Half of the 2023-24 Philadelphia Flyers season is in the books and it’s been an eventful 41 games. They’re 21-14-6 and clinging on to the third seed in the Metropolitan Division and have strayed away from their original rebuilding goal, instead opting for a full on hard-nosed, mucking and grinding Tortorella style of hockey and very little offensive ability to show for it. So what are the major storylines to keep an eye on as the back half of the season is upon us?
Number 5: Hold or Fold the Defense?
With the trade deadline on the horizon, all eyes are turning to the Flyers’ defense and which players will be here past the March 8 deadline. Sean Walker, Marc Staal and Nick Seeler are all pending unrestricted free agents while Rasmus Ristolainen’s name has popped up in early trade rumors as well. The Flyers are still walking a fine line between making and missing the postseason thanks to how tight the Metro division is. Does the contrast of a few points make the difference between the Flyers selling or holding fast to their assets? Guess we’ll find out in March.
Number 4: Frost Remains in Limbo
The Morgan Frost situation has reached the level of self parody, but from an asset management standpoint, there’s nothing smart or funny about how they continue to mishandle Frost. He finally got some regular ice time thanks to the injury to Noah Cates after playing in just half of the team’s games to start the season. But with Cates likely to return sooner rather than later and a random scratching during a game against the Blue Jackets, it seems as though Tortorella’s beef with Frost isn’t over. Gotta imagine Frost doesn’t start the 2024-25 season with the Flyers, which begs the question as to why the Flyers even bothered re-signing Frost in the first place considering this was the more-than-likely outcome with John Tortorella at the helm?
Number 3: Hart’s Future
The Flyers started the season as the have any other- relying on Carter Hart and almost exclusively Carter Hart. Despite carrying three goalies for the first six weeks of the season, Ersson only played eight times in the first 23 games, and the only reason he even got that many was due to an early-November injury to Hart. Though Ersson has been playing regularly since mid-December and Hart’s status as a pending restricted free agent has caused trade rumors to swirl regarding the fate of the 25-year-old starter. Do the Flyers really coronate Ersson and deal away Hart? It seems like a bad idea, but they’re going to have to make that decision within the next few months.
Number 2: Do They Make the Playoffs?
The rebuilding Philadelphia Flyers have managed to hang on to a playoff spot for most of the season, but the Metropolitan division is as tight as it could be and a misstep in any direction could result in a quick plummet. There’s just seven points separating the second place Hurricanes from the seventh place Penguins, and the Flyers are right in the middle. Will they hang around in the postseason scene for the back half of the campaign? And if they actually punch their ticket for the first time since the 2020 bubble are they built to have any success?
Number 1: The Kids Aren’t Alright
As noted above, Frost is still deep in Tortorella’s doghouse, Zamula has fallen in and out of favor all season, Bobby Brink was sitting with regularity before injuries forced their hand to play him with his minutes getting cut to a ridiculous level lately, not to mention Olle Lycksell, Ronnie Attard and Emil Andrae nowhere to be found, leaving Tyson Foerster as the only rookie regularly in the night-to-night lineup and, while he’s playing well, hasn’t exactly been a franchise-altering force.
The addition of Jamie Drysdale is going to test the patience of Tortorella, but could ultimately be the breakthrough young player that loosens his stance on relying on veterans. But all the misuse does is further throw the organization’s intentions of rebuilding into further question as the “kids earning spots from the vets as the season goes on” rhetoric is going to be put to the test in the weeks leading up to the trade deadline.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: NHL Trade Rumors
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