F*ck Your Team: Why I Hate the 2025-2026 Philadelphia Flyers | NHL Season Preview

F*ck Your Team: Why I Hate the 2025-2026 Philadelphia Flyers | NHL Season Preview

The Philadelphia Flyers are just going to continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. After last season, in which the Flyers committed fully to a rebuild, this off season, they had opportunities to make some big impressive moves to really propel that rebuild forward. And instead, they did the same thing that they do every year. They hired an uninspiring coach, made a couple of low-risk dart throw trades, and picked a guy in the NHL draft that’s probably not going to be a massive difference maker. But how much longer are Flyers fans going to have to suffer this indignity before their team is finally brought back to prominence? Forget me for you should forget it. You’re living in the past, man. Last year’s Philadelphia Flyers team was like Barnaman Bailey finally coming to your town. That was largely thanks to the two combustible elements of head coach John Tordella and star rising forward Matt Py Mitchkov. Two of them were going to work together about as well as pineapple on pizza. For fans of the other 31 NHL teams, it was just a matter of sitting back, eating your popcorn, and waiting to see the show unfold. Flyers were roundly expected to be a terrible team last year, and lo and behold, they were. Basically, from the jump, the Flyers were unmititigated mess, opening the season by winning only one of their first seven games. After the previous season had been rocked by sexual assault allegations against goalender Carter Hart, Flyers had elected to roll into the season with a pairing of Sam Erison and Ivan Fetatov as their starting goalenders. and shockingly both turned out to be absolutely terrible. Fire spent the entire season tumbling down into the Sarlac pit until they finally cut their losses, moving off of some big pieces at the deadline, including longtime Flyer Scott Lton, traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Joel Farbe, and Morgan Frost to the Calgary Flames for a package that included a second round pick and Andre Kmeo later turned around and regifted to the LA Kings. Of course, we can’t forget the circus. John Tordella was openly hostile to members of the Philadelphia media. Goautier openly fermented treason in order to get himself shipped off to Anaheim of all places. Players were pissed about Torella’s coaching and ultimately one week before the end of the regular season, Tors was fired, as we all expected him to be. Not the firing before the end of the season thing, and we figured he would make it all the way to the end of the campaign. There’s nothing more flyers than subjecting your fans to a week of Brad Shaw as your head coach after your GM openly admits that the team is at rock bottom. Don’t turn your back on me. Let’s get one thing straight. This is shooters tour. I’ve worked hard my whole life, paid my dues, and now it’s shooters turn. Philadelphia’s forwards are a jumbled mess of stuff that has always been mediocre and new shiny things that might be pretty good. And shiniest, of course, is the next young Russian superstar hopefully in Matt de Mishkov. Coming off scoring 26 goals and 63 points in his first full season, has openly admitted that he is not a fan of dump and chase hockey. So, Rick Tocket is probably about to start drinking real hard once the season opens. Worst case scenario for Flyio Sands is that Mishkov deolves into Andre Kusme 2.0. Mechov will have plenty of veteran leadership on his first line to guide him. He’s got Shan Couttoriier who finished last season as a positive plus minus player despite having absolutely no goalender. So honestly, the NHL should have probably just given him the Selki last year. It would distract Flyers fans from the fact that he’s only put up 60 points twice in his entire career. Also, Travis Connectne on the other wing, one of the best all-around forwards on the entire team. The second line, there’s a ton of young talent headlined by Tyson Forester, a young player that Flyers fans are imagining will turn into their version of Mark Stone. Let me tell you, he’s already gearing up for his role of spending swasts of time on the IR. The second line center is the ultimate low-risk, highreward proposition, and Trevor Zaggress brought in from Anaheim to be locked into a battle with Mecha for who can do the most ridiculous trick shot goal this season. Who will drive Rick Tucket into an early gray first. Our second line is rounded out by the most jackal and high top six player in the entire NHL and Owen Tippet. This guy can score either the most beautiful goals in the entire league will shank the ever loving [ __ ] out of a wideopen look. We have Noah Kates who is basically Timu Couttori defensive prowess and none of the offensive production line is all potential. You’ve got Robert Precipice aka Damn it Bob Brink. He’s an absolute defensive plug but Flyers fans love to rave about his grip for 60. Abulls is also pencled in to be on the third