The Philadephia Flyers entered the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons with expectations of playoff contention and dreams of a Stanley Cup run. They plummeted in unceremonious fashion and dramatically lowered their bar entering the 2022-23 season. Sticking with the unpredictable plot lines, the first week of the regular season went about as well as anyone in Philadelphia could’ve realistically expected.
It’s been a historically successful week in Philadelphia sports, and the Flyers shockingly helped the cause. After a win in their season opener against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday, Oct. 13, they followed up with a victory over the Vancouver Canucks two days later. They stunned the three-time defending Eastern Conference champion Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday, Oct. 18, by rallying from a 2-0 deficit for the second game in a row.
A loss against the Florida Panthers in Sunrise on TNT’s national broadcast Wednesday night broke their perfect record, but it didn’t ruin the initial step of positivity that the Flyers took out of the gates in 2022-23.
Young Flyers Flourish
The organization wants to evaluate young players who will get the opportunity to play key roles in the NHL this season. Chuck Fletcher spoke about his impression of the team’s strengths after training camp ended.
“This is a young, fast team. There’s 12 players on the 23-man roster that are 25 and under. I think nine of them are 24 and under, so they’re a little bit unproven. That’s something we’re going to have to work through that Torts (head coach John Tortorella) has been addressing, I think with you guys as well. We have a lot of work to do, but there’s a lot of upside. So, I think the youth, the speed, the depth – we have really good depth this year, much better than we have the last two years, so if we do run into injuries, which seem to happen through the course of the season, I think we have a lot of kids down in Lehigh Valley we can call up,” Fletcher told the media at the Flyers Training Center in Vorhees, NJ on the final day of training camp.
The five Philadelphia goals in the season opener came from players 25 and under. The group ranges from 400-game NHL veterans Travis Konecny and Ivan Provorov to American Hockey League (AHL) swing players like Jackson Cates and Tanner Laczynski. Fletcher and Tortorella have made it perfectly clear that these players will prove or disprove themselves based on merit.
“Listen. We want to win. I don’t want to do something wrong, but I also have to look further down the road in developing people. That’s kind of the catch and I thought they (the younger players) gave us some good minutes prior. I’m going to give them an opportunity. I have to. I have to find out about players in certain situations, so hopefully they grow. That’s what you hope. You hope you have some success and they’re better at the next one because they feel better about themselves, so that’s the whole key in developing,” Tortorella said after defeating the Devils in his first regular-season game behind the bench for the Flyers.
23-year-old Noah Cates, the most impressive player on the roster during training camp and the preseason, scored one of the most memorable goals of the past three Flyers seasons on Tuesday night at Amalie Arena to spoil Tampa Bay’s home opener. The former Minnesota-Duluth captain stole the puck from Erik Černák and eluded Mikhail Sergachev for a game-winner that quieted a crowd used to watching Stanley Cup-caliber defense in front of arguably the game’s best goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Injuries and Roster Transactions
Despite the positive vibes surrounding the Flyers roughly 5% of the way through the regular season, injuries still mar the team’s chances of true contention just like they did last season. Sean Couturier remains on injured reserve with a back injury. The top-line center has skated multiple times since reports surfaced about an aggravation potentially ending his 2022-23 season before it began. He hopes to return in the coming weeks even though there is no official timetable.
Rasmus Ristolainen is now on injured reserve with an incredibly vague “body” injury. Nick Seeler has played on the third defensive pair early in the season next to 22-year-old Egor Zamula, while veteran Justin Braun has slotted next to Ristolainen’s expected partner Travis Sanheim. Cam Atkinson remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Owen Tippet played just 4:20 in the season opener before suffering an injury that has kept him out for the past three games.
Related: Flyers Already Face Injury Obstacles in Hopes for New Era
The Flyers claimed veteran forward Lukas Sedlak off waivers from the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday. The 29-year-old played 162 games under Tortorella with the Columbus Blue Jackets from 2016-2019. He spent the past three seasons in Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) before returning to North America for a brief stint to begin 2022-23. Zack MacEwen and Louie Belpedio have jumped up to the NHL roster to fill the vacancies of Atkinson and Risolainen. A healthy Felix Sandström has now replaced Samuel Ersson as Carter Hart’s backup goaltender.
Sanheim Extension
Surprising news dropped about an hour before the season opener at the Wells Fago Center. The Flyers signed Sanheim to an eight-year, $50 million contract extension through the 2030-31 season. They now have five defensemen on the roster making an average annual value of $5 million or more, including Ryan Ellis who doesn’t appear likely to ever play in the NHL again.
The ability to retain the reigning Barry Ashbee Trophy winner as the team’s top defenseman is a win on the surface. However, Charlie O’Connor paints a clearer picture of the signing in the scope of the organization’s plan for long-term contention.
“Sanheim is a good-to-very-good NHL defenseman. But this deal likely doesn’t line up with the Flyers’ timeline for success, unless they get better far quicker than most are expecting or Sanheim ages especially gracefully and remains a quality No. 3 defenseman into his early 30s” he said (from The Athletic, What does Flyers’ Travis Sanheim extension mean for contention timeline?, 10/16/22).
The Flyers will continue their murky plan to rebuild their organizational culture by retaining veterans at the high cost of draft capital and salary space during a busy weekend. They’ll travel to face the Nashville Predators on Saturday night and return home for a matchup against the San Jose Sharks at the Wells Fargo Center on Sunday night.
