Author: Jackie Spiegel

NEWARK, N.J. — The Flyers’ slogan this year is “Here for the Rise,” but right now their efforts are falling flat.

They followed up a disastrous loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday with a slightly better performance but still lost, 3-2 in overtime, to the New Jersey Devils.

Here are two major storylines from the loss.

Joseph Woll is good

There was a lot of talk over the summer about Joseph Woll being an upgrade between the pipes. On Thursday, in his Flyers debut, he proved it.

Throughout the night, as the guys in front of him struggled to find their game, Woll bailed his new teammates out left and right. Early on, he read the play well and ate up a shot by Jack Hughes, the eventual overtime scorer, from the right circle. It seemed to settle Woll in for a game where he’d be peppered.

Woll faced 44 shots, with 33 coming at five-on-five. He seemed to relish the chance to shut down his former coach Sheldon Keefe’s squad, as Natural Stat Trick had him stopping 11 of 12 shots from high-danger spots, 10 of 11 mid-danger, and 20 of 21 low-danger.

“Woll was outstanding, like he was terrific” coach Rick Tocchet said.

Like Sam Ersson, with whom he swapped spots via trade to be the backup to Dan Vladař, Woll is calm in net. That calmness allows him to read the play and track the puck, like when he stoned Jesper Bratt sneaking in early in the second, or stopped Dawson Mercer a few minutes later atop the crease on a bouncer.

After his preseason debut in Hershey, Woll said he has been prioritizing his athletic ability and skating. Well, he showed it in the third period when he made a Martin Brodeur scorpion-like save — Woll said he “threw a crab leg” — to rob Bratt with the score tied 1-1.

“He kept battling all night,” defenseman Travis Sanheim said. “We wouldn’t have been in the game without him. What a performance from him, and obviously good to see and happy for him. And the way that he was able to play, it’s unfortunate that we couldn’t have gotten the win for him.”

The Flyers are still out of sync

It’s a bit shocking to see, because across the first two games of the season, the Flyers have spent a lot of time in their own end, but they don’t rank in the bottom third of the league in terms of time spent in the defensive zone. That doesn’t mean everything is OK, of course, as NHL Edge has the Flyers spending 45.8% of the time on their side of the ice at even strength. In direct correlation, they are well below the league average at 37.7% of time spent in the offensive zone.

Part of that is turnovers; they had 23 giveaways and just three takeaways on Thursday. Part of that is a disconnect — the word tossed around when John Tortorella was in charge feels apt — whether in their passing, their puck protection, or their puck support.

“We are choppy with the puck,” Tocchet said.

He added: “A little bit better in the D zone [than in the opener], but still some hockey IQ mistakes, not smart hockey. We’ve got to really buckle down here, and the problem is we don’t have much practice time, so we’re going to have to do it on the fly here.”

Defensively, the structure was better as they kept the Devils to the outside more, and there wasn’t as much running around. As Sanheim said, guys were battling harder, and it was the same group, outside of Woll, getting a chance to get things right. But it still wasn’t good enough.

“I wish I knew the answer,” forward Christian Dvorak said when asked why they have struggled so much with the puck.

“We’ve been leaving our goalies out to dry here these first two games. We’ve just got to execute better. Maybe just play simple hockey and can just go from there.”

The Flyers have gone from one of the stingiest teams last year — 25.5 shots against per game, fourth fewest — to allowing the most (41.0). Yes, it’s two games, but a) it’s not sustainable and wears the team down, and b) they are about to face the team that averaged the second-most shots last year, the Carolina Hurricanes, on Saturday (7 p.m., NBCSP).

And the Flyers are not helping themselves in the offensive zone. It’s been a lot of one-and-dones, a lack of consistent pressure, and missed opportunities. They are averaging 22 shots per game, which, to be fair, is only 3.5 shots off their average last season.

But the biggest discrepancy is in getting to the net.