line this year. Nothing about him other than he looks like he should be playing European soccer and has played only 22 NHL games and they have a fourth line populated by scrappers like Nick Deloreier and Garnet Hatheraway by Christian D’vorak who got maybe one of the worst contracts handed out this off seasonason. The Flyers do have some really good prospects within their system including Porter Martone who they just took in the first round of the 2025 entry draft. some longer shots for this year like Jet Luchenko, Jack Nesbbit, Jack Merrt, and Vansani. All we hear is about their defense. They can’t stop a nose bleed. Flyers back end is very similar to the forward core. Some really cool young guys and some players who just quite frankly shouldn’t even be on a top six. Sanheim is the number one defenseman for the Flyers and has been for the last few years, even though fans swear that he still has another gear that he can get to. The guy’s 29. I pretty sure that this is his ceiling, folks. to be paired with Nick Cer who’s a perfectly fine shutdown defenseman for your bottom pair. Some reason the Flyers are expecting him to be able to play top four minutes which is like expecting a fish to be able to fly. New York is a hometown favorite and the guy that Flyers fans swear is better than his numbers indicate. He did just get out of a year of tors burying him like a dead body across the river in Camden. Flyers fans, I don’t believe that the absence of John Torell is going to suddenly allow him to morph into Nick Lidstrom. So have Jamie Dell in your top four. a young guy whose development is going to be fueled entirely by the spite of Flyers fans. Booze that rain down on Cutter Goautier every time he steps onto the ice at Wells Fargo. Pairing includes Eigor Zamula who at 25 has already absorbed more punches to the head than prime Rocky Balboa and Rasmus Risto line and still owner of the most laughable contract ever given out. Flyers fans will have to endure for another couple of years while he’s getting paid over $5 million. Wait, it’s not Goldberg. It’s West here. make the Carter Hart’s reinstatement prospects still looking dicey. The Flyers smartly have moved off of him and are moving forward into this season with Sam Ersen, who as I mentioned was absolute trash last year. He’s only 25, but for a guy who’s been in the NHL for 3 years and has never put up a save percentage above 90, that’s really concerning. The Flyers did get a veteran to shoulder most of the load and be their full-time starter in Dan Vadar. Oh my god, what are you kidding me? couldn’t wait for the door to smack that guy in the ass when Stunt said Wolf arrived. Career GAA of three and a save percentage below 90. Alex Ovetkin, Sydney Crosby, of Guinea Malin and Art Paneran are just smacking their lips at the prospect of getting to face him a few times a year. You ain’t going to be able to hit them. They’re too good and you suck something off. Yes, I sure do. You know, it’s not often that teams go from the generic version to the actual name branded version of a head coach, but that’s exactly what the Flyers did this off season. After ejecting John Tordella, they replaced him with a guy who’s nearly identical in Rick Talk. The plus side for Tocket is that he’s one of Jack Adams within this last decade, seems to be able to interact with the media like a human being and generally understands the generation of players a bit better than his predecessor did. The downside is he doesn’t have a Stanley Cup ring from two decades ago to wave around in his players faces. He’s just generally not as entertaining as his Kmart version. Still, Rick Taka is going to run into a lot of the same issues that Tortoella did last year. Namely, some players who are not necessarily going to adhere to his, say, strict and gritty style of play. Has a history of ejecting guys who don’t fit to his system. Not exactly that well known for managing the vibes of a locker room given what happened between JT Miller and Elias Person in Vancouver. Quinn Hughes wants out of Vancouver faster than the Flash now. So yeah, while it might not be must-sea TV like it was last year, there’s still a lot of potential in this cast of characters. Since you’re new here, uh, I’m going to cut you a break. The Flyers biggest move of the summer was being the team that finally pulled the trigger on a trade to get Trevor Zaggers out of Anaheim. Like a 16-year-old girl convinced that she can fix the bad boy of the school, the Flyers were able to acquire the uber talented center for just Ryan Pulling, a second round pick, and a fourth round pick. Although that doesn’t seem like a ton in terms of the overall assets exchange, in part because it’s not, the trade is still a huge risk for the Flyers because they are taking on a very up and down player who’s had some injury concerns and also hasn’t been able to round out his game 100%. If he continues to play at the level that he has been playing recently in Anaheim, this tree is going to look like an absolute bust for Daniel Priier. But if he can