Each Friday, Inquirer photo editors pick the best Philly sports images from the last seven days. This week, we’ve got Trevor Zegras and the Flyers taking some hits, Nick Sirianni and the Eagles getting dealt a Black Friday loss, and Joel Embiid making moves — both on and off the court. …
It’s the time of the year to be thankful and Flyers fans have several reasons to be overflowing with gratitude.
Or at least you would think so …
The Flyers, whose front office made clear its desire for the team to take a positive step forward in its rebuild this year and be more competitive, are 15-8-3 under new coach Rick Tocchet, and have the seventh-most points and the seventh-best points percentage in the NHL. If the season ended Thursday morning, the Flyers would occupy the third spot in the Metropolitan Division based on points percentage and be in the playoffs for the first time in five seasons.
“We expect more of a fight internally, and we hope that it’s going to make us better, it’s going to hopefully make us more competitive throughout the season, and maybe push to get closer to the playoffs,” general manager Danny Brière said in September. “At the end of the day, we want to make the playoffs.”
The Flyers might be on course to do that.
Beyond their record, the Flyers have struck gold with inexpensive offseason acquisitions Trevor Zegras and Dan Vladař, the former flashing his puck handling wizardry and superstar potential, and the latter playing like a bona fide Vezina Trophy candidate over the first third of the season. The Flyers’ checkered history between the pipes is well documented, but maybe, just maybe, Vladař, who is 28 and signed through next year, can bring some consistency to the position for the next few seasons. And in the 24-year-old Zegras, a restricted free agent at season’s end who leads the team with 26 points, the Flyers hope they have identified part of their long-term solution down the middle.
The positives don’t end there. Zegras’ close friends Cam York (24) and Jamie Drysdale (23) have leveled up after surviving John Tortorella’s wrath, and so had fellow first-rounder Tyson Foerster (23), who had 19 goals in his last 30 games dating back to last season before suffering an upper-body injury on Monday that will sideline him for two to three months. York was banged up on Wednesday but is listed as “day-to-day.”
Owen Tippett, 26, has had more good moments than bad this season as he strives for consistency, while Matvei Michkov, who is still just 20, is coming on strong after a slow start. Noah Cates (26) and Bobby Brink (24) have also picked up where they left off last season, while the exciting Emil Andrae (23) looks to have made himself into an everyday NHL defenseman. In other words, the kids are getting better.
The Flyers have more on the way as they boast a top-10 prospect pool in hockey and probably couldn’t have dreamed up better starts for their potential future stars. Porter Martone, the No. 6 overall pick in June, is dominating college hockey with Michigan State; Alex Bump and Denver Barkey are off to fast starts in their first full pro seasons with Lehigh Valley; and Egor Zavragin continues to put up historic numbers for a 20-year-old goalie in Russia. Even Jett Luchanko got the trade many felt he needed to further his development in the Ontario Hockey League. Martone, Bump, and Luchanko will all be expected to break camp with the Flyers next season.
So all is good in Flyers land, right?
Not if you scroll through X or find yourself wading through the ever dark and gloomy depths of Flyers Twitter:
“I hate Rick Tocchet hockey man…,“ tweeted @aftern_alex earlier this month.
or
“I DO NOT LIKE TOCCHET AT ALL. IF BREIRE AND JONES R ON BOARD WITH MICHKOV GETTING 13 MINUTES A GAME. FIRE THEM ALL,” wrote @Philly4everrr.
So why is a large portion of the fan base so unhappy amid the team’s surprising start? Well, it largely boils down to three things: (1) Tocchet’s style of play; (2) Michkov’s usage under Tocchet; and (3) the Flyers not tanking for a No. 1 center or No. 1 defenseman. Let’s explore those three points further.
Tocchet’s teams will never be confused with the ‘80s Edmonton Oilers, the ‘90s Pittsburgh Penguins, which he played on, or the Detroit Red Wings around the turn of the century. He’s a defensive coach first and has said as much. The Flyers are 25th in the NHL in scoring (2.85 goals per game) and are fourth-to-last in shots per game (25.2), which matches with previous Tocchet teams’ low volume of shots.
