Photo Credit’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms
In the first part of this ongoing series of articles, I discuss things that other teams do that make sense and that the Flyers should try. In that article, we went over how the LA Kings make it a point to both sign and gather all their top prospects in one location (playing for their AHL team the Ontario Reign) so that coaching staff can keep an eye on them, have the players become familiar with one another, get to know their team’s system, and grow as a unit. This is lieu of having prospects spread all over the world playing in different leagues that don’t quite challenge their players, learning different systems, and leaving them to depend on subpar coaches to develop their young, drafted talent like the Flyers continue to do.
In this second article of this series, we will discuss how other teams (like the New Jersey Devils, the Ottawa Senators, and the Columbus Blue Jackets) are all currently rebuilding and choosing to construct their rosters around their up-and-coming youth who they drafted. This makes more sense instead of signing over-the-hill veterans who used to be good at one time in their career but are not now (reminiscent of the players the Flyers have managed to fill their roster with for as long as any of us can remember).
Let the Kids Play
While some of these above-mentioned teams may not be that much further ahead of Philadelphia in the standings, they are gaining more from this season than what meets the eye while also giving their fans something to look forward to. The Devils are still two points ahead of the Flyers in the Metro Division, but they have been able to remain ahead of the Flyers while having a 20-year-old Jack Hughes, a 20-year-old Dawson Mercer, and a 23-year-old Nico Hischier leading the charge up front. This comes with an emergence of their young, 21-year-old goaltender Nico Daws (who is starting to get more and more starts in-net) and thus having an overall average age of the team be just 25 years old.
The Senators are one of the only teams in the entire league with less points on the season than the Flyers right now, but will no doubt be a team to watch soon enough. Just look at the young stars already in their lineup: 22-year-old Brady Tkachuk, 20-year-old Tim Stutzle, 22-year-old Josh Norris, 23-year-old Drake Batherson, and 21-year-old Shane Pinto. To add to that impressive list, the Senators have both a 23-year-old goaltender by the name of Filip Gustavsson and a 21-year-old goalie by the name of Mads Sogaard who are making a name for themselves as well. The average age for Ottawa on any given night is just 25.6 years old.
The Blue Jackets- who have a wealth of talented youth playing for them right now- are currently seeing much success as the season continues to progress, despite the average age of the team being only 25.3 years old. This is largely due to players like 18-year-old Cole Sillinger, 25-year-old Jack Roslovic, 23-year-old Jake Bean, 22-year-old Alexandre Texier, 21-year-old Yegor Chinakhov, 21-year-old Adam Boqvist, and 23-year-old Andrew Peeke all excelling up front and on defense. They also have a young, 22-year-old goaltender named Daniil Tarasov who is seeing to it that management mostly likely will not feel the need to re-sign their impending free agent goaltender Joonas Korpisalo next season.
Things are different here in Philly though: While most teams (minus the Flyers) have accepted the fact that the league as a whole has changed vastly from the times of old (where teams would covet size, strength, and experience) the majority now look past a player’s inexperience and decide to build around youth, speed, and pure talent. Now, the Flyers have 22-year-old Joel Farabee and 23-year-old goaltender Carter Hart acting as mainstays in their lineup, with 21-year-old defenseman Cam York filling in when needed. Overall, though, the vast majority of the Flyers’ lineup has been filled with the league’s dinosaurs who- for the most part- are slow and well past their prime. Such examples are: 37-year-old Nate Thompson (who has only managed to suit up for 19 games this year), a pair of 35-year-old defenders Justin Braun and Keith Yandle, 34-year-old center Derick Brassard (who, while he has played well while in the lineup, has been hurt multiple times this season and has only managed to dress for 28 games) and a 32-year-old waiver-wire pickup- left-hand-shot defender Kevin Connauton (who has played in 27 games this season for the Flyers rather than letting either one of their promising defensive prospects Cam York or Egor Zamula be able to get more game experience). With this type of antiquated way of thinking, the Flyers’ average age of their roster is 29 years old. The only teams with an older roster are the New York Islanders and the Washington Capitals- and that’s with the Islanders having a 44-year-old Zdeno Chara and the Caps. having a 36-year-old Alexander Ovechkin to factor into their teams’ average age.
It just makes you think: If this team could get with the times and move on from this prehistoric way of thinking by welcoming youth into their lineups, might the Flyers- and their AHL-affiliate the Phantoms- avoid finding themselves in a repeat situation of being in last place in their respected divisions?
Check out our Flyers Nitty Gritty Store