According to Natural Stat Trick, last season the Flyers were seventh in high-danger chances for percentage (52.89%) and seventh in high-danger goals for percentage (53.47%) at five-on-five. This season, while a small sample size, they are dead last in the former (16.13%) and have not scored a high-danger goal while allowing two. The good news is they’re not last in high-danger chances, as they have five, but they have given up 26, the most entering Friday.

Rasmus Ristolainen scored the Flyers’ first goal of the season from atop the crease on a deflection, but it came during a six-on-five with a delayed penalty on the Devils. Sanheim’s goal was a monster slap shot past the glove of Jake Allen.

“We’re probably just, by the time you get the puck, you’re tired, you’re at the end of the shift, and you have to set up, try to make a play, get a puck deep, and put the next line in a good spot,” Dvorak said. “So I think if we do that, that’ll help us moving forward. Yes, I think we’re just trying to make too many plays in the neutral zone, and forecheck was a strength last year, so I think we’ve got to get back to doing that.”

Although it was the same group, Tocchet shifted some line combinations on Thursday.

Porter Martone started the game back on a line with Travis Konecny and Christian Dvorak, and Tyson Foerster, Noah Cates, and Matvei Michkov were reunited from last season. It seemed to give them a lift, but as the game wore on, Tocchet cut his lines down to three. Martone (12:27), who got his first shot on goal of the season, Alex Bump (8:18), and Carl Grundström (8:30) were planted more on the bench; Bump and Grundström played one shift in the third apiece, and Martone played four for a total of 2:03.

Tocchet said he shortened the bench because Hughes’ line was caving in that group and he felt he was “going with the best nine.”

It didn’t feel like 144 days had passed.

The roars — at the start — seemed to roll on from that spring day in May when the Flyers’ season ended. The fan appreciation felt as they left the ice following a sweeping loss to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes was still palpable, especially when coach Rick Tocchet and players like Denver Barkey (who is injured), Matvei Michkov, Porter Martone, Trevor Zegras, and Dan Vladař were introduced.

But that, and a thundering open-ice defensive-zone hit by Rasmus Ristolainen early on, were about the only times the hometown faithful were happy, as the Flyers were thumped 7-0 by the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins. Almost like whiplash, the cheers quickly turned to boos.

“It’s the first game. If this is going to be happening in a steady [way], it’s not a place you want to be around,” coach Rick Tocchet said. “I think the fans, obviously they hate losing to the Penguins [but] I just thought when you get a battle, and the fans pay good money, that’s what they’re mad about. We didn’t come up with any loose pucks.”

“I don’t know. You [the media] saw it. I honestly don’t have an answer,” he said. “I don’t know if we won a battle tonight. When you go win battles, they have the puck. They outcoached us tonight. They outplayed us. They did everything better.”

The Flyers ended the Penguins’ season last year on Cam York’s overtime winner in Game 6. Pittsburgh played like a group looking for revenge and handed the Flyers a loss so lopsided it equaled the worst opening-night dud in the team’s history. The Flyers also lost 7-0 to the Los Angeles Kings on Oct. 21, 1971, at The Spectrum.

“We got to wake up. Last exhibition game [a 5-1 loss to a young Washington Capitals group] we played was the same way, and everyone’s like, ‘Oh, it’s training camp, we’re going to ease our way into the season, but we got to wake up here,” captain Sean Couturier said.

“I mean, there’s no panic. Nothing. But I just think we’ve got to realize that we’re not that good. What happened last year is last year, and you’ve got to move on, and it’s a fresh year.”

The Flyers were a mess at both ends of the ice Wednesday. Although the roster from last year largely remains intact — Noel Acciari and Simon Benoit made their debuts — the players were disconnected when passing the puck in the Penguins’ end and, in turn, in their defensive structure. The Flyers often allowed Pittsburgh to breeze through the middle, drive to the net untouched, and pile 38 shots on goal compared to their 19.

As a team, they had 21 giveaways to the Penguins’ 11, with veteran blueliner Travis Sanheim and rookie winger Martone leading the way with four each.

