In the summer of 2015, the Philadelphia Flyers were finishing their first year under Ron Hextall’s “retool”, which was an abysmal season that found them drafting 7th overall in a year dubbed the best in almost 20 years. With their pick, Hextall selected Brandon Wheat Kings defenseman Ivan Provorov, a highly-touted defensive prospect. Craig Button, the director of scouting at TSN, deemed him “the best and most complete defenseman in the draft.” While the Flyers had been loading up on defense with prospects at the time, none of the players they drafted were projected to be number one defensemen. It seemed that with Provorov, the Flyers had finally found that guy and acquired their savior on the blue line.
In seven seasons with the Orange and Black, Provorov was a constant on the Flyers’ defense. For several years, he showed great promise to reach his potential even as he was paired with subpar defense partners. He very quickly became a mainstay on the defense, playing on the top pairing from virutally the minute he arrived in the NHL. He is someone the Flyers have relied on in all situations and often receiving the brunt of the toughest minutes on the team. With each passing year, Provorov’s stock was rising within the fanbase, and around the league as a whole. In his best year, 2019-20, when paired with Matt Niskanen, Provorov finally looked as though he had become what the Flyers so desperately needed him to be – a homegrown number one defenseman.
Unfortunately, in the seasons since, Provorov has never been able to replicate his success from the pandemic-shortened season. Following the surprise retirement of Niskanen after the playoff bubble in which the Flyers lost in the second round to the New York Islanders, it was finally time for Provorov to have his day in the sun as the undisputed leader of the defense. However, the season proved to be an unmitigated disaster, not only for Provorov, but for the entire blue line. Changes were made to give Provy a stable partner, but the solutions proved to be mistakes, leaving him to spend much of his time with Justin Braun, a third-pair defenseman at best who was in the twilight of his career, but there were essentially no other options.
All of this came to a head during the 2022-23 season, when he posted yet another underwhelming campaign. Through it all, the most infuriating part of Provorov’s play is that at many times you can see his hockey smarts on display, and he provides flashes of greatness, but at other times, he can make glaring errors that leave you scratching your head. He seems like he has all the tools to be that number one defenseman, but he just can’t put it all together, leaving us with a good defenseman, but not a great one.
Ivan Provorov has been a very polarizing member of the Flyers’ defense for a few seasons, with both staunch supporters and haters. This dichotomy between the fans’ perspective of him is in some ways parallel to that of his own relationship with the organization. What started off as a wonderful partnership has slowly turned more and more hostile over the last few years. For some time now, Provorov has become increasingly unhappy in Philadelphia, often noticeably apart from his teammates at events. Even on the ice, he would stand separately during the national anthems. He also upset a large portion of the fanbase with his refusal to participate in Flyers’ warmups on Pride Night, a move that not only sparked immense backlash but inspired copycat boycotts from other players around the league during their team’s Pride Nights. It seemed divorce was imminent, and this past week the divorce was finalized, as new general manager Danny Briere sent Provorov packing to Columbus.
It’s unfortunate that Provorov never worked out for the Flyers the way that both the team and player had hoped. What was once promised to be a perennial Norris Trophy candidate and major key to the Flyers’ return to relevancy, and surely looked to be the case, ultimately faltered and went out with a whimper. The legacy Ivan Provorov leaves with the Flyers will certainly be a mixed bag. He was a large cog of the defense for many years, and often played his best hockey in the playoffs when it mattered the most. However, his inconsistency and the Flyers’ own failure to find him a suitable partner contributed to this demise. Both sides are in need of a reset, and both will get that. The Flyers are entering a rebuild (for real this time) which Provorov hinted he did not want to be a part of in his end-of-season press conference; Provorov will get a fresh start in a new city, and will likely play on Columbus’ top pairing with Zach Werenski, who coincidentally was picked just after Provorov in 2015. As the Flyers bid adieu to a key member of their defense, with this next chapter, Flyers fans hope that the new regime can truly find what Provorov was promised to be but never achieved.
By: Katie Bogan (@cl4udegiroux)
Image credit to Eric Hartline from USA TODAY Sports.
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