The Philadelphia Flyers are currently in NHL Limbo. Not good enough to be in the playoff picture but too good to nab a top pick in this summer's draft. Can they turn the season around?
The Philadelphia Flyers are in NHL limbo. Again.
In other words, they are not good enough to be a playoff team, nor are they bad enough to get a high draft pick.
Going into the holiday break, the Flyers (15-16-4) are in 22nd out of 32 teams, sporting a .486 points percentage. They missed the playoffs for the fourth straight time last season, finishing with a .530 points percentage – 21st in the league or in other words, NHL limbo.
Philadelphia has made modest gains offensively this year, but that has been negated by a significant drop on defense. With Carter Hart playing in 26 games before leaving the team in late January, the Flyers finished tied for 19th in goals against last season (3.15 goals allowed per game). The Hart-less Flyers are now 29th in the NHL this season (3.66 per game),
The Flyers are currently last in the NHL with a .875 save percentage. They finished next to last a year ago at .889.
This year’s goaltending, which was the team’s strength during a five-game unbeaten streak, has sagged over the last three weeks. Inexperienced goaltenders Sam Ersson (3.28 GAA, .872 save percentage), Aleksei Kolosov (3.34 GAA, .878 save percentage) and Ivan Fedotov (3.48 GAA, .877 save percentage) have been inconsistent, and the defense in front of them – despite Travis Sanheim’s strong play – deserves some of the blame.
Special Teams Not Special
Ditto the struggling penalty kill. That unit finished fourth in the NHL last season (83.4 percent) and had a league-leading 16 shorthanded goals, but the PK has dropped to 20th in 2024-25 at 77.8 percent and has only two shorties.
The offense has made minor gains – 2.8 goals per game (27th in the NHL) last year to 3.0 per game this season (18th). But the Flyers have generally spent too much time in their own end. Their shot-attempt percentage (Corsi) was a healthy 51.65 percent last year, ninth in the NHL. This season, it has dipped to 47.38 percent (26th).
On the positive side, the Flyers have improved on offense (see above). They are winning more faceoffs and their shooting percentage has improved.
The power play has also been more efficient. The PP was at the bottom of the league last year, converting just 12.2 percent of the time. This year, the power play is at 15.6 percent (27th in the NHL), but has still struggled mightily lately, clicking at just 13 percent over the last 31 games.
Michkov: Slumping But A Bright Spot
Maintaining possession in the offensive zone has been a problem on the power play. And rookie sensation Matvei Michkov is slumping — pointless in his last six games, during which he is minus-11.
“Mich’s game has levelled off,” coach John Tortorella told reporters. “It’s been a little bit of a struggle with him. He was a very important part of giving us some life on the power play.”
He added he was “really happy” with how much Michkov had produced (11 goals and 27 points in 33 games), and that he expected “dips along the way with such a long schedule, the travel and just the nature of the National Hockey League.”
Michkov, who recently turned 20, has helped lower the team’s average age to 26.58, making the Flyers the NHL’s fourth-youngest team. They were the 10th-youngest in 2023-24 with an average age of 27.73.
But getting younger only matters if the young players show promise. Too many young players – guys like Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, Jamie Drysdale, Egor Zamula and Ersson – have not shown advancement from last season. That needs to change in the final 47 games to help put this rebuilding year back on track.
The Flyers sputtered going into the holiday break, losing seven of their last 10 games (3-6-1). They allowed 5.6 goals per game during those seven losses.
Philadelphia resumes play Saturday in Anaheim (hello, Cutter Gauthier), starting a five-game trip.
The break “definitely” came at the right time, captain Sean Couturier said.
“We’ve been grinding lately and not getting the results we wanted,” he said, adding that the days off will hopefully “charge the battery and get (us) ready for a big road trip.”
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