Martone did not play the final 4 minutes, 21 seconds of the first period after he was part of a bad line change that led to Ville Koivunen’s goal that made it 2-0. Koivunen received a stretch pass from Sam Girard, got behind the Orange and Black’s defense, and out-deked Vladař to score five-hole.

The teenager was then demoted to the fourth line halfway through the second period as Tocchet started shuffling lines, with every other right winger moving up a spot, including Michkov moving to the second line to skate with Tyson Foerster and Christian Dvorak.

But it didn’t matter who was with who. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Flyers did not put a single high-danger shot on Penguins goalie Artūrs Šilovs at five-on-five. Vladař faced 12. This easily translates to: the Flyers did not drive to the net, and they let the Penguins swarm theirs.

“We shot ourselves in the foot on a couple of them,” said Sanheim, who was on for two goals against. “We gave them probably half their goals.”

Nick Robertson quieted the crowd less than 8 minutes into the opening frame with his first as a Penguin, scoring on a nifty redirect of a pass by Kris Letang near the right post. Crosby got the secondary assist, and the crowd, of course, booed mercilessly as he registered his 140th point against the Flyers, the most in NHL history.

Evgeni Malkin made it 3-0 on a give-and-go with Hendrix Lapierre during a Penguins power play. The future Hall of Famer passed the puck to Lapierre at the left flank and rotated down from the point into the bumper, opening up his body for the quick strike.

Lapierre added his own tally 2:23 later, scooping up the puck in the neutral zone, catching Carl Grundström flat-footed as he blew past him, and scoring short-side on a late-developing two-on-one. Filip Hållander then made it a handful of goals with just his second career marker, scoring on his second swipe atop the crease as everyone crashed down.

In the third period, Robertson added a sixth during a Flyers power play when his missed shot went off the end boards, off Vladař’s skate, and in. Finally, Egor Chinakhov wrapped up the scoring with a power-play tip-in off of a shot from Erik Karlsson.

And to compound things, although it is expected these days, a Flyers power play that ranked dead last last season (15.7%) and tied for the fourth-most short-handed goals allowed has picked up right where it left off. According to Natural Stat Trick, the man advantage had 13 shot attempts, six shots on goal, and six scoring chances. It still went 0-for-3, allowed two scoring chances, and that goal.

“If we won 7-0, I’d say the same thing: It’s a long year. We can’t get too high. We can’t get too low. So you have to have that approach, but there’s alarming things,” Tocchet said. “We obviously didn’t want to battle. We had a lot … snowblowers. It was a couple of plays [where] we don’t go through people. We don’t have to kill them, but you can’t play this game if you don’t win battles.

“I don’t know if guys are reading the press clippings. I don’t know. But it wasn’t good, even the last two exhibition games, the same thing. We play like this tomorrow with a team like Jersey; it’s going to be worse. So we’ve got to be careful.”

Breakaways

Alex Bump and Nick Seeler were the only two players who were not on the ice for a goal against. … Owen Tippett led the team with seven shot attempts, including four shots on goal, and six hits. Michkov had five shot attempts, with one needing to be saved by Šilovs. … Konecny had the best Flyers chance of the night, tipping in a pass from Tippett as he stood atop the crease on a power play. … Benoit got drilled by Robertson from behind in the second period but the Penguin was only given a minor. … Malkin became the sixth player in NHL history to notch 100 or more points against the Flyers, joining Crosby (140), Mario Lemieux (124), Jaromír Jágr (120), Bryan Trottier (117), and Wayne Gretzky (100).

Up next

The Flyers get right back to action on Thursday, taking on the Devils in New Jersey (7 p.m., ESPN+, Hulu, Disney+).

Former Flyers forward Simon Gagné probably said it best:

“I think every season’s a new chapter. So, whatever happened, even if you had the best power play last year, you need to start all over again.”

