The upcoming 2024-25 Philadelphia Flyers season is going to be an interesting one. Danny Briere opted to run back a nearly identical product that overachieved before crashing and burning last season. They do have an ace up their sleeve in Matvei Michkov that is more than likely going to rock the boat in some fashion, so let’s make some predictions about what to expect from the Flyers’ roster this season.
Number 5: Owen Tippett Breaks 30 Goals
25-year-old Owen Tippett is entering his third full season with the Flyers and has shown flashes of top guy status at points during his tenure. Though between some bad bounces and the general lackluster offense including a lack of center depth, he has not been able to eclipse the 30-goal mark despite finishing the last two seasons with 27 and 28 respectively.
The center depth wasn’t addressed to attempt to salvage their wing depth, but there’s a good chance Tippett will spend at least some portion of the season with Matvei Michkov, and if he comes as advertised, it may be just the spark he needs to finally get him over the 30-goal mark. If he makes it, he’d be just the second Flyer to hit 30 goals in the last five years.
Number 4: Noah Cates Bounce Back
Noah Cates, the Flyers’ fifth round pick in 2017, burst onto the scene full time in 2022-23 and turned some heads with this play. He finished ninth in Calder voting as well as 15th in Selke voting. Then the sophomore slump hit hard partnered with an injury that cost him a fourth of the season and he never came close to the player he was during his rookie season. So the question becomes which version of Noah Cates is real?
Considering the Flyers didn’t address their center depth at all, Cates bouncing back as a shutdown middle six center would be a huge upgrade over Scott Laughton for the role, and it would also take quite a bit of pressure off the aging Sean Couturier as well. If he played that well once, there’s reason to believe he can be that player again and the Flyers are more than due to have one of their younger players actually take steps forward rather than hit a disappointing plateau.
Number 3: Sean Couturier is Washed
Sean Couturier returned from a 22-month absence during the 2023-24 season and briefly looked like he still had gas in the tank then his play declined shortly after he was named captain and he spent most of the end of the season on the fourth line. It was later revealed that he was dealing with a sports hernia. While that may explain his downswing, it’s yet another injury to an almost 32-year-old with a mile long rap sheet.
At some point the returns are going to be less spectacular and his new normal is going to be just a depth center. If he can manage to stay injury free (which that alone would be a major surprise) he may have another year or two left of masquerading as a top six center, but at some point all this is going to catch up to him, and considering he wasn’t particularly fast or dynamic to begin with, the rusting process is going to hit the captain hard.
Number 2: Neither of Ersson or Fedotov are NHL Starters
Easily the biggest crux of the Flyers’ success heading into the 2024-25 season is the goaltending tandem of Sam Ersson and Ivan Fedotov. They had the league-worst save percentage after the other guy left and the third stringer remains Cal Petersen, who is very not good at his job.
Ersson has shown flashes of brilliance at both the AHL and NHL level in short doses, but has yet to prove he can handle the weight of being a full-time starter in the NHL. Meanwhile, soon-to-be-28-year-old Russian Ivan Fedotov is making the surprise jump to the Flyers at an older age and doesn’t have much time to adapt to the North American style of play.
It is possible that a 50/50 split ends up working well for both goalies and they can string some kind of success together, but if the way last season ended was a precursor for the future, it could be a miserable season for a team that is relying on the goaltending to carry the weight of the roster.
Number 1: Michkov Hits 82 Points
The Flyers haven’t had a player break the 82-point-per-game mark since Claude Giroux’s 85 points in 2018-19. Travis Konecny’s 61 points in 60 games during the 2022-23 season was the only player to hit point-per-game status in the five years since.
Placing lofty expectations on 19-year-old Matvei Michkov’s shoulders is both unfair but expected given his draft status and play in Russia, but clearly the Flyers’ front office felt as though Michkov was capable of leading the team because they didn’t feel the slightest need to add anyone else to the roster during the offseason.
Hopefully Michkov is a 100-point player for the next 20 years. He’s the only bullet the Flyers have in the chamber at the moment, but given the anemic state of the offense, he’s got quite the uphill battle ahead of him to achieve that goal. If anyone is going to get back to a true point-per-game status, it’s going to be Michkov.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit:
brotherlypuck.com 