The 2023-24 Philadelphia Flyers season was argued to be a success despite a late-season losing streak that killed their playoff dreams. Whether or not it actually was a success doesn’t mean the team can rest on their laurels heading into the 2023-24 offseason. They have plenty of holes to address on the main roster, but what are the most glaring positions of need?
Number 5: Top Four Left-Handed Defenseman
LHD is easily the most overcrowded position in the organization, but there are very few quality options to choose from. With the addition of 21-year-old right-handed defenseman Jamie Drysdale, whom the Flyers are going to try and turn into their top pair righty, they could use a little bit of star power on the left side to insulate their young star for years to come.
Both Travis Sanheim and Cam York can hang onto that top left spot with some level of legitimacy, but in a perfect world, neither are the ideal long term partner for Drysdale. Neither is Nick Seeler, whom they strapped to Drysdale for much of the time after he was acquired. It’s not priority number one at the moment, but LHD will be a piece they’ll probably need to address at some point in the near future.
Number 4: Number One Right-Handed Defenseman
The Flyers are in the process of attempting to fix the right side of their defense, but it’s still very much in the patchwork state. Jamie Drysdale’s ceiling is unknown, Oliver Bonk is at least another year away from the NHL, and neither one of Helge Grans or Ronnie Attard seem to be mian roster mainstays. And that’s pretty much the entirety of their RHD on the roster or in the immediate system. In fact, Drysale and Rasmus Ristolainen are the only right-shot defensemen expected to be NHL regulars next season (even though Attard is on a one-way deal. Finding a bonafide top righty is probably among the hardest things to do in the sport, so it won’t be a cakewalk for the front office, but there’s more work to do beyond just drafting Bonk and crossing their fingers.
Number 3: Depth Scoring
The ability for the Flyers to score goals in general isn’t where it needs to be in order for them to have Cup aspirations just yet, but they’re particularly struggling to get goals from anyone not named Travis Konecny, Owen Tippett or Joel Farabee. Tyson Foerster was the only other player to hit the 20-goal plateau. Their combined 103 goals made up 45% of the team’s total goals on the season. The team was ranked 27th in GF in the league with 231. They’ve opted to fill their depth roles with meatheads in the name of “culture” and it’s impacted their ability to score, so hopefully they’re capable of righting the ship a bit and realizing goals are probably more important than friendship.
Number 2: Powerplay Scoring
We’ll leave this one a bit ambiguous, because it could come in the form of multiple positions, but sweet Jesus add anybody… anybody… anybody that has even half a clue how to operate and score on the man advantage. Whether it comes in the form of a top line center or offensive defenseman or a random winger who just happens to have a knack for PP scoring, finding a way to make their powerplay even just slightly below league average would be a vast improvement over their dead last ranking for the last three years.
Number 1: Young 1C
The one position the Flyers have flat out ignored for most of the previous now three general managers is a legitimate solution at center, and with former fifth overall pick Cutter Gauthier no longer in the picture, Danny Briere is going to have to proactively track a top center down by himself. A center group of Couturier-Frost-Poehling-Laughton just isn’t going to cut it when it comes to Cup aspirations. Trevor Zegras has been the biggest name out there, and while he may not be the bonafide number one guy they’re looking for, he’s easily their best option when it comes to young, offensively dynamic centers in an otherwise barren pool to pick from ahead of the 2024 deadline or offseason.
Honorable Mention
Goaltending Depth
When the late-season reinforcements arrived in the form of Ivan Fedotov and Alexei Kolosov, the goalie position seemed set for the future. Then rumors emerged that Kolosov may not want to return to North America and it seems as though Cal Petersen is not getting bought out, so now they may have to find a decent depth goalie who could challenge Petersen as the third stringer. If the organization wants the Phantoms to remain successful, they’re going to need to take the goaltender position seriously, and if Kolosov stays away, they need to address the hole with some kind of legitimacy.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: capfriendly.com
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