With Rookie Camp underway, Training Camp right around the corner, and the start of the regular season less than a month away, the long and arduous offseason for the Philadelphia Flyers is coming to a close.
Flyers Governor Dan Hilferty and President of Hockey Operations Keith Jones met with the media to address the state of the franchise on Wednesday and dove in on their thoughts on the team’s rebuild and where they see things going from here.
The Flyers’ offseason felt like an eternity since they made most of their moves before the draft even started. The two biggest moves they made this summer were the hiring of Rick Tocchet as their new head coach and then trading for Trevor Zegras.
They then followed that up by keeping most of their draft picks to replenish the pipeline, which included the additions of Porter Martone and Jack Nesbitt, before addressing depth down the middle and in between the pipes swiftly and early on July 1st.
Everyone is aware that last season wasn’t the year anyone was hoping for, especially after having come so close to making the playoffs in 2023-24. However, both Jones and Hilferty are extremely positive of where the Flyers currently stand in the present and for the future, and it starts with their finances and philosophy.
“When you think of the strength of the league, cap space continuing to go up, we felt like we were behind the 8-ball, not having any space at all,” said Hilferty. “Now that we look forward, we’re not about moving things out, we’re about growing now and building this thing and that’s an exciting place to be.”
The key takeaway from that is that the Flyers are now looking to add for the now, rather than for tomorrow, which is a seismic change in philosophy from the last few seasons. When asked about that change, Jones believes that he owed it to the players, first and foremost.
“I think we owed that to our players that are here. They’ve done everything that we’ve asked of them,” said Jones. “We’ve moved out a lot of their friends, we’ve taken away players at times where other teams are trying to build for a playoff run, we’ve continued to accumulate assets to help us build towards the future and a lot of our top players have been patient with that.”
The Flyers’ brass, even outside of Jones and Hilferty, are very exciting about where the team currently stands. The additions of Tocchet behind the bench and Zegras down the middle of the ice are going to be huge factors on whether or not they improve this year, but they believe the excitement can push out further, including their position at the trade deadline.
“We’re a deeper team, there’s way more options for our coaching staff, and at the trade deadline – as an easy example – we’re not going to be giving up players to gain future assets unless there was something crazy that happened, but that’s the plan as we sit here today,” explained Jones.
The Flyers have been consistent sellers at the trade deadline but Jones coming out and saying they’ll most likely be looking to add – in September – is big for both team and fanbase as it can finally give the latter something to support and the former something to play for.
Jones then made mention about how they never steered away from their philosophy, even when it was really difficult as he mentioned the Sean Walker trade as a prime example. For most teams, being in a playoff spot would render a buyer’s mentality at the trade deadline, but the Flyers opted against that as they had a bigger picture in mind.
While last year didn’t finish as they had hoped, they were pleased with some of the improvements they made, and are hoping they can build off of that with their core pieces meshing with their young players funnelling through the system.
“Not at all, I think the year before we felt pretty good about our team going into that season but we recognized we needed to be more flexible in the future and I think that’s what led to some of the selling off at the trade deadline, Sean Walker comes to mind,” said Jones. “Last year was kind of a steady progression up until the trade deadline, it was clear that’s the way we had to go last year, it was easier in that regard, but recognizing what was on the horizon made us feel pretty good, I think the execution of the draft is a very important step for us, and we feel really good about the accumulation of talent, not just assets, and I think that’s going to help us build our foundation of younger players advancing and some of our top young guys that have been in the NHL for a few years now in a position to really take on roles of leadership.”
Jones then made mention of who he believes are the players that he thinks are in a position to lead the charge and name dropped the usuals in Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim, but then also gave shoutouts to Bobby Brink, Noah Cates, and Tyson Foerster, as well as Cam York and Samuel Ersson.
“So the ones that I comfortably predict will are Tyson Foerster, Noah Cates, both of those guys showed a lot. Bobby Brink continues to become a better player, Konecny’s been there and done that, Sanheim has developed into a great player and leader in the back-end. I really appreciate his development and comittment to the team. I’m looking for solid contributions from Cam York and I’m a big believer of Sam Ersson.”
He hopes that both York and Ersson can bounce back from last season, where the former can regain his ability to lead the Flyers back-end, and the latter can be a stabilizing force in between the pipes, which has been a constant Achilles heel for the club.
While they weren’t so quick to throw the penalty flag on their performance in 2024-25, when asked about their thoughts on if a repeat season were to occur, they were both very quick in saying they would be very disappointed and it’s not something they foresee.
