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With Toc Now Back in Philly, here are a Couple of Moves the Flyers Need to Make
Well, like the move or not, it’s official. Former Flyers’ tough guy Rick Tocchet is back in the fold as the team’s new Head Coach.
Tocchet, whose playing career spanned 18 seasons, spent 11 of those with the Flyers. In those 621 games wearing the Orange and Black, Rick managed to score 232 goals and 276 assists, totaling 508 points. But what really made him beloved here in Philly and potentially what helped him to secure a job here now is the fact that he played with snarl and grit. Whenever Tocchet stepped out onto the ice, his opponents took notice, because they knew if they so much as looked at one of his players wrong, that crazed man with a mullet was going to be coming after them.
And to be honest, I think that snarl is what this team has been lacking for some time now. The Flyers lost their edge, and teams no longer fear them like they used to. From the time of the Bullies right up to Radko Gudas’s departure, opposing teams would catch the Philadelphia Flu and come up with ailments on their way to the City of Brotherly Love so that they didn’t have to dress to play them.
Over the last decade, this organization has been trying to produce a more skilled team with smaller, less physical players, and it just hasn’t worked out.
So, I say with a man like Rick Tocchet now going to be behind the bench, management should look to bring in players that play the game with the same type of snarl and grit that Rick and most of the Flyers alums did. The kind of grit that made them not only one of the most feared teams in the league, but one of the most winningest franchises in league history as well.
But, by now, you might be asking, what does, how Rick played the game have to do with how he coaches now? And, I would say Rick expects hustle, and for his players to do all the little things that got them here, like finishing their checks and standing up for their teammates when they need them the most.
And, for what it’s worth I think that his systems work well considering in the 23-24 season when most of his players were healthy for the majority of the year Rick saw his team (the Canucks) win 50 games, securing themselves first place in the Pacific Division totaling 109 points in 82 games played. A feat that allowed Tocchet to take home the coveted Jack Adams Award.
So, as much as I would have liked to see the Flyers NOT add another chapter to their ongoing fascination with nepotism, you can’t deny the fact his having played 18 years in the NHL, winning a cup with the Penguins in 92-93, and now having just coached his 16th season at the NHL level (nine as a Head Coach) that Rick is more than qualified to take on this Herculean task of returning the Flyers to contention.
The only question now is how management can try to ensure a smooth turnover of power and the speedy implementation of his new systems.
Well, I have a few ideas.
The Draft
The NHL Entry Draft is rapidly approaching, but now that they have their new coach at the helm, the Flyers should have discussions with him (if they haven’t already) concerning what kind of players he needs to run his system effectively.
And, if they don’t coincide with Briere’s strong desire to draft another center, then so be it. Because, in the Draft lottery, the Flyers got shafted and lost their fourth overall pick, and instead they had to settle for the sixth selection this summer. And at that point in the draft there just isn’t a clear-cut selection.
Faceoff specialists like Michael Misa and James Hagens will most likely already be off the board when it’s the Flyers’ turn to make their selection. So, that leaves us with Swedish-born Anton Frondell, who has had multiple knee injuries in his past. The towering 6’6 Canadian centerman Roger McQueen, who was limited to just 17 games played this year because of a spine injury.
Or prospect Caleb Desnoyers, whose older brother Elliott is already in the Flyers system. Now, while Caleb may look like a strong candidate for the team to pick, I think that there still may be some skepticism. Especially, with Elliott recently finding himself being made to sit up in the press box with me and watch as the team’s more recent prospects who were outplaying him got to take his spot in the lineup. The Flyers might fear that Caleb will do much of the same as Philadelphia was once so high on his older brother, and he has still yet to live up to those expectations.
So, in saying that, I would not be mad at all if Philadelphia instead decided to reach a bit and take a physical shutdown defenseman with their first pick, like a kid that goes by the name Kashawn Aitcheson.
As you can see in the videos provided, Kashawn is a former guest of ours on Prospect Watch. And, for good reason. Aitcheson is an 18-year-old left-hand shooting defenseman who stands at 6’1 and 198 pounds. He is an absolute beast in his own end who proved time and time again this season that he is more than capable of being asked by his coach to keep soon-to-be top five picks Michael Misa and Porter Martone off of the score sheet on a nightly basis.
However, Kashawn’s defensive and physical abilities are not all that the Flyers should be enthralled by. Because Aitcheson also managed to lead his team, the Barrie Colts, in goals with 26 and total points with 59.
But why stop there, right? The Flyers finished last season with the league’s worst save percentage, .879%, and were also bottom dwellers in goals against average, which saw them let in 3.45 goals a game. So, in an effort to further solidify and strengthen the back end, I think the Flyers management should also look to select a young man named Carter Amico in the second round.