On the other hand, the Flyers are much improved defensively and have taken a lot of the “risk” out of their game. Some of that is thanks to better goaltending from Vladař, who has saved almost 11 goals above expected, per Money Puck. But the Flyers are also conceding fewer shots, high-danger chances, and rush attempts. They have allowed the eighth-fewest shots per game (26) and have surrendered the 13th-fewest high-danger shots at five-on-five (64), per Money Puck. They also rank 10th in the league in fewest expected goals against at five-on-five (54.9).
Sure, everyone would love for the Flyers to score a few more goals and shoot a little more, but there also has to be an expected tradeoff there, as the Flyers last season were historically bad at keeping the puck out of their net (28th in goals against), and partly due to bad goalie environments had the league’s worst save percentage (.879). Tocchet’s philosophy centers around keeping opponents to the outside and allowing his goalies to see the initial shot, and the Flyers have largely executed that plan.
New coaches also tend to focus on laying a defensive foundation first and then building out from there. The Flyers, while improved, are far from a finished product offensively and weren’t this high-flying team that scored a ton of goals last year either — they averaged 2.83 goals per game. Making permanent judgments or broad assertions about Tocchet and the Flyers’ future after 26 games and where the roster stands hardly seems fair.
The Michkov dilemma is probably the biggest criticism of Tocchet, as the Russian winger is ninth among Flyers in average ice time at 14 minutes, 51 seconds per game. There’s no way around saying Michkov started the season slowly — one goal in his first 13 games — as his conditioning was not up to par after an offseason ankle injury, and he made several ill-advised decisions with and without the puck. So it was hardly surprising to see him play less than other forwards.
Tocchet clearly wants the youngster to earn his ice time and kick some of his bad habits. He also wants to win games and, at times, has felt that he couldn’t trust Michkov in tight games when the team is protecting a lead. While it’s easy for fans to yell “Play Michkov more!” Tocchet has a responsibility to the rest of his players to hold everyone accountable and look out for the best interests of his team.
“I know he’s the lightning rod for everybody around here. He’s got to relax,” Tocchet said in mid-October. “He’s got to get himself into shape. He’s got to be in positions … you can’t just leave the zone. And it’s OK, he’s gotten better at it.”
Michkov has “gotten better at it” of late and has seen more ice time as a result. His better decisions with the puck and cheating less has coincided with his offensive uptick; he has four goals and seven points in his last seven games and is playing his best hockey of the season. Tocchet is rewarding Michkov’s improved play, as the Russian winger has skated at least 15:37 in three of his last four games.
While it can be frustrating to see a talent like Michkov playing less, it looks as if the message has been received and the winger will likely be better in the long run for it. That said, there needs to be a balance and Tocchet has to teach Michkov good habits without curbing his creativity or reprogramming such a talented player.
Despite what you may read online, Tocchet has no personal vendetta against Michkov or desire to see him fail. He simply wants him to play winning hockey and learn from his mistakes. While this relationship, language barrier included, remains a work in progress, don’t be surprised to see Michkov continue to get more ice time as the season wears on and for this to eventually become a whole lot of nothing.
Should the Flyers have tanked more and kept rebuilding for at least one more season, especially without obvious solutions for their future No. 1 center and No. 1 defenseman holes? This is a completely reasonable take, if not the most feasible one, considering how the roster is and was constructed.
Could the Flyers have bottomed out more and stripped their roster thinner over the past years to get more/better bites at the draft apple? I guess so, but they did largely do the latter.
Brière inherited many of the team’s salary cap problems and actually did some impressive work to get out from players like Ivan Provorov, Kevin Hayes, and Tony DeAngelo, and net high-end drafts picks and prospects in deals for Provorov, Sean Walker, Scott Laughton, Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, and Andrei Kuzmenko. The only other three obvious and needle-moving subtractions would have been to trade well-paid veterans Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, and Travis Sanheim. Rasmus Ristolainen is another player they might have moved, but bad injury timing has largely tied Brière’s hands there, not to mention the GM could still move him.
Given Couturier’s contract, which still has 4½ seasons remaining at a $7.75 million average annual value, he was and remains all but impossible to trade. Regarding Sanheim, Brière DID try to move him before his new deal kicked in but that move was nixed due to a St. Louis player opting not to waive his no-move clause. That nontrade might be the best move Brière didn’t make, as Sanheim has blossomed into a top-pairing defenseman and the Flyers’ leader on the backend. Whether the Flyers should have traded Konecny before extending him can be debated, but most teams usually try to hold onto 30-goal, almost-point-per-game players who are in their mid-20s and on an upward trajectory.
