Few players in the NHL have had a more difficult start to the 2023-24 season than Morgan Frost. The 24-year-old was one of the Philadelphia Flyers’ best players in the second half of last season, finishing tied for the team lead in points with 21 in 31 games after the All-Star break. It was a watershed moment for the 2017 1st-round pick, who had struggled to replicate the offensive prowess that led him to consecutive 100-plus-point seasons in the Ontario Hockey League.
Frost doesn’t have a point yet this season, which is concerning in itself. Even worse, he has only played in three of the Flyers’ nine games, not due to injury but because head coach John Tortorella made him a healthy scratch for about two weeks. Frost played in the first two games of the season, not doing much in the first and struggling a bit in the second. He then sat for six straight games, a stretch even Tortorella acknowledged wasn’t optimal.
Frost finally returned to the ice on Monday (Oct. 30), failing to score a point but playing a strong game against the Carolina Hurricanes. His 75.24% expected goals (xG) share ranked 4th among all Flyers, and he also drew a penalty. It was probably enough to keep him in the lineup for Philadelphia’s clash with the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday (Nov. 1). But this stretch has raised questions about Frost’s short and long-term fit with the team that needs to be answered.
Short-Term
Right now, the Flyers have 13 forwards on the roster. Three of them — Nicolas Deslauriers, Ryan Poehling, and Garnet Hathaway — will only play above the fourth line if injuries strike. That leaves 10 contenders for the top nine and the Flyers with limited options.
Option 1: Put Frost In a Rotation
The lineup was in flux over the first half dozen or so games of the season. The Flyers carried quite a few young players even though there wasn’t a clear regular spot for them. Tortorella’s solution was to rotate them for the first few games, see who stood out and who struggled, and make changes accordingly.
It’s that very strategy that led to Frost’s benching in the first place. Things sorted themselves out on the backend. Emil Andrae struggled and was sent to the American Hockey League (AHL). Marc Staal was injured, freeing up a spot. Egor Zamula has generally played pretty well, and after sitting for two of the first four contests, he’s been a lineup regular ever since.
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But the long jam remains as real as ever up front. Youngsters Bobby Brink and Tyson Foerster have both played well lately, with the former all but impossible to take out of the lineup. Frost was the logical choice to sit, not just given his slow start, but because of two reasons.
First, Tortorella confirmed after Monday’s game the team only sees him as a center, while fellow pivots Noah Cates and Scott Laughton can both play on the wing. Second, Frost’s offensive-first skill set doesn’t translate to a fourth-line role. His value is going to come from his ability to produce points, and that won’t happen playing eight minutes a night next to wingers known for their grit. The Flyers could choose to swap him out for whichever of Brink or Foerster is playing worse or perhaps a particularly struggling veteran Tortorella wants to send a message to.
Option 2: Breakup The Fourth Line
One of the biggest surprises of the Flyers’ first eight games was the Deslauriers-Poehling-Hathaway line. The trio posted a 57.48% xG in 63 minutes. They did lose the shot attempts battle and conceded one goal while scoring none. But still, given that Poehling struggled to crack the Pittsburgh Penguins’ lineup last season and Deslauriers has consistently graded out as one of the worst analytical forwards in the sport, that’s a major win.
Whether that’s worth keeping Frost out of the lineup is another question. Tortorella decided the answer was no, sending Poehling to the press box on Monday. However, this had a two-fold positive effect — it got Frost in the lineup, and it made the line better with Laughton dropping down to center them. The combination produced a 76.38% xG and a goal courtesy of Hathaway (although they were also on the ice for a goal against).
The Flyers probably don’t want to keep Poehling, who’s just four months older than Frost, out of the lineup forever. They also value Deslauriers’ toughness and just signed Hathaway to a two-year, $4.75 million contract, while Tortorella might feel bad about demoting Laughton, a favorite of his from the get-go in Philadelphia. But this option makes the most sense, hence why it’s the one that’s already taken (at least for now).
Option 3: Send Down Tyson Foerster
Both Foerster and Brink could be demoted to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms without clearing waivers. However, there’s no chance that’s happening with Brink right now. He has six points in eight games and has looked dangerous almost every single night. Foerster, meanwhile, has struggled a bit more. He doesn’t have a goal and has just one point at 5-on-5 this season.
While his play has picked up a bit as of late, there’s certainly an argument the 21-year-old would be better suited in the here and now playing first-line minutes for the Phantoms. If that happens, Frost has a one-way ticket to an every-night lineup slot, at least in the short term.
Long-Term
At 24 years old, Frost is young enough to be a key contributor when the Flyers expect to return to playoff contention. He’ll be in the prime of his NHL career. But even though he didn’t request a trade and reports say the Flyers aren’t looking to move him, it’s fair to wonder if the scratching streak could be a warning sign for his future fit in Philadelphia (from ‘Flyers not looking to trade Morgan Frost at present: Source,’ The Athletic, Oct. 30, 2023).
Sometime soon, the Flyers will likely add Cutter Gauthier – either at the end of this season or next fall. Gauthier probably won’t need much, if any, AHL time before he becomes a full-time Flyer. The 5th overall pick from the 2022 NHL Draft has lit up the college ranks and is viewed at the bare minimum as a high-end second-line center. Even at his peak last season, Frost was not that.
Related: Flyers Prospects Report: Michkov, Gauthier, Foerster & More
Sean Couturier also likely isn’t leaving anytime soon. Though he’s played exceptionally well this season, Couturier is still a 31-year-old with two recent back surgeries and a checkered injury past who has played just nine games since Dec. 2021. He will make $7.75 million for the next seven seasons. Even if a team did want to trade for him, Couturier has a full no-movement clause and has repeatedly said how much he loves Philadelphia, the only home he’s known in his decade-plus in the NHL. Frost certainly can’t compete with Couturier’s elite defensive acumen, and he’s also an inferior scorer.
That leaves only one place for Frost to logically fit into the Flyers’ future — third-line center. It’s not that he can’t handle that role adequately — he proved the opposite last season. But the Flyers have two other strong candidates for that role in Cates and Laughton, both of whom are Tortorella favorites. Frost is not, to say the very least. Elliot Desnoyers could also knock on the door with a strong performance in Lehigh Valley.
If Frost wasn’t beloved by Tortorella at his peak last season, there’s only one way for him to force the coach’s hand — make a significant improvement. His defensive game has never been stellar, he’s consistently struggled on face-offs, and his power-play production has been non-existent (although he is very valuable at generating controlled entries). If he can improve the first two areas to passable and the third to at least moderate strength, he would be too good to take out of the lineup.
He would also, in all likelihood, eventually price himself out of Philadelphia at some point. The Flyers are locked into Couturier right now, and it’s hard to imagine them choosing Frost over Gauthier. The team isn’t strapped for cap space now, and Frost certainly isn’t breaking the bank at a $2.1 million charge this season and next. But it feels like the only way for him to stick is to be a third-line center who’s too good for his role, which could create a situation where the dollars don’t make sense down the line.
That would be a great problem for the Flyers and Frost to have. But it’s probably not very likely, and even if it happens, it illustrates a further point. It’s hard to envision a long-term role for Frost in the context of his coach’s opinion of him and the players around him, now and in the future, almost regardless of his level of play.
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