The New New Unending Flyers thread

[phillychuck]

Everything i heard is that they are leaning towards giving him another year or at least more time before calling him up. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jett also has another year in juniors.

If Martone is actually ready for the NHL, that could be one heck of a scoring line. Martone’s best skill is play-making from the wing, and he’d have two guys with him that are adept at converting good passes into goals.

[Austinfan]

Start with where they left off last season as the base:

TK - Couts - Michkov
??? - Zegras - Tippett
Foerster - Cates - Brink
Pelletier - Abols - Hathaway

York - Sanheim
Seeler - Drysdale
Andrae - Grans/Risto
Zamula

Now some questions to be answered.
Do they sign Shabanov?
Will Martone or Jett show enough in camp (for them it's NHL or Junior, though rumors of Martone in college).

Issues, Zegras is lousy FO center, ideally if they had more centers they'd put Couts on his LW.

AHL starting lineup
Bump - Gaucher - Grebenkin
Barkey - Rizzo - Tuomaala
Richard - Dorwart - Gendron
Eklind - ??? - Kaplan
Desnoyers, Wisdom RFA, haven't signed yet
They'll probably add a center in FA

McDonald - Bonk
Ginning - Samson
Murchison - ???

[Austinfan]

Doubtful, those guys almost never hit FAs, and the top guys are usually 29-30 years old.
Flyers aren't in position to win now in 2026 and overpay for a player who'll be past his peak in 2028 and later when they are competitive.
More likely, Briere will use that cap room to extend a RFA they trade for, but you can't predict when that opportunity will present itself.

[Docs]

I’m basing this off of what they have said in interviews. They are saying 2025 is about restocking the cupboard with draft picks and 2026 is about going out and using their cap space. Right now they don’t have an answer to the 1C or 1D question and if they improve in 2025 they won’t be in a position to address that in the draft. Martone and Mitchkov are the only top line players in the system at the moment, i think the guy they just traded for (Zegras) is more of a high end 2C ideally.

[phillychuck]

McDavid coming to Philly to play with Tocchet, who he apparently really likes from international teams.

There’s your 1C.

dreaming

[xogfog]

You would have to trade for McDavid and he would cost a ton, he won't be a free agent until next season, if Edmonton doesn't extend him in the meantime, and if he reaches free agency, reports are he wants to play for the Kings...

[Docs]

We are talking about adding him when he becomes a free agent in 2026, which falls in line with the timeline of spending in 2026

Someone needs to tell him someone has already done the oilers to kings narrative before

[Austinfan]

Flyers are probably going to go with 2 two way centers, Jett & ???.
Zegras is a tryout, Nesbitt is a 2-3 year project (has to improve his skating, fill out his frame).
But with two elite forwards, TK who is a first line talent, Foerster who's a good fit on a top 6 line, Tippett who is a 25 goal scorer with elite speed, you could put together two top lines.
Then enough forward talent for two bottom six lines that could be the third line on most PO teams.
Cates, Couts, Bergland/Gard
Pellitier, Brink, Barkey, Bump, Grebenkin, Tuomaala, and the forwards they just drafted.

Like FLA, comes in waves, keep the top two lines fresh and throw rested bodies at the other teams' top forwards.

[VoteForKalas]

To me, goalie remains the top priority now that we have Zegras and will try him first at C.

Ersson is a good #2, but we need an upgrade as the starter to really move the team forward. Sure, goal scoring was an issue last season, but goaltending was the biggest issue and has been since we lost Hart.

I was fine with losing Gibson to DET, but would kick the tires on Lyon, Allen, Merzilikis and see who else might be available. We do not need a stud, but need someone consistent and reliable who can give the team confidence to build on.

[flyers19rw]

No one knows what the upcoming season will bring. My suspicion is that we will be pleasantly surprised. For the first time in almost a decade the club has a coach and staff that are competent. Vigneault was a joke. When Tortorella saw that he couldn't take over the organization, his interest declined until he walked out. Tocchett is going to be a different story. With that in mind, we don't know which players are going to be here and what roles they will have. This week should give us some indication of where the Flyers will be going as they take on some new players either by FA or trade. There is some good talent here that will probably exceed expectations through new design. It'll be interesting how the new regime utilizes it.

[Austinfan]

I don't think Torts wanted to take over, he just burned out from the losing, which was really no one's fault, losing Hart really deep sixed the team (which turned out fine since it landed them Jett and Martone).