In other words, the Flyers largely carried out their rebuild the right way, they subtracted when it made sense, stockpiled assets, and didn’t jeopardize their long-term vision for short-term success, a la trading Walker amid pushing for the playoffs in 2023-24. But what about landing that all-important 1C and a 1D?
Those problems are not isolated to the Flyers, as those two holes, along with the starting goalie, are the three hardest to find. There is a shortage of true No. 1 centers across the league, and the teams that have them don’t usually like to give them up. The Flyers have also drafted centers in the top half of the past two drafts in Luchanko and Jack Nesbitt to try and address the position, and also have several young defensemen — York, Drysdale, Oliver Bonk, Spencer Gill — they believe could one day play in their top four.
Listening to Brière and president Keith Jones, the Flyers were prepared to pay up and probably envisioned finding that No. 1 center in what was once a rich 2026 free agent class. That crop has since dried up, but that doesn’t mean all hope has.
Armed with a deep prospect pool, future draft picks, including Toronto’s first in 2027, and a plethora of young wingers and defensemen, the Flyers have valuable pieces to package in a deal for a top-end center when one becomes available. Wouldn’t Tage Thompson look nice in burnt orange? Could things between William Nylander and Toronto turn sour? Might St. Louis be blown away to move on from Robert Thomas and tear it down? Is Quinton Byfield untouchable? The Flyers can bide their time for now and can feel good that they have the type of assets to compete with most offers.
Or on the backend, Norris Trophy winner Quinn Hughes, a huge fan of Tocchet from their time together in Vancouver, could soon be available. As could younger options like Bowen Byram, Brandt Clarke, and Šimon Nemec, for the right price.
The Flyers are set up well for the long term, whether they make the playoffs this season or not, so let’s just enjoy them for a while and see where this season goes. It’s been a long time since this city has had a hockey team it could be proud of. The complaining can wait.
When did things start getting better for Matvei Michkov?
“When I start scoring,” he said with a smile through a team translator on Thursday.
“When you score, when you make a play, when you make an assist, that’s when you feel more confident.”
Across the first 19 games of the season, the winger had four goals and nine points, and a plus-minus of minus-4. In the last seven games, he leads the team with seven points (four goals, three assists) and is plus-2.
“A little bit better than the beginning,” Michkov said about his game. “Feels better, feels faster. Every game, [I] have to make a little bit better. It’s not my maximum.”
Five of Michkov’s last seven points have come at even strength. On Wednesday night, he made a slick pass to Owen Tippett for his goal, peering over his shoulder seconds before Buffalo Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson, the son of former Flyers defenseman Kjell Samuelsson, converged on him.
But his power-play points are still finding their way. Last season, when Michkov led all NHL rookies in goals and tied for second in points, eight of his 26 goals and 17 of his 63 points were on the power play.
He’s still learning and adapting to his new position on the power play. On a unit with Trevor Zegras, Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim, and Tippett, Michkov’s role is now focused on being a net-front presence and screening the goalie.
“Try to be a universal player, [and] if it will help the team, I’m willing to work on it and get better at it,” said Michkov, who was the one cutting across the crease when Zegras’ pass attempt went off a skate and past Sabres goalie Colten Ellis.
Since Nov. 8, Michkov has also primarily played as a left winger. The shift started amid a three-game goal streak. He says there’s no difference in his game by playing the left side, but coach Rick Tocchet disagrees.
“I think playing him on the left side has made him go more north,” Tocchet said. “He’s not backward skating as much through the neutral zone. I’m trying to explain to him, the faster he can go north with [the puck] you get more rush plays.
“When you take it back, and you’re opening up, playing backwards, you’ve just got to beat structure again. If we’ve just beat structure, why do we want to go back so we have to beat structure again. … But the more north he can play, the faster he looks, too.”
Michkov tried not to think too much about his early struggles. When you have a heavy head and start overthinking, and therefore not creating or getting points, he hates it.
But a big part of his slow start can be attributed to the fact that he did not train well this offseason and, because of it, as he noted in November, he “lost concentration” at the beginning of the season. Michkov, who turns 21 on Dec. 9, knows he is talented and that he just needs to keep working and building his craft.