The Flyers did not have the best power play last year. In fact, they had the worst. But as the guy who is tied for 12th in franchise history with 74 power-play goals said, the slate is truly clean, and everyone starts from scratch.

But when it comes to the Flyers and the power play, will this chapter have an all too familiar ending?

‘When the whole situation was wrong’

We’ve used the words tortured, dreadful, and horrific to describe the Flyers’ time on the man advantage in recent seasons. We even joked that they should decline power plays.

The Flyers are trapped in a great depression with the man-advantage. Last season, they finished dead last for the fourth time in five seasons at 15.7%. They finished 30th two seasons ago, but the percentage was a tick worse than last year at 15%.

It may not feel like it, but the Flyers’ power play hasn’t always been bad.

Since the NHL started tracking power-play stats in the 1977-78 season, the Flyers are tied for 16th in power-play percentage (19.2) and tied for 15th in power-play goals per game (0.75).

They’d probably love to finish in the middle of the pack this season.

Those all-time numbers mirror where the Flyers ranked cumulatively over the five years before this recent plummet to the basement: 16th at 19.5%. The only true holdovers from then are Travis Konecny, Sean Couturier, and Travis Sanheim (Cam York played three games in 2020-21).

The personnel, including the cycling in of three coaches, has changed over the years. The results have not.

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‘It’s a matter of trust’

Although it’s hard to pinpoint one thing that makes a power-play click, beyond having good players, one word kept resurfacing when talking with Gagné and Hall of Famer Mark Recchi, who ranks 17th in NHL history with 569 career power-play points and ran the Pittsburgh Penguins power play as an assistant under Mike Sullivan after Rick Tocchet left.

Trust.

As Billy Joel sang, “It’s always been a matter of trust.”

“You need to trust your teammate is going to be there because you … don’t see him. He’s supposed to be there, so you need to go blind and say, ‘Hey, he’s going to be there,’” Gagné said.

This was one of the issues during John Tortorella’s tenure as bench boss. At times, Tortorella noted that Rocky Thompson, who ran the power play, wanted to keep things the same to build connectivity. Tortorella was impatient, and it’s hard to build trust when guys are shuffling in and out of units or the power play as a whole.

It’s part of the reason why teams like the Penguins, who play at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Wednesday (7:30 p.m., TNT, truTV), and the Edmonton Oilers consistently find themselves at the top of the standings.

“Simon’s bang on,” Recchi added in a recent phone interview when told of Gagné’s comment. “A lot of it’s trust. A lot of it’s playing together, [meaning] you know what your teammates are going to do, and that’s why it’s nice when you can get a group of players together.

“You might have to bounce one guy in and out, but say you have four guys all the time, four or five guys, just builds that trust and that you know exactly what they’re thinking, what they’re going to do.”

Although there was already one switch in the preseason, with York taking David Jiříček’s spot on the second power-play unit, the plan is to give the groups some time to gel and build that trust.

“I’d be an idiot [if] for a bad couple of games to start the year to abandon [it],” Tocchet said Sept. 23. “I’ve got to give these guys some runway for sure. But they’ve got to get the 50-yard line too.”

‘This time you’ve got nothing to lose’

While trust is being created on the ice, it is also being developed between the coaches and the players.

This summer, Tocchet and his staff, led by power-play coach Jaroslav “Yogi” Svejkovský, sent players to their offseason cottages with homework. That included videos of some of the league’s best players with the man-advantage, including Nikita Kucherov, Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, and Wyatt Johnston.

Outside of the first two or three days, the coaches have been working on the power play at practice every day. After doing unit work, they are pulling guys aside, like Tocchet with Jiříček on Tuesday or, on Sept. 21, when Trevor Zegras, Matvei Michkov, Tyson Foerster, and Jamie Drysdale were working on plays without Porter Martone, who was in the game group that night.

Each side has to do the work, but the onus is on the players to figure it out and produce. And a big part of that is making the right reads. Tocchet has repeatedly said that he didn’t think the players on the power play last season were reading situations properly — on zone entries or once set up — and therefore missing opportunities to move the puck or to strike.