Carter is a right-hand shooting blueliner who stands at an impressive 6’5 234 pounds. He, like Kashawn, is a physical force. And multiple times a game, you can count on him to use that strength to totally wipe the opposition off the puck and out of the play entirely. Thus creating fast break opportunities for his forwards to go the other way.
Free Agency Grab: Center Pius Suter
Then, shortly after the draft, free agency is set to take place starting on July 1st. Where, if they play their cards right, the Flyers could acquire a 28-year-old unrestricted free agent center from Switzerland named Pius Suter.
It should be noted that Suter played the last couple of years in Vancouver for Tocchet, where he excelled in Rick’s system, scoring 39 goals and 36 assists for 75 points. All while averaging a +19. Twenty-five of those goals, mind you, came just last season, largely when Pius was asked to step up and play 1st line minutes for around 18 games of the season after Vancouver’s star center Elias Pettersson went down with an injury.
Obviously, with Pius’ age the Flyers would not want to sign him to a long-term deal, still it would be nice not to have to rush a guy like Jett Luchanko who while showing promise down in Lehigh Valley, still lacks the maturity level to his game that would allow him to play at the lightning quick pace he’s capable of, but not be so reckless that he takes the dumb penalties like he did this year in Juniors and in the playoffs with the Phantoms that constantly had his team down by a man and on the penalty kill.
That’s why I would suggest signing Suter, who made just $1.6 million last season, to a short-term deal even if it means the Flyers have to give him a significant raise because Pius has previously proven to Philadelphia’s new bench boss that he can be depended on to produce offensively whether he is playing up or down the lineup.
This move would allow Luchanko, Grebenkin, and others in the system, not to mention those prospects who may not even be drafted yet, not to be rushed into playing before they are ready.
Trade for: Kiefer Sherwood
One player that I think came into Rick Tocchet’s locker room and absolutely fluoresced while playing in his system was 30-year-old Kiefer Sherwood.
Before joining the Canucks as a free agent last season Sherwood had to try to make a name for himself playing for several teams AHL affiliates before proving he belonged in the NHL as an everyday player for Nashville in the 23-24 season.
But no one besides maybe Tocchet knew what kind of battering ram he was about to be unleashing on the league this season. When he set a new league single-season record for hits with an astonishing 462, memory erasers, for reference, the previous record was 383. And the next closest person to him this season only amassed 306 hits. Folks, let me save you the trouble. That means Keifer managed to lay 156 more hits than any other player in the NHL this season.
And, with players on the Flyers roster like Garnet Hathaway turning 34 this season, and Nicolas Deslauriers turning 35. It might be time to trade one or both of these more expensive veterans away to be able to make room for someone like Kiefer, who is still hungry and willing to do whatever it takes to help his team win, for the reduced rate of $1.5 million a season.
Oh, yeah, I forgot the best part. Not only can Sherwood hit and fight, but he, like Tocchet, can also light the lamp. To the tune of 19 goals and 21 assists for 40 points this season for the Canucks. Not too bad for an undrafted player, huh?
With the Flyers signing Rick Tocchet to one of the most lucrative deals of any coach currently in the NHL, they showed they meant business. But if they want to ensure that Toc will have success in this endeavor, they should bring in one or more of the names I listed above. Those who have played for him in the past would be able to help others on the team in learning the new systems, and the prospects I mentioned already play a similar style of game, so they would be able to integrate into the lineup upon their arrival seamlessly.
Some Quality UFA’s that Will Not Land the Flyers Right Back in Cap Purgatory
Photo Credit: https://floridahockeynow.com/
Well, after yet another season going by where the Flyers failed to make the playoffs (for the fifth straight season, mind you), there was finally some good news to come out of Voorhees, NJ, this past weekend in that the team’s General Manager Danny Briere came out and said that he thinks that it’s time to move on from the subtraction phase to the addition phase of the rebuild.
And I would say it’s about time! For after shipping out Erik Johnson, Scott Laughton, Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, Wade Allison, Cutter Gauthier, Kevin Hayes, and Ivan Provorov, there just isn’t a lot of fat left that he could trim off the bone as far as the roster goes.
Lucky for us, Danny wasn’t done there. After having exit interviews with the players, it was time to evaluate the coaching staff. Or at least what was left after the much-needed firing of John Tortorella, who more than wore out his welcome with how he went about treating the younger players. And as it turns out, after the evaluations were complete, it was found that the Power Play Coach Rocky Thompson (who oddly enough was a career fighter and tough guy who never spent a second on the ice during a power play in his career) was given his pink slip after having completed multiple seasons with the Philadelphia finishing as or among the league’s worst power-play unit. And while Danny was cleaning house, he also sent Assistant Coach Darryl Williams and Skills Coach Angelo Ricci packing.
