Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
This is the most recent file in THN.com’s ongoing breakdowns of NHL team off-season moves. Today we are looking at the Philadelphia Flyers.
2021-22 record: 25-46-11
Finish In The Metropolitan Division: 8th
Salary cap Space available (According to CapFriendly.com): $0 ($98,107 over salary cap)
Restricted free agents: Zack MacEwen, F; Owen Tippett
Unrestricted free agents: Keith Yandle, D.
What the flyers have: A new head coach in John Tortorella; a talented if notorious new blueliner in Tony DeAngelo; a returning veteran D-man in Justin Braun; a handful of talented young players, including forwards Owen Tippett, Joel Farabee, Travis Konecky and Morgan Frost, and defenders Ivan Provorov and Cam York; above-average veteran forwards in Cam Atkinson, James van Riemsdyk, Kevin Hayes and Sean Couturier, and experienced blueliners in Ryan Ellis and Travis Sanheim
What flyers need: Elite help in all positions; salary cap space; a recovery season for starting goalie Carter Hart; better luck on the health front; more depth in the last group of six forwards and the final defensive pairing; a clear path ahead, either as a complete rebuild team or as an on-the-fly retrofit group
What’s realistic for The Flyers next season: For the second straight season, the Flyers were one of the biggest disappointments in the entire NHL. General manager Chuck Fletcher publicly proclaimed his belief that his roster could be a playoff team, but the results proved that to be painfully false. The Flyers turned out to be the second-worst organization in the Eastern Conference last season and the fourth-worst in the league; even the expansion Seattle Kraken had two more wins than Philly.
Certainly, some of that can be attributed to the Flyers’ bad health luck. Winger James van Riemsdyk was the only Philadelphia player to appear in all 82 games, and key components Sean Couturier, Ryan Ellis, Kevin Hayes, Joel Farabee and Scott Laughton all sat out for significant periods of time. The team should be luckier this season, but that won’t necessarily lead to more wins, let alone a playoff spot.
In fact, even with veteran head coach John Tortorella taking over behind the bench, the Flyers will be hard-pressed to get past the New Jersey Devils, Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Islanders to challenge the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh. Penguins for one. of the last two postseason spots in the Metropolitan Division. To even dream of such a change, they’ll need Herculean efforts from starting goalkeeper Carter Hart, and a relatively shallow defensive corps, and a massive increase in goals scored; Philadelphia’s offensive total of 211 goals scored was second only to the dismal Arizona Coyotes (207) with the worst total in the NHL. When you’re in the same league as the Coyotes by any metric and spending at or near the salary-cap ceiling, something is structurally wrong with your lineup.
It’s been a curious offseason for Fletcher, who signed controversial blueliner Tony DeAngelo to a two-year, $10 million deal. DeAngelo will help on offense, but projecting him to move the needle in terms of wins and losses is overkill. And that signing put Philadelphia over the salary cap, with restricted free agent forwards Owen Tippett and Zack MacEwen needing new contracts. Fletcher will have to get creative to box them in, and some of the roster will have to take an extra hit to make that happen.
In short, it’s likely to be another long season for Flyers fans. If any team needed a complete teardown and complete rebuild, it was Philadelphia. Another year at the bottom of the Metro rankings is possible; if that happens, Fletcher should have the reins of power taken out of his hands. There just isn’t enough “in there” for Philly, and a new coach can’t mask the numerous roster holes that exist here.