As the 2024 NHL offseason slows to a crawl and the dog days of summer are in full swing, even through all the inactivity, the Flyers considered themselves winners as they managed to bring 19-year-old Matvei Michkov to North America two years ahead of schedule. While he presence is a big plus, it throws quite a wrench in what was already a very interesting question- how does their winger corps pan out?
They basically have their top three lines worth of wingers accounted for (four lines if you want to count Deslauriers, Cates and Hathaway) but the problem is they’re all relatively interchangeable middle-six dudes. With an abundance of wingers on their roster and are seemingly committed to all of them, how does the ice time shake out in 2024-25?
Well to start, even though all six of them are natural right wingers, Owen Tippett, Tyson Foerster and Joel Farabee are the three that have spent the most time on the left side, whereas Travis Konecny has been a staple on the right, Matvei Michkov should not be played out of position so early, and Bobby Brink’s appearances have mainly come on the right side through his limited NHL minutes.
In a perfect world, the Flyers would put their two future pillars together in Foerster and Michkov on the top line and just let them jell. But we’re still dealing with head coach John Tortorella here. Putting two young players together centered by his favorite punching bag Morgan Frost, easily their most talented center (no matter how low a bar it is), might make his geriatric brain explode, even if it’s best for business.
Luckily, Foerster’s strong two-way game earned him Tortorella’s trust for most of his rookie campaign, so maybe there is a chance he could unite with Michkov providing there’s no sophomore slump coming his way. If he can be the defensively responsible one with an untapped offensive upside riding shotgun with someone like Michkov, it could work out well for all parties involved.
The second line should be the veteran scoring duo of Travis Konecny and Owen Tippett. Obviously all eyes are on Konecny and whether or not he re-signs with the club, and his status as the team’s top winger gets thrown into uncertainty with Michkov in tow. Though considering his game features a physical, thorn-in-the-side aspect, he may actually be in a better role on the second line where he isn’t relied upon to be the sole offensive beacon on the roster.
Tippett has shown a ton of potential since he arrived in Philly, but has yet to truly convert it to the scoresheet. He finished second on the team in both goals (28) and points (53) last season, yet if he converted on even a few more of his opportunities he could easily break 30 goals and maybe even hit 70 points. If he can find a long-term partnership with Konecny, it may be enough for both players to benefit and hit new career highs.
The third line is formed of the outcasts Joel Farabee and Bobby Brink. Farabee’s perceived offensive ceiling is quite low these days. His 22-goal, 50-point 2023-24 season was the best of his career and was the first time he broke the 40-point plateau in his five NHL seasons. Despite the lack of offense, he is one of the more overall dynamic wingers in the group capable of playing up and down (and on either side of) the lineup without much struggle.
Brink, the undersized offensive-minded winger, is probably the most out of place when he gets shoved down the depth chart. His games doesn’t feature much physicality and his defensive awareness isn’t quite as sharp as it could be. He was often stuck in Tortorella’s doghouse last season and even got demoted to the AHL because of it, but his newly signed contract makes him waiver exempt, so he’s (theoretically) stuck on the main roster this season and he’ll be one of the more fascinating players to see if Tortorella is actually capable of developing further rather than just giving up on. Brink would be the player to benefit the most from a Konecny trade as a top six scoring role is much better suited for the 23-year-old.
That takes care of the top three lines and there’s still unaccounted for bodies to tuck away on the fourth line.
Noah Cates has played both center and left wing during his NHL career thus far. His two-way game is pretty solid, so much so that he got Norris considerations during his rookie campaign, but his offense is minuscule which will limit his ceiling. Chances are he ends up on the fourth line in a shutdown role, probably as a left wing over Deslauriers, but could convert to center for the night over Poehling if the team needs a face puncher in the lineup.
They still have Olle Lycksell hanging around as well, but despite his dominance at the AHL level, he wasn’t used in any kind of meaningful capacity in the NHL last season and is clearly the odd man out of the current group barring an injury.
Garnet Hathaway inked a new deal a year early that’ll keep him in Philly until 2027. He’s one of the quintessential depth forwards in the league these days and fits the old school hockey gimmick the Flyers are trying to sell, but unlike Deslauriers, Hathaway can actually play decent hockey as well. That 4RW spot will be his for the next three seasons.
The lineup shifts on a night-by-night (and sometimes shift-by-shift) basis in the John Tortorella system, so whether or not it’s worth fantasy booking the lines is up for debate. The much larger issue here is that the Flyers have practically no center depth. Frost may be their only center with offensive upside, Couturier may still be a decent shutdown center if he’s uninjured but his offensive heyday has passed, and that’s about it. Laughton and Poehling are just dudes.
Why the front office has avoided addressing the center depth in any capacity at all let alone a meaningful way is beyond comprehension. But their refusal to add capable bodies down the middle does hinder the ceilings of most of their wingers. Which really is too bad, because a few bonafide top six guys down the middle to serve as the glue for their copious wingers could be enough to drag this offense out of the basement and make them one of the deeper, more intimidating forward corps in the league today.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: Getty Images
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