In a series for The Hockey News, we are looking at how the New York Islanders compare to the other seven teams in the Metropolitan Division heading into the 2024-25 season. Up next is the Philadelphia Flyers
Key Departures: Cam Atkinson, Carter Hart, Denis Gurianov
Key Additions: Matvei Michkov
There is a lot of uncertainty about the Philadelphia Flyers’ roster heading into next season. A team that was never given a chance last season was extremely close to beating all odds and making the postseason.
Realistically, the Flyers are in the rebuilding stage, trying to sell off key pieces and tank in the standings for a lottery pick. The players and coaching staff say otherwise, though.
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The first thing that comes to mind when watching the Flyers is their similarities to the year one New York Islanders in the Barry Trotz era. Although the team is underwhelming on paper, it has a great coaching staff and guys up and down the lineup who play their roles completely every game.
Bringing a two-way and gritty style of hockey, along with similar defense and forechecking systems to the 2018 Islanders, the Flyers will be one of the toughest teams the Islanders face this season.
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Travis Konecny, Sean Couturier, Scott Laughton, and Joel Farabee are the offense’s anchors, surrounded by young elite prospects like Matvei Michkov, Tyson Foerster, Owen Tippett, and Bobby Brink.
Comparing this group to the Islanders’ forward core may be a year or two early to say Philadelphia has an advantage.
Mat Barzal, Bo Horvat, Brock Nelson, Anthony Duclair, and Kyle Palmeri are proven NHL players, and we will see a perfect example of experienced vs youth when these two teams face off this season.
On defense, Jamie Drysdale will hope to stay healthy and solidify himself as the Flyers’ number one defenseman, followed by Cam York, Travis Sanheim, Nick Seeler, and Rasmus Ristolainen.
The Islanders still have a large advantage, given Noah Dobson’s breakout season and Alexander Romanov’s seeming growth as each game goes by.
Ryan Pulock, Adam Pelech, Scott Mayfield, and Mike Reilly, like the Islanders’ forward core, are experienced and proven players in the league.
Until there is proof that the Flyers’ defensive core can play shutdown hockey for all 82 games, this matchup is not very interesting.
The situation regarding Carter Hart was a major blow to the Flyers’ goaltending scenario, but they will now turn to the young duo of Samuel Ersson and Ivan Fedetov. This will be a lethal duo, and it could possibly happen next season when they take the big jump.
Fedetov came to the Flyers late in the season and wasn’t able to gain much experience, and Ersson seemed to become majorly fatigued in his rookie season after the Hart scenario.
The duo of Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov can be debated as one of, if not the best, in the league when both are playing up to their capabilities.
Similar to the offensive comparisons, we may be a few years too early to see how the duo of Ersson and Fedetov can out-compete the duo of Sorokin and Varlamov.
The Flyers struggled on the power play last season, finishing dead last in the league. Without any major additions on offense aside from Michkov, it’s hard to predict that it will be much better.
After adding Duclair, the Islanders will look to have a better power play than last season, when they were around the middle of the league. The advantage goes to the Islanders.
Just like the Barry Trotz era, there was a struggling power play but also a lights-out penalty kill. The Flyers are built with a lineup full of 200-foot players which allowed them to possess the fourth-best penalty kill in the league.
The Flyers were able to turn to almost anyone to kill penalties, whether it was leading point scorer Konecny or fourth liner Ryan Poehling, the team was bought into the defense-first mentality.
Unfortunately, the Islanders do not have that luxury and struggled all season with the penalty kill. Having a new PK coach and new players on it, they will look to improve those numbers, but it is highly doubtful that they will be on the Flyers’ level.
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