No team in recent years knows new beginnings like the Philadelphia Flyers. Since losing to the Blackhawks in the 2010 Stanley Cup Final, the Flyers have undergone two major roster reshapes.
The first came in 2011 when the Flyers traded away their captain, Mike Richards, and their leading scorer, Jeff Carter, and signed Ilya Bryzgalov to a nine-year, $51 million contract to solve the revolving door in net.
Welp, that didn’t turn out as planned. Richards and Carter won a Stanley Cup in Los Angeles in 2012, and Bryzgalov was an enormous disaster in Philadelphia before the Flyers bought him out over the summer.
General manager Paul Holmgren retooled his roster for the second time in three years, and the Flyers now have put the last two seasons completely behind them.
So what’s ahead for the orange ‘n’ black? A lot of the same questions that have plagued them in recent years, so let’s breakdown what has to go right for the Flyers this year.
Healthy defense
Last season, the Flyers’ defense had three members of the top-six miss a combined 73 games: Braydon Coburn (18), Nicklas Grossman (18) and Andrej Meszaros (37).
With injuries piling up last season, head coach Peter Laviolette was forced to lean on young, inexperienced defensemen, who for the most part, lived up to the challenge.
Given the circumstances, the Flyers have to be pleased with how Erik Gustafsson, Oliver Lauridsen and Brandon Manning performed in mop-up duty. Gustafsson earned a spot in the Flyers’ crowded top-six and Lauridsen earned the first callup.
But the group wasn’t good enough. The Flyers signed Mark Streit in the summer, who does upgrade the unit, especially in an area of weakness, moving the puck, and the defense enters the season healthy.
If injuries occur this season, the Flyers are better situated with dealing with them. The young kids now have experience, and the team currently has nine defensemen on its roster.
Regardless, staying healthy is important for this unit. It gets a bad rap, but when healthy, the group should not be all that bad. It’s not like the Flyers are entering the season with Ryan Parent, Lasse Kukkonen and Lukas Krajicek.
Goalies, goalies, goalies
What else is new in Philadelphia? The position that holds the keys to the Flyers’ success very much lies in net, and they’re going with a tandem much like the Blackhawks did last year en route of winning the Stanley Cup.
Very much like the Blackhawks. The Flyers signed Ray Emery, who went 17-1-0 with a 1.94 goals against average and a .922 save percentage as Corey Crawford’s backup, for his second stint as a Flyer.
Emery will be teamed up with Steve Mason, who performed extremely well in seven games with Philly after coming over from the Blue Jackets at the trade deadline.
Almost anything Emery and Mason give the Flyers this year will be better than what Bryzgalov gave the team the previous two years. If you can take anything away from the Crawford-Emery duo in Chicago it’s that two goalies can work.
Three, four or five do not, so as long as Laviolette doesn’t pull any 2011-playoff nonsense this year, the Flyers should be OK in net. Would it be to have a Sergei Bobrovsky (wait, they had him before? What happened?)?
Sure, but the Flyers don’t, and that’s OK.
#Hartnelldown or #Hartnellup?
With a new contract extension kicking in this year, eyes will be on Scott Hartnell. The 31-year-old signed a six-year, $28.5 million extension with a no-movement clause last season.
Will Hartnell have another down year or will this year be like the 2011-12 campaign when he teamed up with Claude Giroux and Jaromir Jagr for 37 goals and 67 points? Hartnell had only eight goals and 11 points last season.
Hartnell’s spot on the top line isn’t secured. Jakub Voracek’s breakout season last year has sealed a top-line spot with Giroux. But the third guy on the line?
It might not be Hartnell…
Where does Vinny fit?
It wouldn’t be a Flyers offseason without a big splash, and this year it came in the form of Vinny Lecavalier.
After being bought out by the Lightning, Lecavalier signed with the Flyers for five years, $22.5 million at the age of 33. The deal was looked at with some skepticism, but numbers don’t lie.
Vinny Lecavalier is still a productive player. In 39 games last year with Tampa, the 6-foot-4, 208-pound center scored 10 goals, 22 assists with 19 penalty minutes while averaging 17:53 of ice time.
He scored more points per game than Jamie Benn, Zach Parise, Marian Hossa, Sam Gagne, Logan Couture, Patrice Bergeron, Johan Franzen, Patrik Elias, Jeff Carter and Danny Briere, who he essentially replaces.
Who does Lecavalier play with? That’s an interesting question because there are a few scenarios that could have Laviolette drooling from his mouth.
Lecavalier is expected to center the second line with Wayne Simmonds and Braydon Schenn (more on him in a bit). But there has been some talk about playing him with Claude Giroux, which means either Voracek or Hartnell would be bumped down the lineup.
Voracek isn’t going anywhere, so does Hartnell keep his spot on the top line? It will be interesting to see how Vinny fits into the Flyers’ plans this season.
Here’s one off-the-wall scenario: Scott Laughton makes the Flyers, Lecavalier goes to the first line, Couturier centers Schenn and Simmonds while Laughton centers Matt Read and Hartnell.
Big year for Schenn?
For Brayden Schenn, this season is a make-or-break year.
He’s entering the season as a full-time left-winger and he has one year left on his contract. The Flyers locked up Couturier and Read, so Schenn is the final straw to be drawn.
But if he doesn’t have a breakout season, should the Flyers bring him back? With the logjam down the middle, the answer is no. This year is crucial for Schenn. He’ll have to score 20 goals to warrant the Flyers keeping him around longer.◉
Tom Dougherty , web producer/writer for CSNPhilly.com