Although, as happy as I was to hear that news, it left me to wonder why Briere did not keep going and fire Goaltending Coach Kim Dillabaugh as well. Seeing that the Flyers’ netminders collectively finished last season with the league’s worst save percentage .879%, and a goals-against-average among the league’s worst, with them letting in 3.45 goals a game.
But I guess we can’t have everything, so let us focus on the task at hand. That being the additions that Danny was talking about. Now, while there is still the need for new coaching staff for the purposes of this article, let us focus on possible free-agent additions. With all the aforementioned transactions Dealing Danny has done since he assumed the role as the Flyers GM, the team finally has some cap space, especially since Cal Petersen’s $5,000,000 salary is now off the books, and the cap is supposed to rise next season to $95.5 million, $104 million for the 2026-2027 season, and then $113.5 million in 2027-2028.
However, this doesn’t mean that the team should go out this summer and spend frivolously and put themselves right back into the cap purgatory that they just worked so hard to crawl out of.
Let’s not forget the Flyers currently have some of the early fruits of Briere’s labor playing in the Playoffs right now up in Lehigh Valley with names like Alex Bump, Jett Luchanko, and Nikita Grebyonkin leading the team to victory last night against their rival the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
As nice as making a huge free agency signing like Mitch Marner from the Toronto Maple Leafs would be, I’d stay away. For one, he’s coming off a contract for which he got paid nearly $11 million a season. For two, he played on a line with perhaps the league’s best goal scorer of the last ten years, who is not named Alex Ovechkin, in Auston Matthews, who has netted over 400 goals over the past nine seasons. So, I think it’s fair to say that Marner’s numbers may be inflated. Plus, if the idea is to get someone to help Michkov, Mitch would not be the guy because they both play right wing. The exact position, mind you, that Travis Konecny, Owen Tippett, Tyson Foerster, Bobby Brink, Garnett Hathaway, Nikita Grebyonkin, and the newly signed Devin Kaplan play. And we already have to ask some of them to play their off-wing just to fill out the roster.
We need Centers and Defense! Because after Sean Couturier and Ryan Poehling have nothing. Jett Luchanko and Denver Barkey (C/LW) look promising, but at the end of the day, we don’t know if they are going to be NHL-ready next season or if they will still need more time to develop at the AHL level.
So, with that being said, let’s look at some reasonable unrestricted free agents that could help the Flyers next season.
Sam Bennett
Now, Sam, who is a 28-year-old pending UFA center that plays for the Florida Panthers, is certainly not on the level of a guy like Elias Pettersson, that plays for the Vancouver Canucks that is rumored to be on the move this offseason but acquiring him wouldn’t cost the team $11.6 million in salary over the next seven seasons either. Let’s not forget the Flyers now hold the fourth pick in this summer’s draft, meaning they could potentially draft centers James Hagens from Boston College, Anton Frondell from Sweden, Caleb Desnoyers from the Moncton Wildcats, or Roger McQueen from the Brandon Wheat Kings. Not to mention two other first-round picks and four selections in the second round. So, I would try to save the money to be able to pay them long-term and grab a guy with Stanley Cup-winning experience to assist you for a couple of seasons until Philly’s soon-to-be youthful core is ready.
The Florida Panthers have been putting everything into winning now, and it worked out for them last season and potentially again this season. However, with that being said, a considerable portion of their team is due to become either unrestricted free agents or restricted free agents this summer.
That list includes the hard-working Sam Bennett. Since joining the Panthers some five years ago, he has scored nearly 100 goals and 200 points. All while being able to sustain a +46 average during that time. It should be noted that this season was one of his best offensively, with him netting 25 goals and 26 assists for 51 points.
Sam has all the same qualities that the beloved Scott Laughton had while playing here in Philly, but Bennett does them better. He is a hard-nosed player who is willing to do whatever it takes for his team to win. He forechecks, back-checks, lays huge body checks, and is willing to drop his gloves with anybody if he thinks they did anyone on his team an injustice.
Overall, I think Bennett’s style of play would make him an instant fan favorite, and with him coming off a contract that paid him under $4.5 million to play top-six minutes, signing him for a couple of seasons to do the same thing here in Philly would not be a bad thing at all.
