For the last couple of years, the Philadelphia Flyers have been a mediocre team at best. The last time they made the playoffs was 2020. That Flyers team was on a roll going into the COVID-19 shutdown, winning 10 of their last 11 games. They played well coming out of the shutdown and into the playoffs that year, winning all three of the seeding tournament games.
In 2023, Keith Jones became the general manager and fans had a lot of optimism going into the season. The Flyers had a better-than-anticipated first half of the season, going 21-14-6, which was good for third place in the Metropolitan division. However, the second half was pretty ugly for the team, going 17-19-5. The Flyers were on the verge of making the playoffs but lost 8 of their last 11 games to fall out of playoff contention.
Needless to say, the Flyers need to win some more.
The 2024 season has come with some higher expectations as Flyers fans get ready for another roller-coaster season. Mattvei Michkov is the big acquisition the Flyers made at the 2023 NHL Draft, picking him as the 7th overall pick. Despite being in his rookie season, the Flyer faithful have large expectations for him. In his second career NHL game, a loss to the Edmonton Oilers on October 15th, Michkov had two goals, both of which were in the first period.
Sean Couturier is coming into his 13th season as a Philadelphia Flyer, with five seasons to go after signing an eight-year contract extension with the team in 2021. As a 32-year-old NHL veteran and team captain, ‘Coots’ has shown zero signs of slowing down, even after his season-long IR stint due to back surgery. In 2023-24, he played in 74 of the 82 games, averaging 17:49 of on-ice time, with 10 goals, 27 assists, and 192 shots on goal. Coots is someone who the Flyers have to look up to as an inspiration.
One thing that has significantly hurt the Flyers is their power plays. Last season, the Flyers had 31 power-play goals, which was 21 less than the league average. They also allowed 40 goals while on power play. Both offense and defense on power plays are something the Flyers definitely will have to work on this coming season. They would have probably won a few more games in the second half of last season that would have brought them into the playoffs.
While on the subject of power plays, the Flyers were much better when short-handed than the rest of the league. They scored sixteen short-handed goals, which was nine more than the league average. When you look at the short-handed goals against stat, they were also better in that category, allowing four goals when short-handed, which is three less than the league average.
John Nolek, a sophomore at Eastern who is a keen Flyers fan, says some improvements need to be made. He says that the defense is sometimes too aggressive when it should be more composed. He says that the additions of Michkov and Jett Lunchanko will help a lot in the long run.
Nolek also says that Rocky Thompson needs to do a better job of line changes. Right now, they are clunky and seem very spur-of-the-moment. Those changes should be more planned out.
Obviously, everyone wants to see their team get into the playoffs. Eastern Junior Dominic Marangoni says that for the Flyers, the playoffs are a plus. The team is still in a rebuilding phase. John Nolek’s expectation is to “Get to a spot where you can draft a 1C.”
As for now, we will have to wait and see if the Flyers can improve enough to get to that coveted playoff spot.
Source: Hockey Reference
Will Cunningham 
Daniel Finegan 
Jeff Day