It’s hard to read much into preseason hockey. It’s hard to make much of the Rookie Series between the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Rangers, which only featured a select few prospects. Friday night’s 4-3 overtime win for the Flyers doesn’t count in the standings (and the Rangers won’t get a point for the overtime loss either). Yet the performances mattered.
Related: NHL Rebuild Rankings: Which Teams Are Closest to Contention – 2025-26 Preseason Edition
The game put the highs and lows of the Flyers and their rebuild on full display. The Flyers don’t have the best rebuild in the NHL; it’s in the middle by most rankings (including the ones at this site). Yet, it’s showing progress, and the fans are starting to see the improvements.
Flyers’ Issues Remain Prevalent
The lingering issues for the Flyers in recent seasons have been the center position, defense, and goaltending. Center didn’t stand out as a weakness in the Rookie Series game. However, it wasn’t a strength either in a game where it should have been.
Jack Nesbitt was the 12th overall pick in the 2025 Draft, and the hope is that he becomes a do-it-all center. He was left off the score sheet. Jett Luchanko, the center they took in the first round of the 2024 Draft, didn’t play in the game altogether as he’s recovering from an injury, and the team is taking a cautious approach with him.
The defense, meanwhile, showed its flaws. The Flyers allowed three goals, with two of them being dangerous, open looks. Whether it was a defensive breakdown or miscommunication, the Rangers took advantage.
Goaltending, meanwhile, looked like the Flyers’ undoing, especially after the first period. Carson Bjarnason allowed two goals on the first four shots he faced, and it looked like a flashback to the woes of last season, where goaltending let the NHL and American Hockey League (AHL) team down. “They got two quick goals on us, but I thought we handled ourselves pretty well,” head coach John Snowden noted after the game, where the slow start set the team and Bjarnason back but didn’t cost them in the end.
The 20-year-old goaltender recovered and stopped 19 of the final 20 shots he faced. However, the goaltending issues are something this team will keep in mind. Even with a promising rebuild in the works, the position can let them down.
Flyers Have Forward Lines That Can Come at Teams in Waves
If there was a noticeable bright spot from this game, it was the forward group. They can overwhelm any team at the AHL level and add a spark to the NHL level as well. Nikita Grebenkin scored the game-winner while Jacob Gaucher and Alexis Gendron, two of the older skaters in this game, also found the back of the net.
There’s a handful of forwards on this team that can make it to the NHL roster, and it gives the Flyers the luxury of putting together a deep unit that has multiple elite players. “It’s hard to pick and choose,” Snowden noted about the team after the game, “I thought as a whole we were very good,” he added. The team outplayed the Rangers, but the victory was led by the forward unit that overwhelmed the opposition.
The Flyers already have Matvei Michkov as a building block on the top line. They also have a wild card in Trevor Zegras, who they acquired this offseason, and Luchanko, who is expected to make an impact at some point this season. Adding more prospects can allow the Flyers to put together three potent scoring lines and try to build their team from the forward unit out, the same way the Florida Panthers have done in recent seasons.
Flyers Prospects Playing Above Their Weight
Many fans got to know Alex Bump at the end of last season. He was the college standout who scored two goals in the first game of the Calder Cup Playoffs against the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins to fuel a 5-2 victory. The expectation heading into the season is for Bump to make the NHL team out of camp and possibly be a valuable scorer as well. He wasn’t the prospect who stood out in the latest game, even though he’s usually the one who does.
Denver Barkey was the prospect who did. He scored the first goal for the Flyers in the game and played a pivotal role in the win. “He’s a smaller guy, but he plays like he’s 6-foot-4. How many puck battles did he win tonight? He gets under guys, he uses his leverage,” Snowden noted about the winger who was a constant force on the ice.
Barkey looks like another underdog story. He’s a smaller skater who teams will target and look to push around. Yet, he plays well despite the hits. “He plays with his eyes up all the time,” Snowden noted on Barkey’s ability to avoid the shots while also seeing the play develop in front of him. It’s also helped him emerge as a scorer since his positioning is great in the offensive zone, and he can allow the puck to find him. “It’s been the story of my life,” the 20-year-old winger stated after the game. “Ever since I was a young age, I had to be a heads-up player,” and it’s made him a forward with great hockey sense, something a Snowden, and more specifically, a Rick Tocchet team is looking for.
The question is how the skill will translate in the NHL for both Bump and Barkey. The game is bigger and more physical, testing young skaters and often forcing them to adapt. Bump wasn’t the same player in the Calder Cup Playoff series against the Hershey Bears, a team that played a physical, forechecking style that prevented him from scoring in the five-game series. However, both prospects showed in preseason action that they can take the hits and still play the brand of hockey that got them to the NHL, or close to it.
The Right Coaching Is in Place to Lead a Turnaround
A big takeaway from the game wasn’t on the ice. It was behind the bench. Tocchet was in the press area of PPL Center while Snowden was coaching the team. Snowden is entering his first season as an AHL head coach, yet he’s shown early on that he’s built to coach the young talents and get the most out of them.
More importantly, Snowden is on the same page as Tocchet. “The nice thing about that question is that Tocchet and I have a very similar approach in what makes a player good and what makes a player hard to play against,” Snowden responded during his introductory press conference when asked what he’ll look for in the prospects before they are called up. The two coaches see the game the same way and are willing to adapt to help their teams win.
The Flyers trailed 2-0 in the latest game against the Rangers and controlled things starting in the second period. It came from the adjustments by Snowden, who helped the young players settle down and take over the game.
For years, the Flyers have shown flashes, but couldn’t confidently say the rebuild was in the right hands. Now, the right people are behind the bench to lead this team back to contention, and it’s something this team hasn’t had in a long time.
