Record - 25-46-11 (61 points), 8th in the Metropolitan Division
Goals For: 211 (31st in the NHL), Goals Against: 298 (27th in the NHL)
Leading Goal Scorer - James van Riemsdyk (24)
Leading Point Scorer - Travis Konecny (52)
Late last summer when making my predictions for the 2022 season I was riding high on the Flyers. I genuinely thought they could contend for a playoff spot with the moves the made in the off-season prior. Boy was I wrong. Plagued by injuries, poor play in net as well as everywhere else on the ice, the Flyers took a big step backwards. After a fairly nice start to the campaign winning 6 of the first 10 contests, they went on to win just 2 of the next 14 games, and would go nearly a calendar month without a win.
Head Coach Alain Vigneault was relieved of his duties after 22 games, with Mike Yeo taking the reigns for the remainder of the year. Sometimes a coaching change can turn a season around. It worked for the Oilers and Panthers last year. It worked well for the St. Louis Blues in 2019 when Craig Berube ironically took over for Mike Yeo and led the Blues from last place in the NHL to Stanley Cup champions. This coaching change, however, didn't do much help for the Flyers as they won just 17 games under Yeo throughout the remainder of the season. They have since hired John Tortorella as the new head coach which should be very entertaining to say the least.
For anyone who doesn't know, Torts is an absolute firebrand of a coach. He's brutally honest, and he never holds back in any setting. Not in the locker room, not with the media, not with anyone. He's going to let you know how he feels and what he thinks. There's no one out there that's like John Tortorella, and if there's anyone out there who could turn things around in Philly, it's him.
He's got his work cut in for him, though. This past week he appeared on the NHL Network Radio on Sirius XM and said he has major concerns about the locker room. They are coming into the season without their former captain and face of the franchise Claude Giroux for the first time since 2008. He was the glue that kept the team together, and now it seems Torts is looking for a way to reunite the room and give them a new identity. To have this as a major headline before training camp even starts is far from ideal, but it's best to address it now versus the middle of the season.
Outside of Torts, there really isn't anything about the team itself that gives me any reason to believe that they won't be last in the division again this year. GM Chuck Fletcher didn't do much of anything this offseason which infuriated many Flyers fans to the point where they're calling for his job. I don't blame them at all. For starters, I don't believe he got a big enough return in the Claude Giroux trade. They easily could've gotten another pick/prospect or two in that deal. They then traded three draft picks away for Tony DeAngelo, who is a complete headcase in his own right and will definitely be butting heads with Torts plenty of times while he's in Philly. This trade confused me because that's not a guy you go for in a rebuild. You trade for him when you're in a "win now" mentality. To trade for Tony D, and then sign him to a 5 million dollar contract just doesn't make any sense when you end up not going for Johnny Gaudreau in free agency.
When asked why the Flyers opted to not pursue the all star winger, Fletcher said that it would have been too difficult to to sign him. What does that even mean Chuck? How do you not try to find a way to sign one of the best offensive players in the world? How can you say one day that you're going to be aggressive in the offseason, and then not try to sign the best player available? This player, might I add, literally grew up in the South Jersey/Philly area. I simply don't understand it. Gaudreau wouldn't have completely turned the franchise into a contender, but he would certainly help accelerate the rebuild. It's almost like Fletcher didn't know if he should commit to a rebuild or not. With where they were at at that point in the season, they definitely should've been more active at the trade deadline in moving some players elsewhere to open up space in the salary cap so he could go after Johnny Hockey in free agency.
Flyer fans I'm with you on this. It's time to fire Chuck!
So what does all of this mean for the Broad Street Bullies in this upcoming season? To be honest, I have no clue. There are so many questions to be answered with this team, but it leads to the same conclusion that they'll be in the running for the 1st overall pick in next summer's draft. Will we see guys like Owen Tippett, Morgan Frost, and Bobby Brink break through as future stars of the team? Will Carter Hart be the Carter Hart from his first two seasons or these past two seasons? Believe me, there's a BIG difference. Do guys like Sean Couturier and Kevin Hayes stay healthy, or will they be plagued by injuries once again? Who will even be on the team by season's end? Do they move players like Ivan Provorov, Rasmus Ristonlainen, or James van Riemsdyk to gain assets, picks, and free up cap space? The Flyers are in limbo with what seems like no exit strategy to get out of it. The more questions I ask the more I can see Torts inserting Gritty into the lineup by the all-star break. All in all, this will surely be a miserable 82 games for this team and their fans.
We stay in the Metro Division tomorrow going over the New Jersey Devils, who may very well make some noise next year. In the meantime, here's a timeless classic from a NJ native on the City of Brotherly Love.
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