The Philadelphia Flyers seem to be one of these many teams right now that are stuck in the middle of their respective conference. They finished the season with 82 points a year ago and nowhere near playoff contention.
The Flyers were awful on the defensive end of the ice a year ago, finishing 29th in goals allowed and 26th in penalty kill, so that should obviously have been high on their priority to fix and they did a few things to try to fix it. They traded two draft choices, a second and a third round selection, to the San Jose Sharks for defensemen Justin Braun. Then, in the draft, they spent their first-round draft choice on Cam York, a defensemen off the United States U-17 National Team. In free agency, they added defensemen Andy Welinski, goaltender J-F Berube, defensemen Nate Prosser, defensemen Tyler Wotherspoon, left winger Andy Andreoff, center Kyle Criscuolo, defenseman Chris Bigras, and right winger Kurtis Gabriel. A year ago the Flyers struggled on defense. They took steps to fix it. We will see now if it pays off.
After a very good 2018 season which saw the Flyers finish sixth in the Eastern Conference and lose to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games round one of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, many of which were high scoring but none of which were close, the Flyers are very clearly in win-now mode, which makes sense if you look at their roster.
All of their best players are in the primes of their careers. Right now, they have one of the best wing tandems in the world right now. First there is 30-year-old Claude Giroux, who compiled a whopping 102 points a year ago. The other in this dynamic wing pairing is 29-year-old Jakub Voracek, who finished second to Giroux with 85 points. 25-year-old center Sean Couturier finished 3rd on the team with 76 points. Their top defenseman, 25-year-old Shayne Gostisbehere finished 4th on the team with 65 points. To bolster their roster even more, the team added 29-year-older left winger James van Riemsdyk during free agency on a five-year contract. So as you can see, all of their top players are in their primes. Teams can always use fresh young legs, and the Flyers used their top draft choice on an intriguing talent, winger Joel Farabee off the United States U-18 squad. Farabee is one of those draft and follow types.
The Philadelphia Flyers finished the season a year ago with a record of 88 points, missing out on the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs by seven points. The Flyers can best be described as one the NHL's many middle of the road teams, not bad, but not great either. The Flyers three best players, Claude Giroux, Wayne Simmonds, Jakub Voracek, are all in their late-20's, the prime of their careers, but yet look how far the trio has taken these Flyers. Not very far. Overall, the Flyers had a very quite off-season, making just a few moves.
Their big move was to extended defensemen Shayne Gostisbehere for six more years. They also re-signed forward Mike Vecchione for two more years and signed goaltender Brian Elliot for two years as well. It looks like another "middle of the pack" season for this team.
The Philadelphia Flyers had an average 2015-2016 season. The team finished the season with 96 points, which gave them the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They were matched up with the Washington Capitals in round one, and they lost in six games. The Flyers most notable off season transaction was signing free agent forward Dale Weise to a four-year contract. In the 2016 NHL draft, they added center German Rubstov in round one from the Russian U-18 team. According to the experts, Flyers fans will have to wait about two years to see Rubstov. For now, they will have to settle for the talents of 19-year-old center Travis Konecny, who is due for a breakout season. So far this season, the team is a little below last year's pace, as they currently stand with just 23 points, good for 11th place in the Eastern Conference.
