Photo Courtesy of Ricky Brown
When the 2021-2022 regular season began, the tone surrounding the Philadelphia Flyers was a positive one. Most within the fanbase, local media and even national media believed the team was a playoff team and potentially one of the contenders in the NHL’s Eastern Conference and Metropolitan Division. Despite these beliefs, such assumptions could not have been farther from the truth and the actual reality that has unfolded throughout the past NHL regular season.
The Philadelphia Flyers organization was not only disappointing in a large majority of facets on and off the ice but they were a downright terrible hockey team. Consequently, how did these predictions of success at the beginning of the season turn out to be so wrong?
When dissecting the season as a whole, injuries certainly played a key role into why the team underperformed. As with their top two centers in Sean Couturier and Kevin Hayes being injured for large portions of the season that torpedoed the franchises chances of being a legitimate competitor or playoff team. Not to mention having top pair defenseman Ryan Ellis suiting up for only 4 games this past season as well. Along with that, a rash of injuries to Joel Farabee, Scott Laughton, Derick Brassard and a myriad of others did not help the situation either.
Aside from the injury troubles, in my eyes a key problem with the Flyers and their play comes from within. It begins with the organizational philosophy surrounding its players and how they need to play and perform on the ice surface.
Essentially, this points towards the Flyers not putting some of their players, especially their young talent in the correct positions to succeed. Or surrounding them with talent that does not necessarily compliment their skillset or their style of play on the ice. Some examples of this would be Ivan Provorov or even Travis Konency.
When looking at Provorov’s skills as a defenseman it’s clear he is a top pairing NHL player. Though every high end defenseman needs the correct support system and partner to assist with their game. Obviously the Flyers wanted Ellis to be paired with Provorov this season. Though when that was unable to occur due to Ellis’ injury troubles the Flyers did not put Provorov in an adequate position to succeed. Instead they increased his ice time and paired him with Justin Braun who is by no means a bad player but he should not be playing in a 1st pair role for an extended period of time.
Unfortunately, the two players skillsets did not mesh accordingly. Actively hurting both defenseman’s on ice performance and the teams play. Instead of adjusting appropriately the Flyers decided to continually trot out the Provorov-Braun pairing night after night consistently until the season was clearly lost.
What Provorov’s game needed, as well as, the Flyers team was another defender who could move the puck adequately on the top pairing. When the Flyers placed Cam York next to Provorov, his game drastically improved. As a result, he was not forced into being the only player on a top NHL defense pairing who could really make a solid outlet pass and move the puck up through the neutral zone to the team’s forwards.
This indicates the fact that the Flyers organization does not seem to be very adaptable to its surroundings or what is unfolding on the ice at least in a timely manner anyhow. It points to the thought process that the team needs to understand its players and their strengths a lot better. Ensuring players are put into positions they can succeed in would be a nice start for the organization. What that begins with is embracing more roster flexibility and creativity.
If the team realizes a player is struggling because they are the only option to make outlet passes on said pairing. Placing another player with the struggling defenseman under said circumstances would likely improve the situation and play on the ice from the pairing. Another example, could be that if a certain player is known to be a playmaker and great passer, placing that player on a line with other forwards with a shoot first mentality would be beneficial to all parties involved. Also, putting a playmaker as is being discussed above into a Power-Play role should allow their skillset to shine more prominently which in turn should benefit the team going forward and said players development.
All NHL players need to have specific roles and be defensively responsible to an extent. However, in certain circumstances a player needs to be placed in a situation conducive to their style of play and what actually compliments their strengths instead of trying to fit a square peg into a circular hole.
Evidently, not every player needs to be a 200 foot defensive stalwart. You need creativity and the willingness to take chances and make plays in your lineup in the modern NHL to succeed. When looking at what went wrong for the Flyers this season some of it certainly starts with not allowing their talented in-house players and prospects play their games and play to their strengths.
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In order to be successful and ensure their prospects and current players play to their potential the Flyers need to do a better job of evaluating their own talent and said talents strengths. Doing so will thus allow the team to place these players into the correct positions to further their development. It seems as though the above has been something the team has not entirely been committed to in the past handful of years. Considering this, its clear the Flyers need to embrace a player development style that will allow their younger players to grow the strengths within their games appropriately.
Time will tell if the franchise realizes that inner player development is typically what separates the high end organizations in the NHL from the teams that have not had much recent success. Through the implementation of the NHL salary cap the league has become one where drafting your own top end talent and being able to develop them is the way to build sustainable competitive teams for the foreseeable future. The Flyers need to begin taking said approach in regards to their roster management moving forward.
