Photo Credit: Our very own Michael Reaves
With less than a week remaining in training camp the focus now shifts for the Philadelphia Flyers to the upcoming regular season.
Although the Flyers almost secured a playoff spot during the 2023-24 campaign they were unable to do so despite battling until the final day of the season.
As next season rapidly approaches the question remains, can the Philadelphia Flyers take a step forward and become a playoff team?
Based on last season’s performance there’s certainly a plausible pathway for the Flyers to make that a reality. However, it will depend on elements such as the goaltending situation, the power-play, and young players improving.
Goaltending Situation
Sam Ersson:
Sam Ersson and Ivan Fedotov are likely to be the goalies for the Philadelphia Flyers this upcoming season.
As a result, it’s understandable that the Flyers goaltending situation and how both netminders might perform throughout an 82 game regular season is a question mark at this point.
When dissecting Ersson’s play last season there were ups and downs. Most importantly, Ersson showed an ability to handle consecutive starts while taking on formidable teams in certain stretches.
This proved that Ersson can at the very least handle two to three starts at a time taking on teams in the playoff mix.
Another thing to note, is the strong performance from Ersson in the pre-season thus far. The young netminder recorded a 37 save shutout last Thursday while taking on the New York Islanders.
This further cements that Ersson not only appears to be playing well to start the season but he looks quicker laterally from what I’ve noticed in his limited play to date.
We’ll see if Ersson can handle a starting netminder’s workload for the first time at the NHL level. He was thrust into a starting goaltender’s role unexpectedly last season which may have affected his play negatively. Mainly, due to the fact that he did not have a reliable backup to come in and start periodically.
Now that Ersson is aware he will be the Flyers starting goalie to begin the season and has the ability to prepare accordingly, that should act as a benefit for the 24-year-old.
Primarily, his brief stint as a starter last season should give him the foresight into what it takes to be a successful starting goalie in the NHL and the associated obligations.
Ivan Fedotov:
The other factor in the goaltending equation for the Flyers is 28-year-old rookie Ivan Fedotov. It’s been quite the tumultuous ride for the Russian netminder on his journey to the NHL. Finally, the time has come for Fedotov to play his first full NHL season.
For Fedotov, having the off-season to train in the Philadelphia area and get accustomed to the NHL sized rink and the differences that come with it is an important step in his assimilation.
In relation to shot angles, and overall positioning, having the time to analyze and dissect how he should approach these aspects of the game on an NHL rink are critical elements in becoming an impactful NHL netminder.
Coupling the above with his 6 ‘7 stature should make Fedotov a difficult goaltender to beat for opposing team’s.
Overall Outlook:
As long as Ersson can provide approximately 50 NHL starts at league average levels of netminding and Fedotov can do the same for 32 games, that should put the Philadelphia Flyers in a good position to make the playoffs this season.
In most situations if Ersson and Fedotov can limit themselves to allowing two or three goals a game consistently, it will give the Flyers’ offense the opportunity to outproduce their opposition throughout the regular season.
Power-Play
In order for Philadelphia to become a playoff team this season ensuring they do not have the last ranked power-play in the NHL will go a long way.
Even though the Flyers had the worst power-play in the league in 2023-24 they still held a playoff spot for the majority of the season and were fighting to make the playoffs until their final game.
Considering that, if Philadelphia can just improve their power-play efficiency to the 17th-20th range in the NHL that should allow them to find the extra scoring needed to secure a playoff spot.
There were many times last season where the Flyers power-play created momentum for the opposing team instead of being a scoring threat.
The power-play struggled regularly to create scoring opportunities. This led to the momentum in games shifting towards the opposition’s favor when Philadelphia’s power-play could not get set up appropriately in the offensive zone.
Early impressions in the preseason have shown that the Flyers power-play appears to be more cohesive and effective. Primarily, this is due to 19-year-old Matvei Michkov and his ability to distribute the puck in a variety of different manners.
Michkov’s addition to Philadelphia’s power-play has made the man-advantage a real threat.
The 19-year-old’s playmaking ability, vision, and deception while quarterbacking the top unit from the right half wall has given the Flyers a whole new repertoire of plays and offensive creativity on the man-advantage.
During the pre-season so far you’ve seen the Flyers move the puck quickly and more efficiently because of Michkov’s passing ability. He can find his teammates with passes even when it looks like they may not be viable options to receive the puck.
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It’s evident there’s much less hesitancy to make plays and Flyers players are making passes more confidently. One of the integral factors to getting Philadelphia’s power-play to improve is not telegraphing where they are trying to move the puck to opposing defenders.
It’s been a small sample size but with Michkov running the Flyers power-play anticipating what he might do with the puck and where he could move it next proves to be much more difficult for opposing defenders. Especially compared to the Flyers power-plays of prior seasons.
If a small fraction of Philadelphia’s new found power-play success carries over from the preseason to the regular season, that should be enough to remove the Flyers from the basement of the NHL’s power-play rankings.
Even an incremental improvement in power-play results will afford the Flyers that extra scoring punch needed to be in the mix for a playoff spot in 2024-25.
Young Players Improving
The final piece to the Philadelphia Flyers becoming a playoff team moving ahead is their young players continuing to take steps forward and improve.
With the likes of Matvei Michkov, Jamie Drysdale, Cam York, Tyson Foerster, Morgan Frost, Owen Tippett, Joel Farabee and Egor Zamula all having important roles on the team. Philadelphia’s success is tied to their young players in a sense.
If all of these aforementioned roster players can contribute more offense this season than last it should bode well for the Flyers chances of becoming a playoff team in 2024-25 and in future years.
A slight increase in point production from some players mentioned above compared to last season should provide extra offense to keep the Flyers competitive in games. As well as, potentially allow them to secure more wins than last season.
Ultimately, much of the Flyers successes this season and beyond will depend on the young players already on the roster and the prospects they have drafted continuing their progression and development.
