The Philadelphia Flyers Are Finally Building The Right Way

The Philadelphia Flyers Are Finally Building The Right Way

Few teams have overhauled their roster, staff, and team identity over the last few years more than the Philadelphia Flyers. They’ve changed their head coach twice, replaced their general manager, and traded their captain. It’s a new era of orange from the front office to the players to those leading the ownership group. With that comes lots of change, and so far it seems that change has been for the better. The organization was finally willing to commit to a rebuild. From that, they’ve been rewarded with plenty of talent. The Flyers have their new franchise face, other prospects with star potential, and an overall promising future. So today, let’s take a look at what has been built by the Philadelphia Flyers in recent years and where it looks like they’re headed if they continue to trust the process. One of the biggest changes for the Flyers in the past few seasons is the shift in identity. This is a team that hasn’t had a true star player for years. The latter years of Chuck Fletcher’s tenure as GM had the team throwing away assets like crazy and efforts to get anything to stick well enough for the team to get back to the playoffs. They had looked so promising in the 2020 season and yet they have not made the playoffs once since. Claude was key in the identity of the Flyers for well over a decade. the longest tenure captain in franchise history and one of their best players. When he left, he left as the player with the second most games played for the franchise all time. When it was eventually clear that the team was going to be rebuilding, it was also clear that the Flyers were going to need a new face of the franchise to help shape the team’s identity. The Flyers needed superstar talent wherever they could get it. and it didn’t take too long for them to find it. On March 19th, 2022, Claude was traded off the team to the Florida Panthers. 15 months later, on June 28th, 2023, Mattfeme Mechov was selected seventh overall by the Flyers. Judging by the way he’s played so far, it looks like Mechov is the franchise talent the Flyers were waiting on. In his first season in the NHL, he produced 63 points, scored more goals than any other rookie, and was one of the most fun players to watch on any given night. Mechov is the most talented player the Flyers have had in their organization in a long time, and it’s made better by the fact that he seems to really want to be a Flyer. He supposedly looked to the Flyers as a target destination before he was drafted and later got out of his KHL contract early to come over and be a Flyer. Any past concerns are behind them now with the future showing strong signs that the Flyers have a superstar level talent. For this next generation, it all starts with him. But what about all that surrounds him on the ice and in the organization? Danny Briier and the Flyers have committed to rebuilding in the right way. They gave up on the previous era, weeding out the players they didn’t see as a long-term fit, getting value back where possible. Highprofile moves like trading Ivan Proarov have proved to be hugely valuable for the Flyers. They acquired a first from that move and Shawn Walker, who played so well for them that he earned them another first at the following trade deadline. They’ve stockpiled picks wherever possible, giving as many chances as possible for their scouts to unearth a star player in the draft. In the three years Briier’s been the GM, the Flyers have made 12 selections in the first two rounds of their drafts. Quantity is the best alternative to fully bottoming out because the Flyers haven’t been able to select in the top five of any of those drafts. Some of that can be chocked up to bad luck as this past year, for example, they dropped two spots in the draft lottery when they were originally slotted fourth, but the Flyers went with the best player available regardless, taking a player that many had slotted in that fourth or even third best position in the draft. The newest building block of the Flyers is Porter Martone, the sixth overall selection in the 2025 NHL draft. This was kind of a surprising pick for Philly, but also an encouraging one. 4 days before the 2025 draft, the Flyers acquired Trevor Zegris. They moved Ryan Paling and two picks for a player with the chance to be a top six center. This move served as part of the way the Flyers intended to address their biggest organizational need, their lack of quality centers. Their centers are without a doubt in the bottom tier among the NHL and quite possibly the very worst across the league. Zegris will likely slot in as a toxic center for the Flyers next season, whether or not he sticks there long term. Even after this move, the Flyers made it clear that they were not done, that they believe they needed more talent through the middle. Because of that, when the Flyers went on the clock for pick number six and prospects like James Haggins and Jacob Bryan were still available, it seemed like they had the perfect opportunity to fill a position of need. Instead, they went with the winger with the only winger selected in the top 12 of the entire draft. Despite the overwhelming need for center, despite all the wingers they have