After a largely, expected, disappointing 2022-2023 season. The Flyers are looking to move forward with a new regime and put last season in the rear view mirror. With a few minor additions and subtractions made to the roster by new General Manager Danny Briere and his staff this past off-season, there is a sense of renewed optimism around the team. It’s the beginning of a new “Era of Orange” of Flyers hockey. Although, new acquisitions were made, the same motto still remains, compete-compete-compete. That means players like Travis Konecny, Scott Laughton, Sean Couturier, Cam Atkinson, Joel Farabee, Cam York, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Travis Sanheim will all need to up their games.
Most importantly though is young netminder Carter Hart returning to the form he showed in his first two NHL seasons. Hart could have been considered as one of the best players playing on a bad team on a nightly basis. At times, Hart was left out to dry more often than not. Overall, as long as Hart can play even better than last season, than the Flyers will be much improved even if no other players on the team return to their previous form after sub par seasons (Farabee). In most cases, teams with the worst goaltending stats in the league do not fare very well in regards to winning games, so if Hart improves upon his numbers from the prior season, than they should be in solid hands.
With some new additions entering the fold on the backend with the likes of Sean Walker and Marc Staal. The hope is that these two veteran defensemen are able to groom the youth, but stabilize the number of goals against allowed for the Flyers this upcoming season. Also, adding some veterans to the roster like Garnet Hathaway and Ryan Poehling, hopefully that will have a calming effect to the younger players on the team.
One of the Flyers major troubles last season was they couldn’t finish, thus losing by one or two goal, with the two goal deficit sustaining from an empty net goal. With the veterans the Flyers added, the hope it provides an element of stability and tutelage. Ultimately, these changes should make the Flyers locker room more at ease, and release some of the tensions that were made relevant last season.
As a result of the offseason additions and changes made by Briere it is safe to say that the Flyers will be a much improved team, that is able to establish an identity. Despite this, there is still some underlying skepticism surrounding how these new additions and how they will correlate with giving the youth the ice time that is deserved. Will that also not mesh well within one another, thus messing with the chemistry of the team? Nonetheless, these subtractions had to be made to move onto the next phase of the rebuild process. Last season proved this is a team that was inconsistent with scoring goals after Travis Konecny sustained an injury for a period of time. Owen Tippett managed to pot a career high 27 goals, but still it wasn’t enough in the end. It’s a fair criticism that the Flyers need to become more consistent with scoring goals and this season, yet again, they will need to score by committee. This team cannot solely rely on a healthy Sean Couturier, a healthy Cam Atkinson, Owen Tippett, and Travis Konecny to light the lamp. They need more production from Morgan Frost (Who played well last season), Joel Farabee, Noah Cates, and Scott Laughton.
To say that the Flyers will be a much improved team is an understatement. They will compete on most nights and battle to the very end. However, there is still some skepticism amongst Flyers fans. Even if the team doesn’t form the greatest on-ice chemistry, there is no doubt in my mind the additions made on the defensive end of the ice will pay dividends for the Flyers in terms of allowing goals against. For that reason alone, I’m projecting Farabee to score 70 points this season, yes during his rebound season. In terms of the Flyers outlook this season, this is a crucial year for a team that is clearly in the midst of a rebuild. The aura surrounding this Flyers team make it seem very plausible that this is a reinvigorated group, that will be trying proving their naysayers wrong. They will try to formulate a new era of Flyers hockey.
Buckle Up Flyers fans, it’s going to be a fun season of Flyers hockey
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