Pius Suter
Keeping that same mindset, if Bennett and his team have another long playoff run, his price might go up, so another name Danny should be calling about is 28-year-old Swiss-born center Pius Suter from the Vancouver Canucks.
Pius is a monster around the net. He plays a lot tougher than his 5’11 and 179 pounds frame should allow, but I think that is because he plays with a lot of heart. Suter loves to pick passes off in the neutral zone and turn them into scoring chances. He does not mind getting into the dirty areas and taking a beating in order to be able to redirect a puck or knock home a nice juicy rebound.
This season was kind of a breakout year for Suter in that he went from scoring around 14-15 goals consistently every year to lighting the lamp 25 times this season. Therefore, since he has not done it for multiple seasons in a row yet, the Flyers might be able to offer Pius (who made just $1.6 million last season) an offer he can’t refuse. Because, despite the fact that he is rumored to want to stay with the Canucks, there has been minimal talk between the team and his agent thus far.
Dante Fabbro
Moving on to defense, there are going to be a couple of really intriguing names available in free agency, like Carolina’s Dmitry Orlov and Florida’s Aaron Ekblad, but they are all over or soon to be 30 years old and make nearly $8 million a season; which I don’t know about you, but they seem too old and too rich for my blood.
So, instead of them, I would like to see the Flyers pursue a guy like 26-year-old Dante Fabbro. A right-hand-shot defender who was initially drafted by Nashville in the first round back in 2016 but was claimed off waivers this season by the Columbus Blue Jackets.
After being swiped off the waiver wire, Dante was able to come in and take over 1st pairing minutes from ex-Flyer Ivan Provorov to afford himself the chance to play with Zach Werenski. One team’s trash is another team’s treasure, I guess. Along with that, Fabbro was able to put up a career-high in goals with nine, points with 26, and plus-minus with him posting a +23 this season. Now, you may not think that the plus-minus stat is not that important, but I’m here to tell you that there’s a reason why our goaltenders averaged some of the worst numbers in the league this year. Drysdale a -32, Zamula a -14, Cam York a -8, Sanheim a -6.
Fabbro, a puck-moving defenseman who can really lay some big hits, is coming off a one-year deal that paid him just $2.5 million this season. If brought in by the Flyers this off-season, Dante could prove to be a brilliant signing since Rasmus Ristolainen just had surgery to repair his right triceps tendon and is due to be out for at least six months.
Now, although these players I suggested above are not the face of the franchise-type signings, we fans are all hoping for the Flyers to make. Keep in mind that free agency is rarely the place where you get those types of players, especially since guys are not even eligible to reach unrestricted status until they are 28 years old. By then, most true stars of the game had already been signed to long-term deals by their respective teams. Free agency is where you get role players who can come in and be a piece in what you’re already building.
The draft is where you get those game-changing players that you see on billboards all around town, and the Flyers have a lot of picks in this upcoming draft to make that dream a reality. So, let’s just wait and see if that comes true.
A Method to Try and Resolve the Flyers’ Long-Standing Problems in Net
Photo Credit: https://denverpioneers.com/
Well, it is official: the Philadelphia Flyers have missed the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season, with this tying the longest postseason drought in franchise history.
But while there is a long list of things like the lack of scoring on the power play that needs to be addressed in the off-season, perhaps the longest-standing issue that management and coaching just can’t seem to right is, you guessed it, “GOALTENDING.”
This seemingly perpetual issue dates back to the end of the 1998-1999 season when Ron Hextall, Philadelphia’s long-standing guardian of the blue paint, retired. And, as crazy as that sounds, what might blow your mind more is the fact that over that now 26-year time span, the Flyers have started an astounding 34 different netminders!
Now, with you reading that inflated number, it’s easy to see that it most certainly is not for lack of trying.
Over the years, the team has tried bringing in countless established veterans, the best of whom was John Vanbiesbrouck, who had two great seasons with the Flyers. Still, after the completion of his second season in Philly, the Flyers thought it best to trade away this soon-to-be 37-year-old netminder.
Some years later, the team decided to take another route and take a chance on a young Russian goaltender who was at the time a virtual unknown to anyone over here in the States. That player turned out to be none other than future Hall of Famer Sergei Bobrovsky. Who after just two seasons played with the team, management succeeded in pissing him off by making the impatient long-term signing of Ilya Bryzgalov, which resulted in Bobrovsky wanting out of the City of Brotherly Love. Once he left, Sergei only went on to win multiple Vezina Trophies and a Stanley Cup. After this season is complete (and Marc Andre Fleury retires), Bob will become the NHL’s active wins leader with 427 victories already under his belt.