“It’s a fraction of a second,” Gagné said. “The PK is so good that a seam pass is going to be open for a fraction of a second. This is where you need to read that play and make that play. If you wait, the play is going to die there.”

“We spent a lot of time last year on knowing those lanes, and there’s only so many options from each kind of quadrant on the ice or area that you’re in, and it’s just picking the right one,” Drysdale said, noting he also used video.

“It’s making the read sooner before I get the puck, things like that. So it kind of just tacks on to finding the spots that I know I’m going to be in, and just working from those spots, working on my reads from those spots, and just getting ultra-comfortable with my outs, my options, and my shooting lanes.”

Finding lanes, moving the puck, and being patient when needed, are elements that make successful power plays. But trust and confidence are the two biggest factors in building a cohesive unit and the proper muscle memory. “It’s like riding a bicycle,” said Gagné. “When riding a bike you jump on there, and you don’t think about what you’re doing. So on the power play you need to have the right people first, and after that, you need to go with your instinct.”

And the hope is that you get one and then another and another and confidence builds.

“I remember when we struggled on the power play, it was just keep it really simple and get some ugly goals,” Gagné added. “Having traffic in front of the net and hoping that it’s going to deflect off someone and get an easy goal. Or just deflecting and go in, and after that, it’s funny, because it’s the confidence coming back and now you say, ‘Oh, we got one,’ so you just get looser and more on with your stick and making plays.”

‘It took a lot for you to not lose your faith’

Tocchet said he agrees with former NHL coach Bruce Cassidy’s philosophy that 80% of the power play should revolve around plays below the hash marks. For the Flyers’ first power-play unit, Michkov, Zegras, and Martone will be heavily relied on in that aspect. They’ll be asked to score around the net and create enough havoc to open up space for others.

But the biggest cloud hanging over the Flyers is the demons of years past. The Flyers will say it doesn’t bother them, but it’s fair to say those past failures linger in the air.

“I think pressure hits you when you don’t trust your teammates, or you don’t trust what’s going on, or you don’t trust even yourself,” Tocchet said on Sunday.

“But if you’re confident in what we’re trying to do, like we’re talking about low plays — and they’ll work — trust it, and they’ll start to go in. It’ll bounce off a skate, or Mich will go in there [and] it’ll go top shelf sometimes. That builds confidence.

“So, I think, to me, handling pressure is handling the right things to do, and the system. And power plays, even if you ask [Cassidy], there has to be creativity, too. You can’t tell the guys exactly where to go, but there are certain situations where I feel last year we didn’t take advantage of. [Like] when we had two at the net, we never got the puck there. We were doing all these high plays, and it would hit a stick or a guy would fumble the puck instead of just getting the puck to the net with two guys in front. It’s as simple as that sometimes.”

The puck drops on the season Wednesday, and while general manager Danny Brière wants to quiet the outside expectations of another playoff appearance by saying the team could take a step back, there is no denying that a better power play would help make a postseason berth attainable. As many have said, power plays can make or break teams.

The Flyers, who didn’t make any major personnel changes to upgrade their power play in the offseason, believe they have solutions in-house with the likes of Martone, Michkov, Zegras, Travis Konecny, Foerster, and Drysdale. Will young players growing together and learning through experience be enough to spearhead a turnaround?

Time will tell. As Konecny quipped on Sunday when asked if it’ll be better: “You got a crystal ball for me?”

With the puck dropping on the NHL season tonight — the Flyers don’t play until tomorrow against Pittsburgh — we asked our Flyers beat writers, Jackie Spiegel and Gabriela Carroll, to pull out their crystal balls to see what’s in store for the Flyers this season. Will the Flyers earn a second consecutive playoff appearance? Will Matvei Michkov bounce back? Can Dan Vladař do it again? Here are our complete 2026-27 predictions for the Flyers and the NHL as a whole.

