Positive Takeaways from the Flyers’ 2018-19 Season
As the Flyers’ season is coming to a close (barring a miraculous run), a season that began with much optimism will end with the team on the outside looking in at this spring’s playoffs.
How did we get here? Like much of the past decade, the Flyers have been wildly inconsistent and like any season, there were some great moments and some… not so good.
For now, let’s focus on the good.
Carter Hart and the Youth Movement
If there is one thing you can take away and feel good about from this Flyers’ season, it should absolutely be Carter Hart. Forced into action after an unforeseen barrage of injuries to Flyers’ netminders, the 20-year-old goalie did nothing but impress.
Starting in 28 games, Hart went 16-11-1 with a .920 save percentage despite not having a great defense on his side and provided much-needed stability to a Flyers team that tends to get outshot on many nights.
Going into this summer, the Flyers will have a reliable, clear-cut starter for the first time in what seems like forever. There will still be some growing pains but finally, it looks the Flyers found their guy.
To go along with a great, young netminder, the Flyers seem to have hit another home run in Travis Sanheim. The 22-year-old defenseman really solidified himself as a top pairing defenseman as the season went on. Let’s not forget, Sanheim found himself completely out of the lineup at the end of last season and begun this season as the Flyers’ sixth defenseman under Dave Hakstol.
That all changed when Scott Gordon took control.
Almost immediately, Sanheim became one of the Flyers’ top defenseman, playing over 20 minutes a night and doing so with extreme poise on both ends of the ice. Sanheim got his opportunity under new leadership and he made the most of it.
Another young player that impressed was Travis Konecny. He’s going to put up almost exactly the same stats as last year (24 goals, 23 assists in 2017 vs 22 goals, 24 assists this season) but Konecny has become an important part of the Flyers lineup and brings speed and a great shot – two things the Flyers need most on the wing.
The Stadium Series
The Stadium Series game is likely the unanimous decision for the best game of the season among Flyers fans, especially the ones that were there. To stage a comeback against the Penguins in the last few minutes of the game and have Giroux score the overtime winner? Watch as Penguins fans make their way out of the stadium with their heads down as absolute pandemonium breaks out throughout Lincoln Financial Field.
You couldn’t write a better ending if you tried.
Escaping Dave Hakstol’s Grasp
The firing of Dave Hakstol was a much-needed breath of fresh air for a Flyers team that had become almost unwatchable up until his departure. It was the same product on the ice every night and it was wearing thin on Flyers fans for quite a long time.
Hakstol placed too much trust onto veteran players that were taking the spot of a young player who could have brought much more to the table as aforementioned with Travis Sanheim being buried on the bottom pairing.
Under Scott Gordon, even while the team still struggled at times, the team seemed much more inspired. The penalty kill improved vastly, operating at over 84% since Gordon took over, he gave young players like Sanheim, Lindblom, and Hart opportunities and when they struggled, he stayed the course and let them learn from it.
Joel Quenneville should be on the Flyers’ radar but the case can be made that Gordon has at least performed well enough to be considered.
Sean Couturier
After going six seasons without breaking 15 goals in a season, Couturier has posted back-to-back 30+ goal seasons and has transformed himself into one of the best two-way forwards in the league. His emergence as an offensive force seemingly came out of nowhere last season and the 26-year-old Couturier backed it up with another stellar season in 2018 with 32 goals and 42 assists through 75 games.
Once thought of as just a defensive center, Couturier is now providing the Flyers with excellence on both ends of the ice and is a top candidate for the Selke award for the second year in a row.
Plenty of Cap Space
Ron Hextall deserved a fair share of criticism for letting things get out of hand to begin the season and ultimately get him fired, but he also deserves some credit for digging the Flyers out of a bad situation left to him by Paul Holmgren.
Hextall was able to rid the team of most poor contracts during his time here and another in Jori Lehtera will come off the books this summer.
The Flyers will have some of their own players to lock up before spending it in free agency. Young players coming off their entry-league contracts in Ivan Provorov, Travis Konecny, and Travis Sanheim will all be restricted free agents along with Scott Laughton who will be an unrestricted free agent. Granted the Flyers sign all four of those players and the salary cap raises to the projected $83 million, the Flyers will still have around $15-20 million in cap space to re-sign other expiring contracts like Ryan Hartman, Phil Varone, Cam Talbot or Brian Elliott while also having the room to make a splash in free agency.
They Didn’t Just Roll Over
After losing eight straight games in late December and early January, the Flyers could have really fallen apart. Instead, they won eight straight games and have gone 22-10-2 and put at least put themselves back into the playoff conversation.
Had the teams in front of them in the playoff race not go on a stretch just as good as the Flyers, its possible that the Flyers played well enough to put themselves into the postseason.
If there’s one thing that has been consistent about the Flyers is that they’re a resilient group and always seem to fight back no matter how poor of a stretch they go through.
Ultimately, this season will be looked at negatively and it should be. Another year of Claude Giroux’s prime is gone. The team is still very inconsistent. Yet, there are still some positives to take away from this season.
It may be hard to see through another disappointing season which the Flyers seem to have many of in recent years but there are some things that fans should remember fondly and inspire hope for better times next year.
Featured Image: Gavin Baker/Icon Sportswire
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