He’s also learned from his past summer mistakes.
“I think I will start training here [in Voorhees]. Maybe will go home for [short time],” he said. “What’s happening right now is I’m not feeling good about it. I’m not happy about my points. I’m sure I can do much better and make a lot more and make better for my team and, of course, score.
“You cannot score in every game, but physically, I need to be ready for it. And in February [during the Olympic break], I need to spend the time to be ready for the rest of the season. If you’re going to have good physical form, everything else will come along.”
“If that’s his choice, we can help him,” Tocchet said when told of Michkov’s summer plans.
“As for his play, I don’t want him to worry about points. He was focused on goals and assists. He’s got to be careful. Those things will come by doing the right things, and I think he’s tried to do the right things. Where to go in certain areas, he’s getting better at definitely.”
Although he may not be ready to be interviewed without Slava Kuznetsov, the Flyers interpreter, Michkov’s English is progressing. It is noticeable that he is understanding and responding more when speaking with teammates and the media.
And the coach and player are still learning how to work together.
“I think in real time, it’s harder. I can bark at someone, ‘Hey, on a D dive, you’ve got to remember, this is your quad,’” Tocchet said. “With Matvei, you’ve got to take your time, and you’ve got to get a [white]board. Or intermission time, I’ve done it a few times, called him in to show video.”
“I think earlier on, we were giving him so much information, I think we could frustrate him a little bit,” Tocchet added. “I think the last three weeks, we’ve really dialed in how we do it. OK, one coach has him for today. Hey, let’s give him a break today. Let’s not talk even systems; let’s talk to him about something else.
“I think we just, collectively, [figured out] how to manage how we give him information, because he seems to be grasping it more these last three weeks than he did the first three weeks.”
And it’s showing on the ice.
It also helps that he has his mother, Maria, and his brother, Prokhor, in the area because if he were to be by himself, “I would go nuts,“ he said.
But there is one rule.
“I like to talk about everything,” he said, “but when I’m mad, she knows not to talk about hockey.”
The injury bug has finally caught up with the Flyers.
After losing Tyson Foerster to an upper-body injury for the next two to three months on Monday, Cam York is now day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
“I think he got hit behind the net, or something,” coach Rick Tocchet said after the game. “We were trying to look for it. But I think he got hit behind the net a little bit late or something. I haven’t talked to the doctors.”
After Trevor Zegras was boarded by Buffalo Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin in the offensive zone, York was involved in a scrum. Dahlin was assessed a five-minute major and was ejected from the game, but the Flyers did not score on the power play.
York did not return after the scrum that occurred with 3 minutes, 10 seconds left in the second period.
It’s also possible that the high hit by Buffalo Sabres forward Jason Zucker behind the Flyers net with 13:50 left in the period is the hit that Tocchet is referencing. The hit was a little late, as the blueliner skated back for the puck.
York, 24, went on injured reserve on Oct. 6 with a lower-body injury, two days after playing more than 25 minutes in the preseason finale. He missed the first three games of the season but has played in 23 games, posting 12 points (one goal, 11 assists) while averaging the second-most minutes (23:31).
Paired with Travis Sanheim, who had a maintenance day on Thursday, they are the Flyers’ best duo and skate against the opposition’s top lines. According to Money Puck, among the 19 pairs in the NHL that have skated at least 300 minutes together, they have the fourth-lowest expected goals against (14.1). Offensively, they are 18th in expected goals for (12.9) while skating the 10th most minutes together (368.4).
The Flyers do not return to game action until Sunday, but face a formidable task against the best team in the NHL, the Colorado Avalanche, who have lost just once in regulation across 26 games this season (1 p.m., NBCSP).
Some pluses for the Flyers? The one loss in regulation was on the road, and the Avalanche, who play Thursday at the New York Islanders and Saturday at the New York Rangers, have lost six of seven games that went beyond regulation. The Flyers have won seven of 10.
But if York cannot go, it leaves a big hole on the blue line.
“Obviously, it challenges your depth,” Tocchet said on Thursday. “It’s the same thing, that everybody wants a chance to play, so when it’s your number, be ready. That’s why I always tell players be ready. Practice hard, off the ice do the right things, your number will be called.
“So, there’s a possibility he might not play, so whoever’s going to come in there, as a group, we’re going to have to make up for those minutes.”