Of course, we already alluded to when the team tried throwing massive amounts of money at the problem when they signed free agent Ilya Bryzgalov to a nine-year, $51 million contract in 2011, but that did not work out quite the way they had planned seeing that the Flyers then decided to turn around and buy out the remaining seven years of his contract in 2013, resulting in a 14-year buyout agreement, that requires the team to still have to pay him roughly $1.643 million per year until the year 2027.
Then, in 2013, the Flyers decided to try their hand at a little “reclamation project” when they traded for a 24-year-old goaltender in, Steve Mason. Mason was a goalie who seemed like the next big thing after winning such awards as the OHL Goaltender of the Year, an OHL Championship, a World Junior Championship, and eventually the NHL’s Calder Trophy (given to the player deemed the Rookie of the Year) just to name a few. But in Columbus, he never really developed into the player they thought he would, so the Flyers traded for him, hoping that he just needed a fresh start somewhere new.
But, after playing five outstanding seasons with the Flyers, where during that time Steve managed to win 104 games, maintain a 2.47 goals-against-average, a .918 save percentage, and post 14 shutouts, the team just let this still young 28-year-old sign with another team in free agency.
Then, of course, the Flyers thought Carter Hart was going to be our savior, but we won’t even go into his atrocious stat line or the debauchery that he has been implicated in.
So, to this point, it would appear they have tried just about every way they know how to resolve this outstanding issue, but to date, they have failed to solve the problem. And, with the current crop of netminders in town combining for a league’s worst .879 save percentage and allowing 3.42 goals a game, they don’t look destined to get any better any time soon.
So, what else is there to try? Well, for one thing, they should try like hell to get out of having to pay Ivan Fedotov another $3.275 million for next season after he has only managed to win 0.25% of the games he’s started over the last two seasons. Whether it be a trade, a buyout, whatever it takes, just do it.
Then I think they should try to bring in multiple undrafted free agent goalies to camp in an effort to hopefully find one that can hold down the fort until reinforcements arrive in the form of Carson Bjarnason, who the Flyers drafted with their 2023 second-round pick, or an actually good goaltender in Yegor Zavragin who the Flyers took with their third-round pick that same year.
And those netminders that they should be taking a look at and either signing to an entry-level contract now or wait and see if they will be willing to attend their camp this summer are.
Austin Elliott-London Knights
Austin is a 20-year-old netminder who has attended NHL camps in the past but has yet to be offered a professional contract. This season, Elliott started the year with the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades. Still, he was dealt (despite winning all three of his starts this season) to the London Knights, where he finished the regular season with a record of 32 wins and one loss while being able to maintain a 2.10 goals-against-average and a .924 save percentage.
Now, seeing that he somehow went undrafted and has not been offered a professional contract to this point, Austin recently decided to take his talents to the collegiate ranks next season, committing to play for UMass-Lowell.
But the good thing is I’m pretty sure he would negate heading there if it meant signing a pro deal.
Matt Davis-University of Denver
Next up is a 23-year-old shot blocker who is still in contention for a shot at winning his THIRD NCAA National Championship for the University of Denver, and that is goaltender Matt Davis.
Now, I’ll admit Denver has a ton of quality players, most of whom have already been drafted by one NHL team or another. Still, perhaps no player has been more impressive over the last few seasons than this undrafted free agent. For Davis, over the course of the previous four seasons out in the Mile High City, has been able to win over 70% of the 89 games that he has played in.
With this season being no different, seeing that Matt managed to accumulate a league-leading 29 wins this season while posting an impressive 2.07 goals against average and a .923 save percentage.
Davis is about as refined as you will find any goaltender who is not currently playing in the NHL because, as you can see in this video from the 2024 Men’s Frozen Four Tournament that I provided below, Matt looks as cool as the other side of the pillow when staring down current NHL Stars like the Sharks’ Macklin Celebrini, and the Canadiens’ Lane Hutson when they played for Boston University. As well as players like the Sharks’ Will Smith, the Ducks’ Cutter Gauthier, the Capitals’ Ryan Leonard, and the Rangers’ Gabe Perreault, who all suited up together against Davis for the Boston College Eagles in that same tournament.
If the Flyers signed either one of these goalies for next season, it would most certainly bring this fragile fan base a little reassurance. For far too long, this great city has been without a goalie that they can trust to stand on his head any given night and win them a game all by himself.
And, although the masses here in Philly understand that the team is going through a rebuild and the majority of them still trust in old #48 (Danny Briere) to lead the team in the right direction, they are going to need a little more than Matvei Michkov to keep them attending games. And the team is going to need someone (in net) who is a little more consistent and can keep them in games.