Briere may use this season for auditions, LHV is going to be loaded with prospects, many on their 2 or 3rd AHL season, at some point you need to see what you have in them. They have a lot of players on the way, but 2-4 years away. Amico is a good example, missed most of last season, they'll probably want him to play college for 2-3 years, then a year in the AHL.

So next two years is see who you want to keep on the current roster before the next wave arrives.
And as kids emerge, you move on from Hathaway, Seeler and Risto and pick up some draft capital.
Then, if players are blocked, you start moving them out before they hit their RFA years if they haven't won a job or are going to lose a job to a better prospecgt.

[zambonir]

Torts didn't want to take over, he wanted to keep coaching. Not just next year but the year after. The idea that he would quietly retired into an advisory role was a press creation (one that seemed plausible at the time). Neither side really had a realistic blueprint for how it was going to end but clearly Torts wasn't truly prepared for the reality of tanking and the Flyers rightly knew they weren't going to extend him, or even keep him next year necessarily. The fight with York and the unfortunate public quotes just brought it all to a head (and not by accident either).

I really don't care what the lines are this coming season, like VFK I am curious about what they do for a goaltender, and they could still trade a dman (York still most likely) too. As far as C, this is obviously Zegras's audition year. Whether it's a C or a wing the big FA signing or trade will come, but probably not this week/ year.

[LegoDoom]

I actually have service in the middle of nowhere. I don't like this draft and I think you had to take Martone in that spot. It will be interesting to hear people rationalize that pick when center has been pushed for months.

[jimbomill]

It will be interesting to hear people rationalize that pick

By many accounts, Martone was the 3rd best prospect, no rationalization required.
Here's one: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6413760/2025/06/10/nhl-draft-2025-prospects-rankings-pronman/

Her's ESPN's Grade of A- -> https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/45606178/nhl-draft-2025-grades-best-players-top-prospects-picks-value

[Austinfan]

I think in terms of lines.

If you have Foerster and Michkov on one line, and Martone and TK on the other, you don't need elite centers, just solid two way centers in the 20-40 range because their production will be elevated with quality wings.

It's great to have an elite D-man, but a lot of teams with top D-men struggle to find 3 other top 100 guys to fill out two reliable pairs, so give me two pairs that can match up against anyone and a 3rd that isn't a liability.

STs are somewhat symmetric, don't care if I have an elite PP or elite PK, but as a whole, I want to be a net positive, +10-20 goals over a season.

Build a team with whatever resources you can garner, don't obsess over a position.

[zambonir]

Most of C talk was before the Zegras trade though. And many if not most of the mocks thought Martone and Hagens would be gone, leaving the Flyers to choose between O'Brien, Martin and perhaps McQueen. Seems like they just went BPA on their board (Desnoyers is probably who they wanted) and Martone was both good enough and Hagens' stock had dropped enough that it was not a choice to freak out about either way.

Seems like they also like the fact that Martone will be ready to play in the NHL at the same time as Luchanko, possibly before, while Nesbit might take longer. At the same time, if they're ready to gamble on Luchanko this year (since he can only play in the NHL still) that gives them another C.

[bigegypt0417]

Zegras definitely changed their strategy and BPA is always a good idea.

Flyers will probably sign a C in free agency.

Most publications seemed to have liked the Flyers draft with grades anywhere between an A and B. I think they did well and then using assets to add NHL talents was a solid move.

Go get a goalie and you may have a playoff team.

Maybe.

[zambonir]

It's a house money year really, if they don't end up well-positioned to make the playoffs one more trade deadline as sellers rather than buyers would not be the end of the world, and if they're really disappointing, a shot at McKenna would also not be the end of the world. But it certainly seems like the goal is to get in or close, and be poised to build on that next summer.

Athletic article wonders if they still might be an offer sheet player but I don't think I'd punt on the '26 first at this point. And so few offer sheets actually happen anyway.

York contract is apparently all but done too.

[bigegypt0417]

To sign someone to an offer sheet it would need to be someone you consider a long term piece that makes them good enough to not fall at the bottom of the league and those players would need multiple picks unless the player you sign is for less than 4.5 million.

The flyers are making what are solid moves on paper...now let's see how they translate. Tocchet seems like the kind of coach who can maximize talent.

Looking at teams with cap space you see some teams have almost no ability to maneuver..

https://www.spotrac.com/nhl/cap/_/year/2024/sort/cap_maximum_space2

[zambonir]

I think the Zegras deal also closed off the likelihood of an RFA move. Poehling, a 2nd and 4th is as good if not better than the 1st and 3rd they might have given up for someone like Rossi (at the ceiling of $7 million), and without the long-term commitment.

It will surely be a busy week. Probably at least one surprise.