The Flyers beat the Buffalo Sabres 5-2 on Wednesday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Here are four signs from the win that the Flyers may be for real.
Two seasons ago, when the Flyers ranked among the best teams in the Eastern Conference, they lost 5-3 to the Ottawa Senators on Jan. 21.
Yes, it was amid a five-game losing streak, but entering that game, the Senators were not just last in the conference; they were 23 points back in the standings from the Flyers. At the end of the season, the Flyers missed a playoff spot by three points, and that game could be circled as a missed opportunity.
This season is still in its infancy, but the Flyers are maintaining a postseason spot and currently sit in third place in the Metropolitan Division. If they want to be a team to be reckoned with, they need to beat up on the bad teams. And the Sabres, who are ninth in the conference, are a bad team.
It wasn’t a losing streak, per se, but the Flyers lost one game for the fifth time this season and ended it there. The most they’ve lost this season is two straight, which hasn’t been seen during the first chunk of the season since 2011-12.
So why hasn’t the losing snowballed like in years past?
“I think that’s just showing our maturity as we’re growing. I think that we work really hard, practicing, trying to keep our momentum going. You practice hard, you play hard. So those things kind of translate,” alternate captain Travis Konecny said.
“We also had some days off, too, right now, so that’s given us a little bit of our legs tonight, and we have a little stretch coming up here to get going again. So it’s kind of a combination of things, to be honest.”
Tyson Foerster, who officially went on injured reserve on Wednesday after sustaining an upper-body injury on Monday, was in the locker room after the game, high-fiving his teammates. But while he’s around, not having him on the ice leaves a pretty big hole in the lineup.
Entering the night, he was the Flyers’ top goal scorer with 10 goals. At the end of it, he was tied with Zegras, with Tippett breathing down their necks after potting his ninth.
“That’s a big hole that we have to fill with him out,” Tippett said of Foerster. “Obviously, you hate to see a guy like that go down, but anytime, all of us can kind of pitch in, and guys contribute throughout the lineup, it’s good to see. And, I think everyone kind of steps up a little bit when a guy like that’s out of the lineup.”
But the best sign of the night was that Bobby Brink and Noah Cates both got on the board, with each logging an assist on the other’s goals.
Brink’s goal came off a shot by Cates after he dropped it to the centerman — neither could remember if Cates called for the drop pass — and while it was his seventh of the year, it was just his second in the past 13 games.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s not really fun scoring one point in 12 games,” said Brink, who is inching closer to his career high of 12 goals. “I mean, it’s one game, so probably should start scoring more in the other ones, too.”
While Cates had been playing primarily with Foerster, he was reunited with Brink on Wednesday, and the chemistry was immediately rekindled. Brink fed Cates for the redirect and his sixth of the season. And they did so with Nikita Grebenkin, who finally moved up to the top nine, on the left wing.
“He makes some good plays. He’s in good spots. He’s always flying out there and making plays,” said Cates of Grebenkin, who created the turnover and got an assist on Brink’s goal. “So just kind of, the more we play together, the more we can learn and build that chemistry and that trust. And I thought he was awesome tonight.”
According to Natural Stat Trick, Tocchet rolled all four lines evenly, with each line getting roughly 6½ to 8½ minutes despite a disjointed game with a ton of penalties called. It’s important that, as the schedule gets heavier because of the pending Olympic break, the Flyers can continue to roll four lines and generate offense from throughout the lineup.
Last season, of the 16 teams that made the postseason, only the Los Angeles Kings, Carolina Hurricanes, Montreal Canadiens, Minnesota Wild, and Dallas Stars were in the bottom half of the league’s power play rankings. The two teams in the Stanley Cup Final, the Edmonton Oilers and champion Florida Panthers, clicked at 23.7% and 23.5%, respectively.
The power play has been a thorn in the Flyers’ side for years, but right now, it’s out of the basement and tied for 18th with the Anaheim Ducks at 18.7%. It’s a critical step forward for the team to not just have confidence in their units but to know that it can help them either get back into games or extend leads.
And if they don’t score, as they did twice on Wednesday night, going 2-for-5, it also helps build momentum in the game.