capable of playing the right side, the Flyers went with the right winger. They believe Porter Martone is so good that they couldn’t pass him up. And they believe fully in drafting the best player available regardless of position. Even with all the talented wingers they have, the Flyers added another dimension with Marton. He’s a 6’3 winger who’s put up incredible numbers in the OHL, someone with the stylistic mix of a playmaker and a power forward. He’s now the clear top prospect in their system and a key piece of their future. And with their later picks, they did end up adding a center anyways, selecting Jack Nesbbit at 12. The way the Flyers have gone about acquiring and making draft picks in the past few years shows that Brier and the Flyers are a legitimately competent management group. While that should be the bare minimum, fans were subjected to four years of Ron Hexall, followed by 5 years of Chuck Fletcher as GM. Winning deals is new to the Modern Flyers. And while Fletcher was trading three picks for Tony D’Angelo, Briier has looked good coming out of most of the big trades he’s made so far. The Prover and resulting Walker trades were both great. Shedding the Farbe contract in that deal to Calgary was great and open up salary for them to make some of the moves they’ve since made. That includes the Zegris deal, a solid lowrisk bet on a player with great upside. and he also got a fantastic return for Scott Lton at the trade deadline. If there is a key move that comes across as weak, it’s probably the cutter goier deal. It’s still very early to determine an outcome for either team, and the Flyers were basically forced into making the move. The organization can at least get some credit for not letting it leak that Goce was unhappy there, unlike similar situations with other teams. The Flyers made no significant signings in 2024 free agency. It was a team still fully committed to their rebuilding process. This year was a clear step forward, adding Christian D’vorak and Dan Vladar. They’re not going to be a playoff team this year, but they are beginning to transition out of the rebuild towards being competitive once again. The team definitely has the pieces to get better. You would hope and expect Michkov to continue to improve over the coming years. Kknney just had his best season ever by the numbers and is locked in for the next 8 years. Those two look like sure things, but beyond them, there’s a whole group of young guys on the roster that are question marks. Zris could prove to be the team’s future topline center or end up something like a third line winger. Owen Tippet has 30 goal upside if he can just stay consistent. Cam York and Jaime Dale both probably need to level up their production if they want to reach their next level. There’s so much promise and potential in this roster, but few truly elite talents. The question is whether what they have and what they will continue to add is going to be enough to compete when the Flyers turn the corner. After each of their big moves, the management group has made it clear that they’re not done. Even after a pretty successful off season, they still feel they need to add more to their core, and they’re right to feel that way. They’re not in a position to become true contenders yet, but they’re well on their way. The Philadelphia Flyers are finally building the right way. The position their past GMs left them in was tough to dig out of. They managed to do it relatively quickly, replacing the rod in the organization where needed and are left with a solid group of players with tens of millions of dollars in cap space opening up for them next year. There’s still lots of uncertainty in the talent on the roster, but this isn’t a team with playoff aspirations yet, and they have time to continue to figure things out. The Flyers may not have a clear future topline center, but maybe one of Ziggress, Nesbit, or Jet Luchenko can become that. Their goalie situation has been thrown into chaos since 2024, but they have tons of highly regarded prospects in that area. And they do have at least two players that are core building blocks considered to have a high likelihood of hitting as elite NHL talents. They have so many chances for a player to break into a star. And in a sport where nothing is guaranteed, that’s about as good as it gets. While the rebuild isn’t complete, the team is getting better. With a more stable foundation in place ahead of the coming years, it should be a long time before we see the Philadelphia Flyers among the very bottom of the NHL again.

The Philadelphia Flyers have underwent a transformation in recent years. Not long ago, the team’s future looked hopeless, with aging stars locked into big deals, all part of a team that wasn’t making the playoffs. There’s been a clear shift and focused direction since GM Danny Briere took over. In recent years, he’s drafted Matvei Michkov, acquired tons of top picks, and built a solid young foundation for the franchise. Today, we look at the Philadelphia Flyers, and how they’re finally, after nearly a decade, building the franchise back up the right way towards contention.

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0:00 Intro
0:57 Face Of The Franchise
3:21 Get The Best Players Available
6:51 Competent Management
8:36 Time To Improve