Time will tell if General Manager Daniel Brière and President of Hockey Operations Keith Jones’s long-term plan succeeds in restoring the Philadelphia Flyers to the top of the NHL’s food chain. But in at least one way, the old Flyers are back and making noise. Ed Snider’s ownership of the club has had success, even if the two Stanley Cups in the team’s first decade have become lonely. But whether the Flyers were good or bad, you could count on them to be at the center of the NHL universe more often than not.
More than one article is necessary to capture the good, bad, and ugly of another calendar year of Flyers hockey, just as in 2023. The first six months of 2024 featured major changes to the organization, including their top two prospects, multiple trades that involved a first-round pick, and changes to the team’s leadership, and that doesn’t include what happened on the ice… which is probably for the best.
Flyers in January
It took just over a week for the Flyers to become the talk of the NHL in 2024. The organization’s landscape changed significantly in the early stages of an otherwise ordinary rivalry game against the Pittsburgh Penguins when Brière made his biggest move (so far) by trading Cutter Gauthier to the Anaheim Ducks.
Brière confirmed afterwards that rumblings that Gauthier was unhappy with the organization were not only true, but he was outright refusing to sign with the team. As a college player, Gauthier held significant leverage in this regard, all but forcing the Flyers to make a move.
Brière sent Gauthier about as far from Philadelphia as possible, although the price for Anaheim to acquire him wasn’t cheap. The Ducks dealt 2020 No. 6 overall pick Jamie Drysdale and their 2025 second-round pick for Gauthier, the No. 5 pick in 2022. The uber-talented Drysdale was quickly embraced by fans simply for not being Gauthier, although his high-end skating and puck skills were the real prize.
The Flyers lost that game to Pittsburgh, dropping them to 1-3-1 to start the new year. They quickly turned things around, winning in Drysdale’s debut two days later to start a five-game winning streak. However, things took an ominous turn from there, losing five straight in regulation to close the month. But that paled in comparison to the news on Jan. 23 that goaltender Carter Hart was taking an indefinite leave of absence.
Though no official reason was given, it was widely known that Hart was a member of the 2018 Canadian World Junior team that had several players allegedly commit sexual assault after a Team Canada gala. In early February, Hart was one of four players charged with one count of sexual assault (Michael McLeod was charged with two counts). Hart has not played in the NHL since and became an unrestricted free agent (UFA) after the Flyers didn’t tender him a qualifying offer in the summer.
After losing one talented young forward in Gauthier to start the month, the Flyers ended January by committing long-term to another. A second consecutive solid season from Owen Tippett earned him an eight-year, $49.6 million extension. At the time, Tippett’s contract was the second biggest deal on the team in total money and average annual value, trailing only Sean Couturier. Ryan Poehling also came to terms with a smaller extension in his first season as a Flyer, signing a two-year, $3.8 million contract after establishing himself as a favorite of head coach John Tortorella.
Flyers in February
The All-Star break came at the perfect time for the Flyers, considering their losing streak and the difficult situation surrounding Hart, who was officially charged on Feb. 5. That was the final day of a season-long nine-day stretch without a game, except for Travis Konecny, who represented the team at the All-Star Game for the second time in his career. They immediately flipped things around by winning their first four games out of the break.
But the real headlines came right after that stretch. Days before an anticipated outdoor game at Metlife Stadium against the New Jersey Devils, the Flyers took a step to solidify their leadership group. Just under two years after trading Claude Giroux, the longest-tenured captain in team history, the Flyers decided they were ready to name a new leader.
After operating with a single alternate captain (Scott Laughton) since the start of the Tortorella era, the Flyers added two players to their official leadership group. Konecny became a first-time letter-wearer, joining Laughton as an alternate, while Sean Couturier became the 20th captain in franchise history. It was a significant milestone, especially for Couturier, the team’s longest-tenured player (he was drafted and debuted in 2011) and who had battled back from numerous back injuries that sidelined him for 22 months.
That outdoor game didn’t go as hoped. The Flyers fell behind in the first minute and lost 6-3. But they still closed February in a strong position standings-wise, sitting third in the Metropolitan Division with some breathing room. However, the roster composition was a bit perilous. While Samuel Ersson continued to play well, an ugly performance on Feb. 25 in Pittsburgh removed Cal Petersen as a viable candidate to be the team’s backup goaltender. Second, the looming trade deadline presented a difficult dichotomy between balancing the team’s surprising success and their continued need to stockpile future assets.
Flyers in March
Brière was busy at his first trade deadline running the show, making four deals. The first is easy to forget. The Flyers collected a fifth-round pick by retaining 25 percent of Noah Hanifin’s contract to lessen his cap charge as the Calgary Flames sent him to the Vegas Golden Knights.
