In the same manner as how I stepped down for the Ducks’ offseason review, I will be handling this entry in our offseason review series, as our Eastern Conference coverage expert mutually agreed upon handing off this responsibility to get a neutral perspective. 22-23 was more of the same for the Philadelphia Flyers that we have seen this decade. Frankly, it is more of the same that we have seen since their last deep playoff run in 2012 (save for the 2020 bubble run, but we can debate all day about that one’s merit). Daniel Briere has started doing what I deemed to be an impossibility for the Flyers this year: he said the “r-word”. For over two decades, the Flyers have absolutely refused to tear it down and start from a new foundation. Rather, they have continued to build upon the corpses of their past eras in hopes that they are magically going to find their way back to the Stanley Cup finals. In recent years, splashy acquisitions like James Van Riemsdyk, Kevin Hayes, Ryan Ellis, and Rasmus Ristolainen have been endemic of this disillusionment in their front office. However, the trading of Kevin Hayes and Ivan Provorov, as well as the buyout of Tony Deangelo signals a change long overdue.

Looking at Philadelphia’s off-season veteran moves, they released Deangelo and Van Riemsdyk, signaling a transition to a more defensive roster and a younger roster. Last season, Van Riemsdyk was an average middle-six producer and solid defender who the Flyers may end up missing this coming season. Deangelo did put up superstar offensive production; however, his negative 15 goals above replacement defensive stat was among the worst in the league, and definitely not the kind of player you would like to have around in a rebuild. The Flyers made two notable trades this season. The first was trading Kevin Hayes to the St Louis Blues in a cap dump that will cost them 3.5 million dollars per season for the next three seasons. During his run in Philadelphia, Hayes produced average middle-six offense, but was a sub-par defender, and going into a rebuild, Philadelphia could not afford to be paying $7 million for that kind of productivity. The other move was a three-team trade with Los Angeles and Columbus, where they effectively shipped out Ivan Provorov for Cal Petersen, Sean Walker and a first round pick (in the process, the Kings took on 30% of Provorov’s contract to facilitate the trade). Walker and Petersen are both looking to have bounce back seasons and could very well provide the Flyers with a slight defensive upgrade from what they saw last season. In the case of Provorov, it is interesting to see the Flyers having the shoe on the other foot for once. Provorov has shown that he is a bottom four defenseman and is an average level offensive producer whose high-end impact has not been seen or felt anywhere in the Philadelphia organization on the ice over the last three seasons. Ultimately, this feels like Columbus making the same mistake Philadelphia made in their Ristolainen acquisition, but to Ristolainen’s credit, last season he posted an 8.8 defensive goals above replacement, the highest out of all of Philadelphia’s defenseman, and on par with Hampus Lindholm, who finished 4th in Norris voting. Additionally, Philadelphia signed Marc Staal and Garnet Hathaway, both of whom figure to be penalty killers and minute-eaters on a team looking to improve defensively. Lastly, the team extended Samuel Ersson, giving him a two-year, $2.9 million deal that will kick in 2024-25, to have some goaltending depth locked down for the coming few years.

Moving to the NHL draft, this is where the Flyers made their biggest moves this offseason. With the seventh selection, Philadelphia got Russian superstar prospect Matvei Michkov. I’m not going to go too in-depth on Michkov because I could write an entire article on him as a player and why he is going to be successful, but I will summarize what all of the analytics models I have seen have to say. Following a 20pt in 30gp campaign in the KHL, the second highest-rated scoring men’s league in the world, mathematical models have projected Michkov to have a potential with a floor of being the next Phil Kessel and a ceiling of being the next Mario Lemieux. Frankly, if not for current political events, Michkov was just as viable a first overall selection as Connor Bedard, both of whom have the ability and potential to reshape the NHL as we know it. Also in the first round, Philadelphia selected Oliver Bonk whose closest draft year comparables are Brendan Smith and Ryan Suter; outcomes which could finally give Philadelphia the superstar young defenseman they have been searching for since Mark Howe. Two other draft picks that have a decent amount of promise for Philadelphia’s questionable forward group (aside from Cutter Gauthier) are Denver Barkey and Cole Knuble. In terms of draft year comps, Barkey is very similar to Brad Marchand, so not a sure fire player to make the NHL, but could be an exceptional two-way star. Knuble, in the model, is reminiscent of another second gen NHL player in Kasperi Kapanen, showing some offensive upside, but really good physical traits. I look forward to seeing his development at Notre Dame this season.

Overall, the Flyers had a good offseason amid finally starting a rebuild that has been overdue since sometime around 2015. Considering the last two draft hauls, the prospect pool in Philadelphia is looking very bright, and they have assembled a roster for this year that may not score a lot of goals, but will be tough to play against on a nightly basis. Factoring both of those things into account, I am going to give the Philadelphia Flyers an A- on their off season.

-Christian