“That would be disappointing, we definitely want to continue to take steps forward, I believe that we will, I think we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that happens,” said Jones. “The previous two years we would be quick to make changes in order to get better for the future, now it would be about staying on course now, which is advancing, not about moving back.”
“The fan in me would be disappointed as well,” chimed in Hilferty. “Last year was a learning experience, coming from the business world, I just assumed you get on a track and continue to go up, but that’s not how professional sports work, but I agree with everything that Jonesy just said.”
Their confidence comes from the man who is making these hockey decisions in general manager Daniel Brière. It’s never an easy task to undertake a rebuild, let alone in Philadelphia where the team had very rarely stumbled for almost 5 decades until the early 2010s. However, Brière has been consistent, open, and thoughtful, and Jones and Hilferty couldn’t have asked for a better leader.
“Both Hilf and I are very impressed by Danny, he’s an extremely intelligent and dedicated person with his job, methodical, thoughtful, sharing. He deals from a position of honesty and has a really good plan in place that he has so far executed very well. I’m extremely happy with him.”
“His attention to detail and his willingness to allow analytics to come into his thinking along with eye-test is very impressive,” said Hilferty. “From a communications point of view, he’s been terrific.”
When the presser began, Hilferty opened it up by saying that success in 2025-26 won’t be defined by making or missing the playoffs. Once again, for most teams that would assuredly be the barometer, however the Flyers see things differently, at least according to the governor.
“As a fan, last year I was disappointed we didn’t make the playoffs, the year before I was disappointed we didn’t make the playoffs, the year before that, I got here too late. As that true Philly fan, I want nothing more than to compete for the playoffs. We’re doing everything we can, now we’re adding, you can only add when you feel you have a shot to be in the playoff conversation.”
The Flyers being in a position to add should get the fanbase a little more excited heading into the new season. When asked if Matvei Michkov’s arrival expedited the rebuild, Jones didn’t mince words and felt that it played a part, especially with how determined and incredibly skilled the youngster is.
“There’s no doubt that it helps, it helps in the Flyers fan community, he’s a very excitable player to watch. He embraces trying to be the best, it’s an interesting thing to watch him operate. He’s going into year 2, that’s always a challenge for young players, but he is a driven type of personality that wants to be a star and we really appreciate what he brings. He does help us get to a point, where we continue to advance a little bit earlier because he’s here, and we need to help and add players to that mix.”
While the front office is very confident in where the Flyers stand entering the new season, even if they don’t make the postseason, there are certain things they have to see improve and it starts and ends with their goaltending.
In the final 37 games of the 2023-24 season, which coincided with Carter Hart’s departure, the Flyers averaged 3.8 goals against per game. It went as high as 4.1 goals against per game in a 24-game stretch that ultimately decided their fate between the 17th of February and the 9th of April.
Last year it wasn’t any better as they averaged 3.45 goals per game for the entire season, all the while producing the worst save percentage in the salary cap era at 87.2%. Samuel Ersson was the cream of the crop at .883, followed by Ivan Fedotov’s .880, and Aleksei Kolosov’s .867.
Martin Jones’ .900 SV% from the 2021-22 season wasn’t looked upon very highly at the time, considering those are still pedestrian numbers, but at this stage, the Flyers would be more than happy if they saw any of their goaltenders break the 90% threshold.
That is where Dan Vladař can come in and provide stability in goal and stability for Ersson, who needs to prove he’s earned the right to a number one goaltender’s workload, rather than being given the opportunity due to circumstances.
Special teams is also an important factor that needs to be addressed. With new assistant coaches at the helm, it will be interesting to see how successful their implementation of their systems will be. After their power play had been the league’s worst for 3 years running, the Rocky Thompson-led group finished third-last and the penalty kill slumped to a 20th place finish after having been so successful the year prior.
Despite their depth players expected to play major roles in 2025-26, a brand new coaching staff hoping to illuminate, and a front office shifting towards a more confident – and perhaps aggressive approach – the Flyers enter the new season with wavering expectations.
Making the playoffs in the Eastern Conference is going to be tough considering how deep the Atlantic Division is and that some teams in the Metropolitan Division should be back in the running again after a down season. However, on the flip side the Flyers are also not bad enough to compete with San Jose and Chicago in the Gavin McKenna sweepstakes.
While Jones and Hilferty are confident they will take a step in the right direction, where do you stand on the Flyers heading into 2025-26? If they just missed the playoffs, would you be okay with that? What if they had a repeat of 2024-25? Are playoffs the ultimate test of success right now? There are lots of questions to ponder as the Flyers return to the ice for training camp.
