When you’re looking at the Philadelphia Flyers offense, your attention generally goes to young stars in the making like Matvei Michkov, long-time fan favourites like Travis Konecny, or towards gifted newcomers like Trevor Zegras. However, the “third line” made up of Bobby Brink, Noah Cates, and Tyson Foerster should start taking centre stage.
The dynamic trio has picked up exactly where they left off after a very impressive 2024-25 campaign, where they showcased their skill, tenacity, and effort into being one of the more dominant trios in all of hockey.
Only 8 other trios played more minutes than Foerster-Cates-Brink (570.9 minutes) in 2024-25, and even amongst that group, they had the second highest xGoals% (58.3%) behind only Matthew Knies, Auston Matthews, and Mitch Marner (58.4%).
For a bigger sample size, amongst trios that played over 400 minutes together, they were third-best behind Toronto’s top line as well as the Florida Panthers’ Stanley Cup winning first line of Carter Verhaeghe, Aleksander Barkov, and Sam Reinhart.
They held the 9th-highest xGoals For (28.8), the 7th-lowest xGoals Against (20.6), 7th-best xGoals For Per 60 Minutes (3.03), and the 3rd-best xGoals Against Per 60 Minutes (2.17). Those numbers were also apart of a very large sample size of 62 games played together, which included 570.9 minutes of even strength hockey.
John Tortorella used them in all situations, including late game scenarios, overtime, and he would even trot them out as a power play unit, which is something we’ve already seen from Rick Tocchet and his new coaching staff.
Hard to blame them when they’ve been so dominant and effective over the last year and a bit. In the six games to start the 2025-26 season, the trio has combined for 8 goals and 7 assists, including an overtime winner against Minnesota – and the would-be overtime winner against Carolina before it was waived off.
Cates was always lauded for defensive game, Foerster was drafted with a heavy shot, and Brink was an undersized forward with a lot of scoring potential. When combined altogether, they’ve turned into a two-way masterpiece that has given the Flyers a lot of flexibility for the rest of their lines.
The Flyers don’t have numbered lines, at least compared to other teams like Edmonton, Colorado, or Toronto. While Foerster is seen as a top-6 winger for the future, his placement and production with Cates and Brink has allowed the Flyers spread the wealth to form a balanced lineup,
The coaching staff has tinkered around with the other 2 lines but we’ve seen Christian Dvorak and Owen Tippett play with Zegras, Michkov and Konecny have been paired up with Sean Couturier, but then we’ve also recently seen Tippett with Couturier and Konecny and Michkov playing with Zegras.
That kind of balance is invaluable for a team like Philadelphia and that wouldn’t be a reality if the Cates line wasn’t so reliable.
It’s a little too early for a big sample size, but the Foerster-Cates-Brink trio is just one of 12 lines to have played over 70 minutes of even-strength hockey thus far. Out of those lines, they have the best xGoals Against at 2.2, 6th-best xGoals% at 56.0 and, 9th-best xGoals For at 2.8 behind trios like Carolina’s Ehlers-Ah0-Jarvis and Colorado’s Lehkonen-MacKinnon-Nečas.
They’re producing at even-strength, they’ve now formed an exciting power play unit, they’re doing their thing on the penalty kill, and have shown off their moxie in overtimes as well. The Flyers have a legitimate trio that can score and defend and it doesn’t involve any of their top weapons like Michkov and Konecny, which should go a long way for the future.
When Michkov and Konecny right the ship, Couturier and Tippett continue to produce, and Zegras meshes it all together with his craftiness and offensive wizardry, the Flyers will have a pretty well-balanced top-9 for the first time since 2019-20.
As for the front office, they deserve some credit for being able to lock down Cates to a 4-year deal and Foerster to a 2-year pact this summer at relatively cheap AAVs. Brink is up next as he is set for restricted free agency this summer. However, if he continues to play the way that he is, he should be in line for a similar contract at some point during the regular season.
