The hustle and bustle of the 2024 NHL offseason has come and gone and the 2024-25 season is finally on the horizon. The Philadelphia Flyers led by GM Danny Briere stayed very quiet after managing the bring Matvei Michkov to North America two years ahead of schedule. They made it through another summer without addressing the single biggest issue remaining on the roster- their center depth.
The main roster foursome of Sean Couturier, Morgan Frost, Scott Laughton and Ryan Poehling is among the least intimidating groups in the league. Between age, injuries, and low ceilings it’s not like this group is magically going to get any better either. In fact, for Couturier and Laughton, it’s just going to get worse as the years go on, and Frost is entering year six and we’re still waiting for any kind of substantial development from him.
The question then becomes why is the front office averse to adding centers in the first place?
Couturier returned from a 22-month absence during the 2023-24 season and to everyone’s surprise he looked pretty good to start the campaign. But as the season went on his play diminished and he was scratched from the lineup shortly after being named captain in a move that made national headlines. It was eventually announced that he was dealing with a sports hernia. And while it could explain his dip in play, it’s also another major injury to a player with a long rap sheet, and as his 32nd birthday comes around it’s not like he’s got that many returns left in him.
He downplayed the injury and subsequent surgery during his preseason interviews, but it’s far more concerning if his play is just falling off a cliff than it is attributing it to a nagging physical problem that is hopefully cleaned up.
Morgan Frost may be the center with the most natural skill on the team, but that’s not exactly saying much given his acquaintances. He’s been in a years-long feud with John Tortorella and has yet to score more than 46 points in the NHL. He should be getting first dibs at playing with Michkov, which should help inflate his point totals and he may actually hit 50 points for the first time, but at 25, it’s not like there’s going to be a natural breakout to the “next Claude Giroux” he was hyped up to be once upon a time.
Their internal options are limited at best. Elliot Desnoyers has been on a roller coaster of highs and lows entering his third professional season.
And that ends their natural centers in the system.
Guys like J.R. Avon, Denver Barkey, Massimo Rizzo and Olle Lycksell have all played center at some point in their careers, but have taken up residency in the wing more often than not at their respective current level, and none are anywhere close to a game-changing level anyway.
2024 first round pick Jett Luchanko has raised some eyebrows during training camp and the preseason, and is among the remaining few players that could potentially snag a roster spot on opening night, but he hasn’t been quite good enough to make that a no-brainer and may very well get sent back either before the campaign begins or during his nine-game sample if he indeed claims the 23rd roster spot.
But how did they get to the point where a freshly-turned 18-year-old who’s been good but not great become their make-or-break center in the first place?
The argument from the fanbase to keep Luchanko is pointing out that he’s their best center option. And, on the whole, that’s not an unfair assessment. He may be the pound-for-pound most talented center they’ve got right now, but that may not necessarily be a compliment to Luchanko as much as it is a knock on the rest of the NHL group.
We’ll find out in the next few days whether or not he’ll make the opening night roster, but even in the case that he does and he can manage to hang with the big club, that still doesn’t fix things, it’s just one piece of duct tape on a very leaky pipe.
His transition to the professional level at a young age is going to lead to hiccups in his play, something that Tortorella might not have patience for based on the handling of other prospects. If they go out of their way to insulate him with top six minutes maybe he can fake it til he makes it, but if he just gets cast aside after limited opportunity to prove himself, he won’t be much better than any of his counterparts on the main roster.
The organization’s last even semi-notable outside center addition was Kevin Hayes, which was five years ago and they’re entering year two without him on the roster. Sure, Ryan Poehling has come better than expected, but still tops out as a third line center, which isn’t nothing given the circumstances, but it’s nowhere close to the bonafide top six centers they need.
And it’s extra annoying because they’ve got a deep group of wingers at both the NHL level and throughout their prospect pool and have not made a single attempt to insulate them with a capable body down the middle to tie everything together. Even one consensus top six center could be a great jumping off point for Matvei Michkov or Tyson Foerster or Travis Konecny.
It’s mind-boggling at best and absolutely infuriating at worst as to why the organization hasn’t put adding a center at the top of their priority list. There’s no good reason why they haven’t even attempted to add a new body with upside to the team, and their prospect pipeline is so dry that they can’t even point to anyone internally to save them in the near future. And based on their 2024 offseason, Briere isn’t willing to shed players OR add new ones either.
It’s not exactly an easy feat to just make two franchise centers to appear. Briere absolutely has his work cut out for him when it comes to fixing the center depth due to years of neglect before he was even in the front office. But Briere’s been at the helm for two offseasons now and has made no progress towards solutions. Luchanko as their only plan is not going to cut it.
If the question of “why is the organization so against adding centers?” was lobbed to Briere right now, he’d blame it on a rebuild, because it’s their go-to explanation for every unsavory aspect of the organization these days, like a bad author blowing off a major plot hole in his novel. But hey, 2025 right? That blanketed, non-comital end date clarifies and justifies everything right? There will totally be a brand new group of franchise-altering centers that will overhaul the entire product next summer… right?
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
brotherlypuck.com 