With Foerster out for 2-3 months, one of the units now has Konecny, Zegras, Travis Sanheim, Matvei Michkov, and Tippett. Sean Couturier took a neutral zone faceoff and then went right to the bench for Zegras to hop on.
They scored two goals.
“Just moving it, I think try not to hold on to it too long. I thought Sanny did a great job tonight of being confident up top, moving the puck, and I think just being direct, trying to get shots to the net,” Konecny said.
“When you look at a lot of the top power plays, other than some of the really skilled ones, you look at all the top power plays, it’s just like getting pucks to the net, deflections, having bodies there, outnumbering them. And I think we focused on doing that tonight a lot.”
“We had some looks up top. Obviously, he got a few blocked, so we might have to change some angles there, but at least we’re shooting the puck,” added coach Rick Tocchet.
“If it hits a shaft or something, I can live with it, but we’re getting more shots from the middle. … I’d like to see a little bit more movement earlier on the power play, but, being picky. But yeah, it was good for us tonight.”
Looking back, it’s almost fitting.
Trevor Zegras sat down for his first interview on Day 1 of training camp in September, sporting a Nirvana shirt.
“Come as you are, as you were, as I want you to be,” the band’s frontman Kurt Cobain would sing.
Well, the Flyers wanted Zegras to come as he is, as he was, and as they want him to be. There was no rush, but Zegras, who was acquired in June from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Ryan Poehling, a 2025 second-round pick, and a 2026 fourth-rounder, hurried up the process. Nevermind the past two years, he has trended in the right direction.
“It’s fun to see the joy in his game again,” Flyers general manager Danny Brière said recently. “You can tell he’s having fun playing the game. I think for hockey players, it’s a big part of having success is that you’ve got to play with passion, you’ve got to play with enthusiasm, and I think that’s what we’re seeing in Trevor’s game.
“I don’t know what happened in Anaheim, that’s not my business. But we see a young man who is having fun and making plays, going out there trying to make a difference. It’s been fun to watch, too, for our fans, adding another guy with high-end skill that can get you out of your seat.”
The Flyers have long needed a game-breaker and a creative force to draw fans out of their seats again. Matvei Michkov brought some of those qualities last season, and the hope was that adding Zegras would infuse more.
Twenty-six games into his tenure in orange and black, the 24-year-old has showcased the rare skill level that has long wowed fans. He is tied with Tyson Foerster, who was placed on injured reserve on Wednesday, atop the Flyers’ leaderboard with 10 goals and leads the team with 26 points.
And although there might be some bruises on the fruit, he has helped the power play come in bloom as four of his goals and 11 of his points have come on a man advantage that is tied for 18th in the NHL. He’s also had a knack for the dramatic, scoring the game-winning goal in Saturday’s win over New Jersey, and clinching two other games via the shootout.
The kid who grew up idolizing Patrick Kane, aka “Showtime,” has stolen the show. He is a perfect 4-for-4 this season and ranks No. 1 all-time among players with at least 15 shootout attempts at 68% (17 goals on 25 shots).
“Especially when you have Trevor Zegras on your team, you start almost with one up,” said Sean Couturier, captain of a Flyers team that is a perfect 5-0 in shootouts this season. “So we like our odds in shootouts.”
But maybe the biggest difference for Zegras this year is that the coaching staff has confidence in him. Zegras is averaging 18 minutes, 14 seconds a night, the second-most among Flyers forwards, and his highest amount since the 2022-23 season.
“He’s done a really nice job,” coach Rick Tocchet said last week in South Florida. “He moves his feet. He can make some plays out there. They’re hard to find, and he’s got to be a difference maker for us, which he is. He’s making some good plays for us.”
Although he says you have to prioritize the team game, Zegras notes that he is always building and working on his own game. He can often be spotted doing that on the ice long after practice is done.
He’s also often on the ice talking to Tocchet, whom he affectionately has nicknamed Taco. It looks as if the two are either going over reads, structure, systems, and positioning. In October — after a win against the Seattle Kraken, no less — he texted Tocchet that he wanted to watch video with him, too.
“It’s good,” Zegras said of his relationship with Tocchet. “He watches a lot of hockey, and he played for a long time. There’s just little stuff that he sees; it’s definitely good stuff, important stuff, and they’re usually really good points, so I try to listen.”
