With the month of April now here, the end of the 2023-24 regular season is almost upon us. With the offseason hastily approaching, the Philadelphia Flyers have to be thinking about which players they do and do not want on their 2024-25 roster. Who are five players who might not make the cut?
Cam Atkinson
The 2023-24 season has been a struggle for 34-year-old Cam Atkinson. On the surface, he has played fine. With 13 goals and 15 assists for 28 points in 64 games, that’s solid production for a player who missed his entire 2022-23 campaign. It’s a great comeback story. Unfortunately, though, his numbers are a little bit deceiving.
Just looking at some basic stats, his minus-22 rating on a team with playoff aspirations is bad no matter how it’s looked at. Furthermore, he is fifth on the Flyers in shots on goal with 172, yet is shooting at a pretty horrendous 7.6 percent. For a player who has an average of 16:29 of ice time on the season, shooting that low can be a detriment to the team.
As a team, the Flyers have the third-worst save percentage (SV%) in the NHL at .892. To make up for a lack of saves, good finishing has to be prevalent so Philadelphia could outscore their woes in the net. When a player with top-six minutes shoots a lot and does so ineffectively, it takes opportunities away from linemates and better shooters down the lineup. This makes Atkinson somewhat replaceable, especially with his age.
Looking at the Flyers’ expected goals percentage (xGF%) with and without Atkinson, it becomes clear that the team is simply better without him. Of the team’s 14 forwards this season who have played with Atkinson, 13 of them (92.9 percent) have a worse xGF% when paired with him than without. Not only has his poor on-ice play harmed him, but it has harmed the team overall. He is essentially unrosterable.
Related: Flyers Should Buy Out Cam Atkinson in 2024 Offseason
Next season, Atkinson will be in buyout territory. The veteran forward has a $5.875 million contract that expires following the 2024-25 season, so it would make sense for the Flyers to take the hit and eat some of that salary for a couple of seasons. Doing so would not only help better the team through addition by subtraction, but it might help him salvage his career and, potentially, help him win his first Stanley Cup before he retires.
Denis Gurianov
Much less due to poor performance and more due to a lack of roster space, Denis Gurianov likely won’t return to the Flyers for 2024-25. The 26-year-old has one year left on his contract and will be an unrestricted free agent (UFA) after this season is done.
Acquired at the trade deadline, he has only appeared in four games and has gotten fourth-line minutes when he has been in the lineup. That alone makes Gurianov an unlikely player to return, but the Flyers’ strength at the wing position makes it even more dire for him.
Next season, the Flyers should be looking at the following wingers to make the opening roster: Travis Konecny, Owen Tippett, Tyson Foerster, Joel Farabee, Bobby Brink, Garnet Hathaway, Nicolas Deslauriers, Olle Lycksell, Samu Tuomaala, and Noah Cates assuming he stays at wing and doesn’t switch back to center. Unless the Flyers plan on having half of their 23-man roster be just wingers, Gurianov is likely on the chopping block.
Gurianov would probably be a typical healthy scratch among those players, so it doesn’t really make sense for him to re-sign with Philadelphia. There are several teams, especially rebuilders, who could make good use of him in the middle or end of their lineup. He is better off trying to rejuvenate his career on a team without much competition than a highly competitive winger team like Philadelphia.
Marc Staal
If it’s not because the Flyers don’t extend his contract, Marc Staal might be gone from the Flyers simply because he chooses to retire. The 37-year-old defenseman signed a one-year contract last offseason in what could be the last he ever gets considering his age.
Staal has played depth minutes for the Flyers this season and has been a healthy scratch for frequent stretches of the season. At this point in his career, he is closer to an eighth defenseman than a seventh for a playoff team — it might make him contemplate his retirement. He has played some decent hockey at points but his signing has been more about his veteran leadership than play on the ice.
It might make sense for the Flyers to bring Staal back if he wants another season in the NHL, as his role isn’t useless on the team. They will need depth defensemen next season who won’t be in the lineup every game. It has helped them succeed. They might want to go for a younger option to do that, though.
Erik Johnson
For the same reasons as Staal, Erik Johnson will almost definitely not be a Flyer next season. He was a deadline addition by Philadelphia to play some lower-end minutes, and that’s been his role. At 36 years of age, the veteran doesn’t seem to have too much gas left.
In just 11 games for the Flyers, Johnson already has a minus-9 rating. His advanced stats don’t help his case, either, so he’s probably somebody that Philadelphia wants to move on from.
Felix Sandstrom
Drafted in the third round of the 2015 NHL Draft by the Flyers, goaltender Felix Sandstrom has been in the system for quite a while. With goaltending depth becoming more and more of a strength for the team, his contract expiring this offseason, plus considering his struggles, it is unlikely that he will return in 2024-25.
This season, Sandstrom has put up the worst numbers of his career since coming to North America back in the 2018-19 season. In the American Hockey League (AHL), he has a career-worst .882 SV% in 21 contests and a 3.26 goals-against average (GAA). Called up to the NHL for five games, he had a dreadful .823 SV% and a 3.87 GAA.
The numbers alone are the big case for him not to return, but some promising netminders have also arrived for the Flyers. Ivan Fedotov joined the team late in March, and he could be the long-term backup as he had pretty solid numbers in his Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) career. Also arriving from the KHL was 22-year-old Alexei Kolosov, and he has the potential to be the long-term starter for the Orange and Black in a few seasons.
He’ll likely have a starter’s workload in the AHL next season to further his development, so it makes Sandstrom expendable. Backup options will be Cal Petersen, whose $5 million cap-hit contract won’t expire until the 2025-26 season, and perhaps 30-year-old Parker Gahagen who had a .914 SV% and a 2.59 GAA in 18 contests with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms this season, splitting time in the AHL and ECHL.
Sandstrom was once a pretty promising netminder for the Flyers, but his NHL career has had more negatives than positives. He served as the team’s main backup in 2022-23, but his time is almost definitely up. Hopefully, he can salvage his career elsewhere.
The Flyers are in a pretty unique stage as both a rebuilder and a team on track toward making the postseason. They might be heavy spenders in the offseason, hunting for young roster talent to further their rebuild and keep the team competitive, but they could also sell some notable players. On a team full of uncertainty, anything can happen — these five players likely have their fates already sealed, however.
