Are the Philadelphia Flyers Ready to Take a Step Forward This Season or Will the Rebuild Continue?
It’s been an eventful off season for the Philadelphia Flyers. A new coach and some new players like Trevor Zegress. Rachel Donner of Locked on Flyers joins us to discuss the moves and what it means in the rebuild of the Philadelphia Flyers. All that and more next on today’s Locked On NHL podcast. You’re Locked on NHL, your daily podcast on the National Hockey League, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Gil Martin here. Welcome everybody to the Monday edition of the Locked on NHL podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. I want to thank everyone who makes Locked on NHL your first listen every day. Don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss an episode. This episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code locked on NHL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. It is great to welcome my usual Friday co-host here on Locked on NHL, the co-host of Locked Onflyers, Rachel Donner. And uh Rachel, it’s it’s been an interesting off season to say the least in Philly. Le let’s start with the coaching change. Your thoughts on uh an old flyer coming back to coach the team. Well, we did talk a little bit about that on the Friday show on Locked on NHL when we talked about the coaching changes and you know what the challenges ahead were for all the new coaches. And I think, you know, it kind of set the tone for what this off season was going to be like when John Tordella got fired before the season ended. And the inkling was there that Rick Tocket was a top candidate for the role, but he just had to make a decision about the Vancouver situation. Lo and behold, uh, he decided to end things there and Danny Breier hired him. And I think it’s a good move for the Flyers at least. You know, you don’t want the pendulum to swing too far in the other direction, right, from one coaching style to the next because that’s sometimes more of a difficult transition on your players. But I think Rick Tocket is kind of the right kind of transition. Now, Rick Pocket has pretty simple systems, right, that are are aggressive. You know, there’s a lot of forchecking. It’s a lot of use your body and your stick to be hard to play against defensively. You know, it’s it’s nothing really like new or innovative, but he’s also like because of his experience as a player, he’s kind of a player’s guy in a lot of ways. And so while he’s like pretty demanding from a systems perspective, he can like manage it communicationwise pretty gently in some ways, you know, as that player’s guy. So I think it should be a really uh fun season as far as that to see how all of that plays out in team cohesiveness and all of that. I is there one player in particular who you think could benefit most from this new style? Uh I think there’s a couple. I think Mitchkov first off is going to be free to do whatever he wants in a lot of ways. I think that that sort of style offensively that does not rely on dump and chase. It’s a lot of forche. I think Matt Vay Mitchkov will thrive a lot better in that environment. And then I think there’s a couple of guys who kind of got tossed around a little bit by John Tortoella in terms of benchings and stuff that that’s just not the kind of discipline that Rick Tocket does. I would say Cam York in particular who just signed a new contract with the team is going to be one of those guys that will hopefully benefit. The biggest offseason addition acquiring Trevor Ziggress in a deal with the Anaheim Ducks. How important is it for Zegris to be productive and where do you see him fitting into this lineup? Well, I I don’t think that there’s a doubt that Ziggris will be productive. I think, you know, he’s had this sort of air of they’re going to trade him for so long now that I think he’s just relieved all of that’s over and he can sort of play a little bit more freely. Now, also he’s in a contract year, so that will affect his production, of course, as it usually does. But I I do think the biggest question there is, can he play center for the Flyers or not? I think they’re banking on him being a center, at least for a good portion of the time. And given the Flyers kind of weakness down the middle at the moment, kind of waiting for Jet Luchenko to be ready. Um, and there, you know, there’s some others guys that they just drafted, but I think that whether Trevor Ziggress can hang at center is going to be the biggest question. And then obviously, speaking of his history, staying healthy. Well, yes, that too. Of course, here we are. We’re entering the quiet part of the off season right now. Most teams, their their training camp roster is more or less set. What do you see as the biggest needs that the Flyers have as they continue this rebuild? Well, I think that, you know, there’s been a lot of emphasis on finding a 1C for this team, and I don’t know that we have that yet based on all of this, like the Zegris question. And they also signed uh Christian D’vorak this off seasonason as a depth center who I think will be hugely important in in filling that role. But there still kind of isn’t a one C that we know of yet. Could Jet Luchenko become that? Sure. But we don’t know. We just don’t know. And I think you know the other question for me you know at near the top of the list is goalending. So they have Sam Emerson, right? And then they have Ivan Fedotov under contract. Alexe Kolasov is still under contract on an NHL contract at the moment. And you know, our best guess is that Fedotov will stay on the NHL roster and Kolaf will get sent down to the miners and he may decide to go back to Russia at that point. But we just don’t know, right? But they did sign Dan Vadar and so it seems pretty clear at this point that they’re going to carry three goalenders. Uh which is you know something again we talked about on blocked on NHL Friday show like our team’s going to just start carrying three goalenders and for this year it looks like that’s what the Flyers are going to do. But with Rick Tocket in the mix now like we we just don’t know what the division of labor is going to be. First off, Sam Ern has to stay healthy. But as of what we know right now, Sam Ern is the number one with Dan Vidar as the backup and Fidotov is there, but you know, things could change depending on again health and who was playing well and and all of that. Uh, I would say thirdly, the Flyers blue line kind of has to play above their weight in a lot of ways. I think, you know, Travis Sanheim is a very good defenseman in the NHL and I think he proved himself uh pretty handily in the Four Nations that I think, you know, he wasn’t really expected to make the cut in terms of getting playing time, but because of injuries, he did. And I think he stepped up and played really well. He’s still not an elite defenseman, I would say, in this league. I think he again, he’s very, very good, but he’s just not like top tier. And do the Flyers need a topflight defenseman to win a Stanley Cup? Probably. So, I think that’s kind of in the back of our minds as well. What are the realistic expectations this year for the Flyers and how much pressure is there on the coaching staff as they come in for their first season? I think that’s one of the luxuries that Rick Tocket and his staff have this season because Danny Breier has done such a good job of setting expectations and he’s a little ky about the details of the rebuild, but he has said, you know, he said this last year, he’s said it already for this year. We don’t expect a huge step forward this year. It could happen if everything falls into place, but if it doesn’t, we’re not worried because this year was about getting Rick Tocket and his systems implemented, right? And then it’s about making sure that we have the right center to play with Matt Bay Mitchoff and that Matt Bay Mitchkov has a successful sophomore season. And then it’ll be figuring out where the goalending is. With that being such a huge question, like I’m thinking the Flyers get three to five more wins than they did last year, but that’s the max I would say. All right, so it looks like the rebuild will continue in Philadelphia. Rachel, why don’t you tell our viewers and our listeners where they could find the podcast and where they could find you and your co-host on social media? Sure. We are locked on flyiers on all your basic social media sites there that we are locked on flyers on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. I am at Aririum on Blue Sky. My co-host Russ Cohen is at Sportsology pretty much anywhere as well. All right, Rachel, thank you so much. I’ll see you Friday. Yep. Today’s episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Ever wish managing your money felt easier? With Monarch Money, it can. Whether you’re growing your savings or planning a big purchase, Monarch puts you in the driver’s seat. It’s like having your own personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money is more than a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You could track all your accounts, investments, and spending in one place. 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The Philadelphia Flyers have a new coach in Rick Tocchet and a new star players in Trevor Zegras but is that enough to see the team take a big step forward this season?
Rachel Donner of Locked On Flyers joins us to discuss the offseason and where the Flyers stand in their ongoing rebuilding plan for the coming season.
All this and more on today’s Locked On NHL Podcast with Gil Martin.
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