 6-3 and he earned a pair of assists. The Flyers ended their scoring for the night when Travis Konecny fed Michkov with a pass for his second goal of the night, this one an empty-netter. A huge three-point night on what was a night of huge positives. So much so Rick Tocchet was left grinning on the bench!
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Jamie Drysdale isn’t just playing well this season — he’s beginning to establish himself as a core piece of the Flyers’ rebuild, and head coach Rick Tocchet’s comments after their win over the Avalanche quietly reinforced that.
Jamie Drysdale has been a key piece in this team’s defensive core, completely turning around his game since he was acquired from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Cutter Gauthier. The former first-round draft pick was thrust into the NHL as a young 18-year-old kid who did not get properly developed. That was quickly evident when he came over from Anaheim. The skills were all there – specifically his skating – but the then 21-year-old needed to put it all together.
With the help of Brad Shaw and John Tortorella, Drysdale worked on his defensive game and began to turn his career around. Now, the 23-year-old is a mainstay in the Flyers’ defensive top four, and has already 20 points – the same total he had last year – in 23 fewer games, totaling three goals and 17 assists over 47 games. Drysdale is on pace to eclipse his career-high of 32 points this season and continues to impress visually. His work along the boards has improved, and his defensive game has grown exponentially. His hard work is being rewarded by advanced stats as well.
Since coming over from Anaheim, the young defenseman’s on-ice expected goals percentage has increased from 38.6 percent to 54.9 percent this season, according to MoneyPuck. He’s averaging 21 minutes and 18 seconds of time on ice per game, which ranks just below Cam York and Travis Sanheim. His game has undoubtedly improved over the last three years with the Flyers, but what’s becoming increasingly evident is his role as a quiet leader in the room.
Rick Tocchet’s comments on Drysdale after the Avs game
After the Flyers defeated the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 in Denver Friday night, Rick Tocchet, in his post game interview, specifically called out the 23-year-old defenseman as one of a few players who spoke up on the bench during the game.
Jamie
(quote via @charlieo_conn) pic.twitter.com/0mZwLgEFAC
— PHLY Flyers (@PHLY_Flyers) January 24, 2026
The Flyers’ young defenseman is beginning to find his voice in the locker room, an encouraging development for a player viewed as a key piece of the rebuild. Head coach Rick Tocchet has clearly shown confidence in the former first-round pick, deploying him in key situations, including as the quarterback on the first power play unit.
That growth matters. As the Flyers look to build their next core of young leaders, it’s important to see guys starting to take on leadership roles within the locker room. Players like Jamie Drysdale, Cam York, and Trevor Zegras are expected to be key figures in this rebuild, and seeing them step up as they continue to mature is a positive sign.
If the Flyers are going to turn the corner from rebuilding to contending, that culture shift will be driven by this group. How players like Drysdale, York, and Zegras lead — both on the ice and in the locker room — will go a long way toward defining the identity of the Flyers’ next era.
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We’re back again for a rare bit of Friday hockey for the Flyers, as they close out their road trip with a meeting with the high flying Colorado Avalanche. This trip has been a bit of a mixed bag for them, and the Avalanche will certainly not be an easy matchup for them, but the Flyers have a chance here to show some resilience and respond well after a pretty crushing overtime loss in Utah.
Puck drop: 9:00 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
Pregame reading
- Heading into tonight’s matchup against the Avalanche, we have some shuffling that’s been done to the defense pairs. [BSH]
- There’s a good ongoing question here about just how far away the Flyers are from legitimately competing, and we’re going deeper on that with recent Stanley Cup winners as our guide. [BSH]
Pregame watching
By the numbers
Philadelphia Flyers – 23-17-9 (4th in Metro)
Goals: Trevor Zegras (19)
Assists: Travis Konecny/Trevor Zegras (27)
Points: Trevor Zegras (46)
Colorado Avalanche – 34-5-9 (1st in Central)
Goals: Nathan MacKinnon (38)
Assists: Nathan MacKinnon (47)
Points: Nathan MacKinnon (85)
Projected lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Trevor Zegras — Christian Dvorak — Travis Konecny
Denver Barkey — Sean Couturier — Owen Tippett
Matvei Michkov — Noah Cates — Bobby Brink
Garnet Hathaway — Lane Pederson – Carl Grundstrom
Cam York — Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler — Jamie Drysdale
Emil Andrae — Noah Juulsen
Sam Ersson
(Aleksei Kolosov)
Colorado Avalanche
Victor Olofsson — Nathan MacKinnon — Martin Necas
Artturi Lehkonen — Brock Nelson — Valeri Nichushkin
Ross Colton — Jack Drury — Gavin Brindley
Zakhar Bardakov — Parker Kelly — Taylor Makar
Sam Malinski — Cale Makar
Josh Manson — Brent Burns
Jack Achan — Sam Girard
Mackenzie Blackwood
(Scott Wedgewood)
Storylines to watch
Let’s try this again…
While the Flyers started out well in Wednesday’s game against the Mammoth, a few bad lapses in judgement and breakdowns in coverage ultimately had that one going sideways on them in a big way. It was a tough sight to see unfold, both for the fact that for a long time it seemed like they had control of that game, as well as that it meant that they had quickly squandered all of the momentum they built up from that huge win over the Golden Knights on Monday. It really did seem like things were moving in the right direction for them again for a bit there, but in spite of the unfortunate blips in their last time out, the Flyers do have a chance here to find a quick reset and at least get back to a stronger process, even if they don’t correct to far and completely as to take down a team with just five regulation losses on the season. The team loves to talk about their belief and their resilience, and this will be another test of it.
No Vladar yet
While the word is that Dan Vladar was able to take a more or less normal skate with the team this morning in Colorado, it seems that he’s still not quite ready to return to action. It’s looking like it won’t be too long before he’s back in the mix, but it won’t be coming tonight.
Tonight’s start, then, will go to Sam Ersson again, and the Flyers will be hoping that he can close out this trip for them on a high note. It’s been a good week for him on the whole, as his play in Vegas was stellar, and he followed that up with a pretty good showing in Utah, albeit one that was spoiled by the mistakes of the skaters in front of him. He hasn’t been perfect, but Ersson’s been putting in some good work to get his game back on track, and here’s hoping that he can keep that moving in the right direction tonight.
Hathaway stays in
Speaking of mistakes and that came in Utah, it was, we recall, a rough one for Garnet Hathaway. It was Hathaway’s casual play with the puck when he had a clear shot at the empty net which cost them what should have been the game winner, and coming as one more thing in a season which hasn’t seen him at his sharpest, it really stung. All the same, the Flyers are sticking with their same lineup from that game, and Hathaway will be right back in the mix on that fourth line. And while it would be easy to argue that the big mistake was enough to earn him a seat for the night, a chance to reset and also to get Nikita Grebenkin back into the lineup to see what he can do, Hathaway’s veteran status has earned him more money in the back (in the parlance of an old coaching staff), and he’ll get more runway to immediately try to respond to that poorer showing. We’ll see what he’s able to do with it.
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