“Unreal, coachable kid. You can tell him anything. We talked last game, I thought he didn’t really skate, didn’t do much, and he actually comes up to me, and he goes, ‘Man, I didn’t move my feet last game, I can really tell,’” Tocchet said, referencing the Nov. 24 game in Tampa Bay.
The bench boss also likes that Zegras is correcting mistakes. He had a big turnover early in the Flyers’ 6-5 shootout win against the St. Louis Blues on Nov. 14 that led to a goal. How did he rebound? By playing a role in each of the Flyers’ goals in regulation and scoring the lone shootout tally.
But while the good times are rolling, the big question remains: At five-on-five, is he a center or a winger?
Right now, it’s a little bit of both.
According to Natural Stat Trick, he’s played just 26 minutes, 46 seconds across the first 26 games of the season down the middle. He’s skated the majority of the season on a line with Christian Dvorak and Owen Tippett — although on Wednesday night, Travis Konecny was on their wing — with Zegras deployed in a hybrid center role.
“Yeah, I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, but I think it’s a great setup for him,” said Brière when asked if maybe a hybrid is best right now for a player who may be a natural centerman but has spent the last two seasons almost exclusively on the wing.
“The way we have him with the centers that we have, it gives him the chance to take more chances on offense and not have to always come back and be the first player back, battling down deep in the defensive zone.
“He has to do it at times — everybody at times gets caught being the first guy back — but he doesn’t have to do it every shift, and I think it opens him up, frees him up a little bit on the other side of things.”
The hybrid role focuses on the play below the hashmarks in the defensive zone and being the high man, when applicable, in the offensive zone. It’s about being the first forward or F1 — and about faceoffs. Not really known for his faceoff prowess, Zegras is feeling more confident in the circle and has been getting help from Couturier.
“Dvo’s great down low. Not that he needs [it], but I can switch maybe during the shift,” Zegras said before the Flyers’ win last week against the Florida Panthers, before adding with a smile, “or if he wants to maybe cheat on some faceoffs, and he ends up getting kicked out of them, I feel fine getting in there.”
While he’s no longer a teen, Zegras definitely has some spirit. Bounding into the locker room these days with his long flowing locks and a grin mixed in with some chatter, the 24-year-old looks rejuvenated on and off the ice.
“Just extremely grateful that it ended up being Philly.” Gary Zegras, Trevor’s father, told The Inquirer during the dad’s trip in November. “The closeness is incredible. We get to come to the games, and we get to spend a lot of time down here. He’s got a lot of other family that have been coming to the games and friends in the area. So that’s great for him, and it’s also great for us, selfishly.
“And then between management, between the coach, and the other players on the team, it’s just such a great fit. You just see the smile on his face, and you just can tell that he feels comfortable here, and it’s translating to — I know it’s early in the season — but he certainly looks a lot more like his old self. And I think a lot of that has to do with the environment, 100%.”
Zegras has several familiar faces in the room, including his best buddies Jamie Drysdale, his teammate in Anaheim, and Cam York, whom he played with as a teenager at the United States National Team Development Program.
“Just fun to have him around in the locker room. … Obviously, what he’s done has been really great for our team,“ York said. ”He’s added a lot of skill and good vibes, good mojo to the team, I think, and that goes a long way in this league.”
Added Drysdale: “He’s a free spirit. He does his thing. We all love and appreciate him for it. He keeps it light, and he’s playing really good hockey. Yeah, we’re just lucky to have him, and he fits in perfectly here.”
Zegras has found his spark again. But has he found a home, too?
Of course, Brière had no comment when asked recently about a new contract for Zegras. The forward is a restricted free agent on July 1, and the general manager rarely signs players to extensions during the season. But, while it’s early, there is no doubt that Zegras is the type of talent and game-breaker the Flyers have been searching for the past several years.
According to Puckpedia, the cost to keep him around begins at $5.75 million, the minimum qualifying offer the Flyers must give him to retain his rights. But with the salary cap rising, there is no doubt he will command a much higher number.
A good comparable to Zegras is probably Shane Pinto. The Ottawa Senators center, who was drafted 23 spots below him in the 2019 NHL draft, just signed a four-year extension with an annual average value of $7.5 million. Zegras has eight more points than Pinto this season.