What will the Flyers’ record be, and will they return to the playoffs?

Jackie Spiegel: 46-27-11. Two more games added to the schedule this year, and the Flyers get three more wins than last year in a tough Metropolitan Division that could be anyone’s to win because, in theory, everyone should be better. Right? While it’s not good for my anxiety and sleep, there’s a good chance it comes down to the wire again, and they sneak in.

Gabriela Carroll: 45-30-9. With two additional games on the schedule, all the point totals will be slightly higher. This is a one-point improvement on the Flyers’ season last year, with two more regulation wins and three fewer overtime losses. But in the Metro Division, this should be enough to make the playoffs.

Will the Flyers go over or under their projected 93.5-point total?

JS: Based on the above record, they will hit 103 points, equal to the point total the last time they went over the century mark in 2011-12.

GC: The record projection would bring the Flyers to 99 points, so over. Half the Metro Division managed over 93.5 points last season, while the New York Islanders got 91 and the Columbus Blue Jackets got 92. If the Flyers are under that 93.5 marker, they should be very worried.

Who will win the Metropolitan Division, and where will the Flyers finish?

JS: The Metro will be tough sledding with teams like the Islanders and New Jersey Devils expected to take steps forward. But nothing is stopping the defending champs, the Carolina Hurricanes, and they’ll be back atop the division. Philly will finish in the same spot as last year, third, but I don’t think Pittsburgh will be the team between them and the Hurricanes.

GC: The Carolina Hurricanes will win the Metro again, and the Flyers will finish third again. The Metro is likely to be the NHL’s weakest division again, but the Devils and Washington Capitals should both make charges.

Who will lead the Flyers in goals and points?

JS: Rinse and repeat on the points leader. Travis Konecny has led the team in scoring in six of the past seven years, and why should he — or I predicting him — stop now? After all, the forward said recently the internal competition is only pushing him more. As for goals, a healthy Tyson Foerster will light it up this season and lead the team.

GC: Porter Martone will lead the Flyers in goals, and Trevor Zegras will pace the team in points.

How many goals and points will Matvei Michkov tally in 2026-27?

JS: If you look through Michkov’s stats page, he was more of a goal-scoring machine as a young teen. As he’s aged, his true gifts, his vision and creativity with the puck as a distributor, have jumped to the forefront. He’ll hit 25, but it’s his assist numbers that will skyrocket him to a career-high 70 points.

GC: In training camp, it already looks like Michkov has taken a step from last year. He’s lighter on his feet and his playmaking has popped in the preseason. I think he’ll score 20 goals and dish out 50 assists for 70 points.

Porter Martone over/under 55 points?

JS: Over. If you look at his numbers last season, Martone was on pace for 93 points if the 84-game schedule was already implemented. He won’t hit that high of a number as he gets acclimated to the daily grind of an NHL season, but he’ll eclipse his 50 points from college.

GC: Over, but there’ll be an adjustment period for Martone, just like we saw during the playoffs last year. That said, he has a nose for the net and will score plenty of goals, especially if that top power-play unit improves.

Trevor Zegras over/under 75 points?

JS: He’ll hover right around this number, so can the answer be yes?

GC: I’m picking over. Zegras scored 67 points last year, and was scoring at a point-per-game pace for much of the season, especially if the power play can convert at a slightly higher clip.

Tyson Foerster over/under 30 goals?

JS: Call me optimistic with my overall predictions, but I think this one is the most practical. Foerster will not only reach 30 goals, he’ll surpass that. Last season, had it been 84 games and he stayed healthy, he was on pace for 37. He told The Inquirer he worked on his shot all summer, so why not this season?

GC: Under. Foerster’s shot has massively improved, but is the hot streak from before his injury his real level or just that, a hot streak? I’d bet he levels back just under around 28.

Which Flyer will lead the team in points among the defensemen?