The second deal, meanwhile, was the biggest. Sean Walker emerged as an unexpected impact defenseman throughout the season, significantly exceeding expectations when he arrived as a cap dump in the Ivan Provorov three-team trade over the summer. However, Walker was a pending UFA whose play was so strong it risked pricing him out of the Flyers’ comfort zone. So, Brière cashed in, eating Ryan Johansen’s contract and parting ways with a sixth-rounder to pry a 2025 first-round pick away from the Colorado Avalanche.
Brière followed that with another small move, swapping depth forwards Wade Allison and Denis Gurianov with the Nashville Predators. But to prevent the blue line from dropping off too much, he added Erik Johnson from the Buffalo Sabres for a fourth-round pick. The Flyers appeared to be alright to start March, beginning the month 3-2-1, although one of those defeats was a 7-0 beatdown against the Tampa Bay Lightning that included the ejection of Tortorella.
If only that were the biggest headline Tortorella generated in March. Instead, that came less than a week later.
Couturier received the “C” at the onset of a massive second-half slump, scoring just two goals in the 2024 part of the 2023-24 season. Eventually, Tortorella became so displeased that he scratched Couturier, the first time in a decade that any NHL captain was a healthy scratch. Couturier was not pleased with the decision, and it may not be a coincidence that the team’s play started to slip after his two-game stint in the press box.
However, goaltending was another culprit. With Felix Sandström playing just as poorly as Petersen, Ersson began to falter under the weight of an unsustainably demanding workload. But out of nowhere, a new option emerged. Almost two years after he planned to join the Flyers, Ivan Fedotov’s contract in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) was terminated, finally allowing him to pursue his NHL dream. With the team ending March on a 0-3-1 spiral, reinforcements were desperately needed.
Flyers in April
Unfortunately, the Flyers ran out of gas down the stretch with no shortage of culprits — the team’s demanding playstyle wearing them down, the Walker trade combined with injuries to Drysdale and Rasmus Ristolainen thinning out the defense, goaltending completely falling off a cliff, and a disjointed locker room after the Couturier benching were just some of the factors contributing to a sharp downfall.
The Flyers lost their first five games of the month, seemingly leaving them dead in the playoff race. Back-to-back wins kept the team alive heading into their final game of the season. But before they could even sell out to make a late push in a must-win-in-regulation game 82 against the Washington Capitals, a last-minute goal by the Detroit Red Wings (set up by former Flyer Shayne Gostisbehere) eliminated Philadelphia from playoff contention for the fourth straight season.
Brière did make one move before the month was up, retaining Fedotov with a pricey two-year, $6.5 million contract. But the bulk of the team’s work lay ahead after a better-than-anticipated season but a bitter ending to cope with.
Flyers in May
For once, the Flyers took a moment to lay in the weeds during May, as most non-playoff teams do. There were a handful of rumors and rumblings about what may come, most notably the status of top prospect Matvei Michkov, who had just finished the first season of his three-year contract in the KHL. But fans would have to wait for answers.
Flyers in June
The first three weeks of June brought little to speak of. Brière went overseas to sign depth forward Rodrigo Abols and re-signed young defenseman Adam Ginning, who showed some promise in his first extended NHL look in the spring.
But then, just before the NHL Draft, one of the most highly anticipated moments in the team’s recent history came to pass. Michkov wouldn’t need to finish his KHL contract, as his club agreed to terminate the deal. The main concern about Michkov in the 2023 Draft that caused him to slip to the Flyers at No. 7 turned out to be overblown. The crowned jewel of the team’s rebuild would be a leading figure of the “New Era of Orange,” not just in hypotheticals and projections but on the ice for the Flyers in the 2024-25 season.
Adding Michkov pushed Cam Atkinson out of the picture at right wing, as the Flyers bought him out just before the start of the draft. Atkinson’s three seasons in Philadelphia were a mixed bag — productive in the team’s terrible 2021-22 season, injured for the entirety of 2022-23, but he lost steam rapidly as the 2023-24 season progressed, failing to score after January and being relegated to the press box on several occasions.
The Flyers entered the draft with picks No. 12 and 31 but made neither selection. They traded the No. 12 pick back one spot, allowing the Minnesota Wild to obtain highly-regarded defenseman Zeev Buium. The Flyers, needing a center after the Gauthier trade, selected the speedy Jett Luchanko of the Ontario Hockey League’s Guelph Storm with their first selection. They then opted to push their later pick back a year in hopes of getting a higher choice, moving it to the Edmonton Oilers for their 2025 first-rounder.
Related: Flyers’ Rebuild Progression Depends on Aleksei Kolosov
Five other draft picks joined Luchanko taken on the second day of the draft — two centers (Jack Berglund and Heikki Ruohonen, picks No. 52 and 107), two defensemen (Spencer Gill and Austin Moline, picks No. 59 and 205), and two wingers (Noah Powell and Ilya Pautov, picks No. 148 and 173).
The start of free agency on July 1 still loomed. However, with the team focused on the future and lacking cap space, the busiest and most important part of setting the stage for the 2024-25 season happened before the dog days of summer.
