The Philadelphia Flyers and a bad powerplay go together like soft pretzels and water ice.
Their lack of success on the man advantage is nothing now. In fact, it’s a nearly decade-old problem that the organization still has nothing close to an answer for. For a long time, it was close to a running joke. The Flyers have spent a decade “rebuilding” and the lackluster power play was just a piece of that puzzle. But now that they made the playoffs and arguably got swept by the Hurricanes in large part because the were just 1-for-19 during the series, and fired at just a 8.3% percent rate during the entire playoffs, it’s no longer a joke, it’s a massive problem holding them back from success.
To put into perspective just how deep this problem runs, they’re dead last in the NHL since the start of the 2017-18 season with just a 16.4 percent conversion rate.
| Season | Powerplay Percentage | League Rank |
| 2017-18 | 20.7% | 15th |
| 2018-19 | 17.1% | 23rd |
| 2019-20 | 20.8% | 14th |
| 2020-21 | 19.2% | 18th |
| 2021-22 | 12.6% | Last |
| 2022-23 | 15.6% | Last |
| 2023-24 | 12.2% | Last |
| 2024-25 | 15% | 30th |
| 2025-26 | 15.7% | Last |
2017-18 was the last effective season of Shayne Gostisbehere in Philly, and 2019-20 was the organization’s last bit of sustained success before it all went to hell after the 2020 playoff bubble. Their complete fall off a cliff coincides with the trade of Claude Giroux during the 2021-22 season.
They’ve gone through three separate general managers and seven coaches in this nine-year span. Only Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim remain on the roster.
(They’re also 27th ranked on the penlaty kill in the same span with just a 77.7 percent kill rate, but that’s a different problem for a different day.)
First and foremost, there hasn’t been a man capable of running the powerplay from the point in a looooong time.
Ironically, Shayne Gostisbehere’s last season as an effective offensive defenseman for the Flyers was in 2017-18 when he posted 65 points, 33 of which came on the power play.
Ever since, they’ve struggled to find anybody to come anywhere close to replace him.
Sanheim has never been good in the role, neither has Cam York, they’ve never really utilized Ristolainen in a consistent powerplay spot despite some early career success in Buffalo. Andrae has never been given an opportunity to step into the gig despite AHL success in the same role. Provorov couldn’t do it, Zamula wasn’t good enough, DeAngelo was fine, but how off-ice antics and massive contract forced the Flyers to cut ties, and Jamie Drysdale has shown some promise, but isn’t the top guy they really need.
They do have David Jiricek and Oliver Bonk coming as early as next season (Jiricek is on a one-way contract and Bonk is probably ready for main roster reps, but it’s unlikely there’s a spot for him on opening night.) David Jiricek’s only real value is on the blue line as a powerplay point man. The problem is, the rest of Jiricek’s game may not exactly be up to snuff. We’ve seen the way Rick Tocchet weeds out the incomplete youngsters already, so if the new guy can’t actually play defense, will Tocchet have the brain power to deploy him in a nuanced role? The answer is probably not.
Bonk has historically been better served in the bumper role, but did transition to the point for awhile in Lehigh with mixed success before ceding that role back to the arriving Jiricek. Bonk was really starting to blossom as the season came to an end, and if he isn’t hurt during camp this year, could at least give a main roster spot a run in the fall.
Rick Tocchet has been his own worst enemy when it comes to assembling PP lines. He has made some repeated boneheaded decisions, mostly highlighted by the fact that he continues to hamper Matvei Michkov at every available opportunity, which may be their best internal bet to at least help stabilize things.
But to give the coach at least a bit of credit otherwise, their current batch of players just isn’t going to cut it. This is a very similar, copy-and-paste roster that just doesn’t have enough dynamic or consistent players to make a real difference. There’s only so many times they can throw different random combos at a wall and pray something sticks. All the wingers are virtually identical and possess similar frustrating inconsistencies in production, and no real centers to pull the wingers out of their slumps.
It wasn’t Rocky Thompson, it wasn’t Rick Tocchet, it wasn’t Torts, it wasn’t Darryl Williams. At the end of the day, the power play is almost strictly talent driven, and the Flyers just don’t have enough of it to go around.
So how do they fix it? ADD PLAYERS THAT HAVE A HISTORY OF POWERPLAY SUCCESS AND DEPLOY THEM PROPERLY.
This shouldn’t be rocket science, but it’s the Flyers. “Hey, let’s just do something that makes sense.” Is rarely taken under advisement around here.
The ball is going to fall at the feet of Danny Briere this summer to address this. The powerplay and center depth need to be top priority and addressed properly beyond all else. Even just clawing the powerplay up to league average could do wonders for a team that is poised to take the next step to be a consistent playoff team.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: nhl.com
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