JS: Travis Sanheim led the blueliners last year and Jamie Drysdale is on the first power play, but hear me out: I’m sticking with my prediction from last year and going with Cam York. The Californian seems to have a fire in his belly, a goal of five shots per game, and a renewed sense of finding the offensive game that made him a top American prospect just a few years ago.

GC: Drysdale will ride an improved top power-play unit to put up the highest point total from a Flyers defenseman. He was only a few points shy of Sanheim’s total last year and will fly past it in 2026-27.

What will Dan Vladař’s save percentage be?

JS: Goalie numbers are not just based on what that player does but the whole team, and if the Flyers, now in Year 2 of Tocchet, can be more consistent overall while also removing weak-side goals, there is no doubt Vladař can at least replicate his .906 save percentage from last season.

GC: .899. League-average save percentage declines every year, and Vladař is coming off a career season. It’s likely he’ll regress a bit.

Who will be the Flyers’ MVP?

JS: Goalies should always be the MVPs of a team if they put up even decent numbers, and after years of futility, the Flyers appear to have a solid 1-2 punch in net. With Joseph Woll providing a bit more opportunity for Vladař to have a night off, if the Czech goalie can just replicate his stats, he’ll once again be the squad’s most valuable player.

GC: The Flyers would like for a skater to be their MVP, because that means at least one skater has emerged as a true top-level star. If the team MVP is Michkov or Martone, the Flyers will be in a great place heading toward contention.

Which Flyer will have a breakout season?

JS: Alex Bump. The Minnesotan is a pure sniper, and playing a full season in the NHL — and getting time, at least to start, on the power play — should boost his confidence and show doubters what he can do.

GC: Oliver Bonk. I think he’ll earn an early call-up on defense and establish himself as an NHL regular. He’s a relatively steady defensive player who can get in the play and help the breakout.

What is your boldest Flyers prediction?

JS: The Flyers will find a partner to trade Rasmus Ristolainen (it is the last year of his contract) to call up Oliver Bonk, and the cool, calm, 21-year-old will quickly become a full-time, reliable NHL defenseman next to Sanheim.

GC: The Flyers will make at least one serious addition at this year’s trade deadline. They haven’t been buyers the last several years, but the team might finally be in position to make real gains at the deadline given their cap space and pipeline.

Who will win the Hart Trophy as MVP?

JS: Matthew Tkachuk. A finalist in 2023, Tkachuk is finally healthy and has a little brotherly competition with Brady, now his teammate, to give him some extra incentive.

GC: Macklin Celebrini put himself on the map as one of the NHL’s best in his sophomore season. He’ll follow it up by bringing the Sharks back to the playoffs and win his first of many Hart Trophies.

Will any Flyers win an individual NHL award?

JS: Martone will be a finalist for the Calder Trophy, but a win is not something I can say with certainty. If the Flyers exceed expectations, could Tocchet get his second Jack Adams? That could be one to keep an eye on.

GC: No. Porter Martone will earn a few votes for the Calder and ultimately lose to Ivar Stenberg.

Who will make and win the Stanley Cup?

JS: The Colorado Avalanche and Carolina Hurricanes will square off in the final with the defending champs lifting Lord Stanley’s Cup again.

GC: Feel like I’ve made this prediction four years running and it hasn’t panned out, but the Dallas Stars will beat Florida and win the Stanley Cup.

What are you looking forward to most in the NHL this season, and why?

JS: Watching Michkov’s vision and improved skating take off. Could he or Zegras score a “Michigan?” Dirty soda in Utah. One last chance to overcome my fear of plummeting to my death by crossing the non-cheat way at the Scotiabank Saddledome catwalk in Calgary, with a new building opening next season. Always the mountain views in Denver and Calgary. Not having to talk about the Flyers’ power play troubles (fingers crossed on that one). Talking to passionate fans and providing content and insight into the team and the beat at The Inquirer, and on X, Instagram, and TikTok.

GC: There are a lot of ways this season could go for the Flyers. These predictions were really tough to decide on! I’m excited to enjoy the uncertainty and be part of the ride.