return to the form that he showed earlier on in his career, he could be an absolute offensive dynamo for the Flyers. And if Takit and the Flyers are able to fully unlock Ziggress and get him to play to his full potential, he could be a cornerstone piece of this Flyers organization, and this trade could be looked back on as one of the biggest disasters by the Anaheim Ducks. Which way is it going to go? I honestly don’t know, but I’m super excited to find out. The other big acquisitions this off seasonason for the Flyers came in the form of the NHL draft. They had the sixth overall pick, and as luck could have it, one of the best players in the entire draft, Porter Mortone, dropped to them, and they snatched him up. Arton was a guy who I projected as going in the top five. And although it wasn’t inconceivable that he could be there for Philly at six, the fact that he was is a stroke of great luck for them. He’s going to be an incredible playmaker in the mold of a power forward. He could be the next Miko Ranton in for Philly if he manages to pan out. Now, after some finagling, the Flyers were able to trade back up into the top 15. And at pick number 12, they took a huge reach on Jack Nesbbit, a guy that I saw as being a late firstrounder and potentially even a fringe second rounder. He’s another big body player with a high hockey IQ. But the problem is his skating is very subpar and I’m just worried that there’s a ceiling on how good his offensive game can be. And though I didn’t like the Nesbid pick, the Flyers did have three second round picks and two of them I thought were really good value. Shin Vanzangi at that pick is a good value. I think he’s a solid two-way forward and Jack Myrtle at pick number 40. Interesting prospects going into the draft and he could be a top to middle six guy if everything pans out for the Flyers. Between all their picks, they got a lot of power fors and a lot of potential to fill out the middle six to support guys like Mitchkov, Marone, and Ziggress. Pretty good. Pretty damn good, lads. And speaking of Mishkov, on a team that is full of plugs, it’s hard not to spot enigmatic Russian winger who’s come into the NHL with more fanfare than any other Russian prospect, probably since Nail Yakapov. From controversy surrounding his attitude in interviews in the pre-draft process to controversy around his refusal to play dump and chase hockey to his desire to make John Torella’s head explode by pulling a Michigan every chance he gets. Mechov is an incredibly skilled player for the Flyers and he’s shown that he has the tools to be a superstar that they can build around. Notice I said tools and not productivity. He’s already 20 and hasn’t put up mind-blowing numbers at the NHL level, but he’s still very early into his NHL career. and with some more time getting acclimated. The hope for Flyers fans is that he’s going to start putting up those 80 and 90 point seasons quickly. But while he’s aggressive and confident, his frame doesn’t really fit what the Flyers seem to be going for, which is a lot of big bodies and power forwards. Mishkov is a very finessed player who’s going to create off the rush and in the offensive zone. If the Flyers can manage to meld that with their seemingly big-bodied identity, he could be one of the most productive distributors of the puck in the entire league. If they don’t and they try and shoehorn him into their style of hockey, he’s going to get washed out just like a lot of other players before him. I’ll give you a winter prediction. It’s going to be cold. It’s going to be gray and it’s going to last you for the rest of your life. No surprise here, but I don’t have high expectations that the Philadelphia Flyers are going to make the playoffs this year. They’re still an incredibly young team. Their superstars are just coming into the league and they are still building up the foundational pieces of what this team will be. Having Mechov here for a second year is great. Hopefully Porter Morone will get some time in the league as well. Young guys like Ddale, Brink and York will continue to develop while prospects like Oliver Bon and Jet Luchenko among others might get their first cracks of time in the NHL. This is a year to continue the building process. And while I have concerns about how Rick Tocket will meld with some of the elements of this team, he’s proven to be a very effective coach and a good builder of discipline and systems, the question is going to be whether the culture that he builds is going to stand the test of time or if it’s going to crumble like the one that he built in Vancouver. But realistically, Philadelphia fans are looking for just two things out of this Flyers team. Development of their young players and direction for this hapless franchise. [ __ ] We’re [ __ ] [ __ ] We’re [ __ ] [ __ ] [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music]

The 2025-26 Flyers are continuing their rebuild, but can they get out of the way of the same mistakes that doomed them in the past?

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