So, we’ve established what happened in the first half of 2024 for the Philadelphia Flyers. Despite a late-season collapse, the Flyers continued to position themselves well for the future, adding to their prospect pool and draft pick arsenal. While the 2024-25 season has never been seen as a make-or-break year for the rebuild, we’ve learned a lot over the first half of the season, a campaign that officially became more interesting early in the second half of the calendar year.
July
For most teams, the start of July is the height of their offseason. The Free Agent Frenzy means different things for different teams, but a rebuilding team like the Flyers is rarely significantly involved.
That was indeed the case for general manager Daniel Brière, who didn’t make any significant signings in his second offseason running the team. However, the Flyers did re-commit to a couple of familiar faces, re-signing 2024 Trade Deadline acquisition Erik Johnson to a one-year, $1 million deal and extending Garnet Hathaway, signing him to a second two-year in as many offseasons at a minimal raise, taking his cap hit to $2.4 million starting in 2025-26.
However, that’s not to say the Flyers didn’t have a July 1 to remember. But rather than committing big money to a new face, the Flyers officially welcomed Matvei Michkov into the fold. Michkov signed his entry-level contract that day, confirming he would be a Flyer and play for the team two seasons earlier than expected.
That’s not to say the Flyers didn’t shell out some big bucks, though. While Michkov is expected to become the team’s best player shortly, its current top star received a sizeable contract of his own. Travis Konecny’s eight-year, $70 million contract is the team’s largest cap hit and total value in the salary cap era (the latter excludes the unsuccessful Shea Weber offer sheet).
The deal certainly isn’t a massive overpay, especially considering Konecny was coming off a career-high 68 points and tied his previous high of 61 the year prior in just 60 games. However, some argued that Konecny’s age (he’ll be 28 years old when the contract begins) could cause it to age poorly and hinder the team’s rebuild from fully blooming.
August
This is normally a light month in hockey, but the Flyers always have a knack for making noise. The most notable development of the month was the official termination of Ryan Johansen’s contract. Acquired in March as a cap dump in the Sean Walker trade, Johansen spent the rest of the 2023-24 season out due to injury after the Flyers failed to flip him and planned to demote him to the American Hockey League’s (AHL) Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Johansen remained injured through the end of the summer buyout window, removing another opportunity for the Flyers to get him off their books. At noon on Aug. 20, the Flyers announced their intention to terminate Johansen’s contract due to a “material breach.” While Johansen is not currently on the team’s cap sheet, a final decision on the situation still hasn’t been reached, as the NHL Player’s Association filed a grievance on Johansen’s behalf in September.
September
No NHL training camp starts like a John Tortorella training camp. The head coach’s infamous bag skate on the opening day of on-ice action is so notorious the Flyers’ social media team even made a “hype” video to mark the occasion. Fortunately, everyone made it through not too much worse for wear, kicking training camp into high gear.
However, one noteworthy absence from the test and the early days of training camp stood out, belonging to goaltender Aleksei Kolosov. The 22-year-old played very well in Russia during the 2023-24 season and finished the year with the Phantoms. But at some point, something went awry, as reports lingered throughout the summer Kolosov was adamant about not returning to Lehigh Valley and staying in Russia for another year if he wasn’t guaranteed an NHL job.
As the preseason began, one young Flyer particularly stood out: 2024 first-rounder Jett Luchanko. The 18-year-old recorded two assists in his first preseason game and his speed down the middle caught Tortorella’s eye. Not to be outdone, Michkov delivered a two-point performance in his first game at the Wells Fargo Center, then tallied two goals in his second, including the overtime winner. With an uncertain season on the horizon, those performances offered reminders of the hope for the Flyers’ future.
October
Eleven days into the month, the Flyers officially began their 2024-25 season, and the two kids up front (Michkov and Luchanko) were along for the ride. Both made their NHL debuts earlier, for different reasons, than expected on Oct. 11 in a 3-2 shootout win over the Vancouver Canucks. And just like that, another season was on.
But October quickly turned into a month to forget for the Flyers. They lost six-straight games after opening night (five in regulation) and finished the month at just 4-6-1. Luchanko’s first NHL stint concluded before the month, as he was sent back to the Ontario Hockey League after a respectable four-game audition. Michkov showed some early promise, especially boosting a Flyers’ power play that had brought up the rear two years running.
Philadelphia’s early-season spiral had two main causes. The first was that their five-on-five play, a calling card of last season’s surprisingly-competitive club, wasn’t up to snuff. The Flyers were a bottom-10 team in five on five expected goals percentage in October, generating the third-fewest expected goals per 60 minutes through Halloween (per Natural Stat Trick). Those woes were exacerbated by goaltender Ivan Fedotov’s lack of progress from his underwhelming play at the end of the previous season.
He struggled so mightily (.821 save percentage, SV%) that the Flyers decided to take a chance on granting Kolosov his NHL wish. The young goalie made his NHL debut on Oct. 27 against the Montréal Canadiens, and though his numbers weren’t great (four goals allowed on 24 shots), the Flyers were so desperate for change that he stuck around.
November
Things started to stabilize in November. Now, that may seem crazy given the most notable thing that happened in the month was a two-game press box stint for Michkov, whose five-on-five growing pains became too much for Tortorella to tolerate. So, Michkov took a seat on Nov. 7 and remained out of the lineup two days later.
That Nov. 7 game wound up being a turning point for the Flyers. First, a pre-game injury to Kolosov forced Fedotov into his first action in weeks with Samuel Ersson out due to injury. A seemingly nightmare situation — a cold, ineffective goalie against a high-octane Tampa Bay Lightning team — resulted in a 2-1 shootout win. Philadelphia’s 52.19% xGF was its second-highest mark of the season and Fedotov’s .957 SV% was the second-best by a Flyers goalie up to that point.
Any long-term concerns about Michkov handling the benching went away when he had a goal, primary assist, and shootout winner in his return on Nov. 11. The Flyers went 8-2-2 from Nov. 7 through the end of the month, including a pair of overtime winners from none other than Michkov himself. Additionally, the Flyers looked to have a new young impact player on their roster, as defenseman Emil Andrae started to find his game after a late-October call-up, displaying strong puck skills and controlling play at 5-on-5.
December
Alas, the good times wouldn’t last forever. Though Kolosov and Fedotov held down the fort while Ersson was out for most of November, the team’s goaltending performance plummeted again in December. Philadelphia’s .836 SV% in December was miles behind the Chicago Blackhawks for 31st, let alone a respectable placing.
By now, the Flyers were back doing the right things at five on five (51.9% xGF in December, ranking 13th). However, their special teams were cratering, with familiar power-play failings and surprising penalty-kill regression, although the latter was largely a production of the bad goaltending.
Some things did go well — Tyson Foerster, Noah Cates, and Bobby Brink formed a dogged, productive third line, Scott Laughton’s four-goal game on Dec. 12 was a tremendous moment for the team’s second-longest-tenured player, and Travis Konecny and Owen Tippett looked capable of leading the way, posting a combined 23 points in 26 games.
Related: Flyers’ Matvei Michkov Is Playing Like a Future Superstar Despite Skid
But with Andrae surprisingly sent back to the AHL and Ersson suffering a minor injury on New Year’s Eve, reminders were obvious that the Flyers still had a long way to go. The team undoubtedly took steps in the right direction in developing young talent. A successful rebuild hinges on more than just that important facet. And there is still a lot for the Flyers to sort out as they settle into 2025.
