Heading into the new season, there were several question marks surrounding the Philadelphia Flyers back-end, but 9 games in we’ve already seen a massive shift under Rick Tocchet and Todd Reirden’s system – primarily in Jamie Drysdale.
The offensive defenseman was acquired mid season in 2023-24 when the Flyers surprised the hockey world by moving the disgruntled Cutter Gauthier to Anaheim.
Similarly to Trevor Zegras, Drysdale burst onto the scene relatively quickly with a 32-point rookie campaign in 2021-22 in 81 games. However, injuries took their toll on the former first rounder, and he ended up playing in just 8 games during the 2022-23 campaign and another 10 in 2023-24 before the trade.
His defensive skills have always been under question, but playing for a rebuilding Anaheim team never proved to help his case either. He carried a minus-43 rating in 123 games with the Ducks and his underlying numbers never surpassed 51% in either Corsi or Fenwick.
Under John Tortorella and Brad Shaw, it was the same old story. He posted a -50 rating in his first 2 seasons with the Flyers and only managed 25 points along the way. He played timid at times, was not confident with the puck, and just wasn’t a good fit in their system.
Entering the 2025-26 season – a contract year for the 23-year-old – he has performed sensationally well under the new coaching system run by Rick Tocchet and Todd Reirden. It might only be 9 games, but Drysdale’s numbers are currently elite, and that’s a lot more than we could have expected.
According to MoneyPuck, amongst defensemen who have played over 199 minutes this season, Drysdale has a the 6th-best On-Ice Shot Attempt% (Corsi) at 59%, tied with Morgan Rielly and Seth Jones, and trailing only Jakob Chychrun, Adam Fox, Cale Makar, John Carlson, and Evan Bouchard.
Drysdale is also tied for 6th with Jones in On-Ice Unblocked Shot Attempt% (Fenwick), trailing the same aforementioned defensemen outside of Carlson. Additionally, he’s second in the league in On-Ice Score Adjusted Expected Goals% at 66.6%, second in On-Ice Score/Flurry Adjusted Expected Goals% at 65.4%, second in Relative Expected Goals% at 21.6%, first in On-Ice Expected Goals% at 67.2%, and is the only one with 0 defensive giveaways.
In contrast to last season, albeit a much larger sample size of 70 games played, he accrued 73 total giveaways with 53 of them being in the defensive zone. His Corsi was at 51%, Fenwick was at 52%, On-Ice Goals% was 43.8%, and Relative Expected Goals% was just 2.2%.
Of course, even amongst his own peers in Philadelphia, Drysdale is at or near the top of nearly every category. His Corsi is 12% better than Cam York and 17% better than Travis Sanheim, his Fenwick is 10% better than York and 14% better than Sanheim, and his Relative Expected Goals% is 19.3% better than the next man up in York.
Across the board he’s 8%-12% better in most analytical categories than the next man up and that should bode well for the rest of the season, health permitting. It’s even more important considering it’s a contract year and the Flyers have a lot of players playing on expiring contracts, as they continue to piece together their roster puzzle.
While Tortorella’s system benefited defensemen like Rasmus Ristolainen and Nick Seeler, it had the opposite effect on Drysdale. Tocchet has worked well with smaller, offensive-minded defensemen like Quinn Hughes, as well two-way defensemen like Filip Hronek in his time with Vancouver.
What’s even more impressive is that Drysdale is doing all this with an increased ATOI as he’s gone from 19:55 last year to 22:13 to start this season. He has seen over 20 minutes a game in every single contest except their 5-2 win over Seattle, where Tocchet spread out the ice-time very evenly by the third period.
While Drysdale is probably at the top of the list for most improved on the team, the new defensive system has taken full effect across the board, as the Flyers remain a top-10 team during the season’s opening month.
The Flyers have allowed the third least amount of goals against at 15, they have a wicked penalty kill clicking at 88.57% to date on 35 attempts, and so far own a team save percentage of .903, which compared to previous seasons is a miracle upon itself.
Drysdale is enjoying a fantastic start to the season, but it is absolutely critical that he can keep this up, or at least a large portion of it, for the rest of the season. Sanheim and York are the two pillars on the Flyers’ back-end for years to come, but it will go such a long way, if they an unlock Drysdale and add him to that list.
His next chance to impress will come Thursday night when the Flyers play host to the Nashville Predators.
