5 Things That Must Happen for the Flyers to Be Stanley Cup Contenders in 2021
As the Flyers gear up for the beginning of the shortened 2021 season, they’ll be looking to build upon a wildly successful campaign last year.
In their first season under Alain Vigneault, the Flyers went 41-21-7, finished second in the Metropolitan, went undefeated in the round-robin to claim the first seed, and won their first playoff series since 2012.
Last season served as a great start for Alain Vigneault’s tenure as the Flyers coach; now they’ll need to take the next step.
Here are 5 things that will need to happen if the Flyers want to be contending for the Stanley Cup this summer.
Phil Myers or Travis Sanheim to Replace Matt Niskanen
In one of the offseason’s most surprising moves, the 34-year old defenseman decided to call it quits at the beginning of the offseason. His retirement left a rather large hole in the Flyers’ defense as Niskanen was constantly paired with top defensemen Ivan Provorov.
The defensive pairing finished second in the league in ice time as a pairing with over 929 minutes together at 5v5, behind Edmonton’s pairing of Ethan Bear and Darnell Nurse.
It looked like the Flyers had finally found at least a short-term option to pair with Provorov, but ultimately Niskanen decided to retire. So, that leaves the Flyers with two potential options to jump up to the top pairing: Phil Myers and Travis Sanheim. The two were paired together much of last season, but it seems that one will need to take on the challenge of moving up to play with Ivan Provorov. Though both are young players, we saw Sanheim and Myers both took giant leaps forward in 2019-20, and they seem poised to take on the challenge.
Much like Provorov, both bring talent on both ends of the ice and have great size to boot.
James van Riemsdyk to Produce
It goes without saying that JVR struggled much last season and even found himself benched after the restart.
Notching 40 points in 66 games, van Riemsdyk can still produce for the Flyers, but as the fourth-highest paid Flyers player at $7 million AAV, they will need more on both ends of the ice from the 31-year old. Especially so in the playoffs where JVR posted just 2 assists and no goals in 12 games.
Carter Hart to Continue on His Upward Trajectory
With his first full season and postseason in the books, we got a glimpse of how good Carter Hart can be at just 22 years old.
Photo: AP Photo/Chris Szagola
He took on the Flyers starter role at 21 and posted a .914 save percentage, and improved his GAA from 2.83 in 2018-19 to 2.42 last season. In the postseason, Hart was unbelievably good for stretches posting a .926 save percentage and 2.26 GAA, outdueled Carey Price in round one, and kept his team, who struggled offensively in almost every game he played. That’s about all you can ask from a second-year goalie in his first postseason.
But in 2020-21, the Flyers will need him to be just as good, if not better, if they want to go further into the playoffs.
We still did see Hart let in an early goal and let the game get away from him in the postseason and have his struggles on the road during the regular season. He will certainly need to clean up those areas in his third NHL season.
Get off to a Fast Start
In a shortened 56-game season, there will be less room for errors as an extended losing stretch can sink a team very quickly, especially for the Flyers in a very good Eastern division with teams like Pittsburgh, Washington, Boston, and the Islanders.
Their Stars Perform Like Stars
It doesn’t seem realistic to expect Giroux, Voracek, Konecny, or Couturier to post “McDavid-like” seasons. Still, the Flyers will undoubtedly need them to produce like the high-paid players they are.
While they were good enough to earn the Flyers a first-seed in the playoffs, they all had their fair share of struggles in the postseason, which hurt the team.
None of those three eclipsed 10 points during the Flyers 15-game run in the postseason, and they were all key cogs in the Flyers historically bad showing on the powerplay, where they succeeded on just 7.7% of their man-advantages, including an 0-13 stretch in their series against the Islanders which ultimately sunk them.
While the Flyers boast impressive depth at forward and have on the best scoring defenses in the league, it is still crucial that their top-end guys perform like such because, as we saw in the playoffs, the depth scoring can’t carry a team forever.
The stars will need to step up.
Featured Image: AP Photo/Chris Szagola
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