He also has more points than other recent center signings like Utah’s Logan Cooley (eight years at $10 million per), his former Ducks teammate Mason McTavish (six years, $7 million), and Chicago’s Frank Nazar (seven years, $6.59 million). Dallas Stars forward Wyatt Johnston, who got four years at $8.4 million last season, is the only real comparable who has more points than Zegras so far this season.
Two more worth noting are Utah’s JJ Peterka and Winnipeg’s Gabe Vilardi, who, like Zegras, are capable of playing center but have also played a lot of wing. Peterka signed this offseason for five years at a $7.7 million average annual value, and Vilardi got six years at $7.5 million.
Factoring in his recent history and that all but Vilardi are younger than Zegras, the expectation is that he’ll get at least five years — which is the length York, who is also represented by Pat Brisson, signed for in July — and between $7.5 million and $8 million per year.
Brière likes to wait; maybe he shouldn’t. If Zegras keeps trending the way he is — he is on pace for a career-high 32 goals and 82 points — it puts the past two years, and his injury concerns, in the rearview, and the ask could be closer to $9 million.
Is that too much for a kid in his mid-20s who has found his game again and looks to be back on a star trajectory? Probably not. Does it truly matter if he’s that top center or the top winger? In reality, not really, because in the end, he’ll still be a critical piece of a Flyers team moving through a rebuild with the focus on being a Stanley Cup contender for years to come.
Zegras loves playing in Philly. He loves the spotlight. It sounds like a happy marriage because, while for years and years, Zegras roamed, he now feels like he’s back home.
And if he does stay for the long haul, it sounds like Flyers fans will be in nirvana.
With leading scorer Tyson Foerster out 2-3 months after getting injured in Monday’s 5-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, there were questions about how the Flyers would find offense.
The answer? Easily.
The Flyers beat the Buffalo Sabres 5-2 for their fourth win in the past five games. Since losing two straight in mid-November to the Ottawa Senators and Edmonton Oilers, they have gone 7-3-0 and have not lost two in a row since.
They did lose defenseman Cam York late in the second period. After Trevor Zegras was boarded by Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin in the offensive zone, York was involved in a scrum. He did not return and coach Rick Tocchet said postgame he thought it was an upper-body injury.
“I think he got hit behind the net, or something,” Tocchet said. “We were trying to look for it. But I think he got hit behind the net a little bit late or something. I haven’t talked to the doctors.”
Dahlin was assessed a five-minute major and was ejected from the game, but the Flyers did not score on the power play.
But they had already scored a pair with the man advantage. It came in the first period when the Flyers scored a trio of goals after — no surprise here — trailing 1-0.
Travis Konecny scored on the power play to tie the game 1-1 while on the ice with the revamped unit of Zegras, Travis Sanheim, Owen Tippett, and Matvei Michkov. Konecny got the puck along the boards and carried it above the left faceoff circle and toward the middle before putting the puck past the blocker of Sabres goalie Colten Ellis for his sixth goal of the season.
The Sabres challenged the call with Tippett in front, but the video review confirmed that there was no interference before the goal. Because of the failed challenge, the Flyers went right back on the power play.
Zegras scored his 10th goal of the season on the ensuing man advantage. It tied him with Foerster for the team lead.
The Flyers moved the puck around the outside well. Konecny skated down the left boards before sending the puck back to Sanheim to open space. The defenseman saw Zegras with his stick up in the air, awaiting the pass above the right circle. After receiving it, he put the puck toward the net, and it ended up going off the skate of Buffalo’s Ryan McLeod to give the Flyers the lead 38 seconds after tying the game.
Zegras said postgame he was actually looking to get the puck to Konecny across the ice.
Twenty-one seconds later, it was 3-1. After putting the follow line of Noah Cates, Bobby Brink, and Nikita Grebenkin — who was promoted to the top nine after the Foerster injury — on the ice, the trio connected.
Grebenkin deflected a pass intended for Tage Thomson and collected the puck inside the blue line before feeding Brink, who dropped it to Cates. The center put the puck on goal, and Brink cleaned up the rebound for his seventh goal of the season. It gave the Flyers three goals in 59 seconds.
In the second period, it was Brink who fed Cates for the goal seconds after a Flyers power play ended. Jamie Drysdale got the loose puck and carried it to the middle of the ice before dishing to Brink atop the right circle. He carried it down and set up Cates for a redirect and his sixth of the season.
Later in the period, Tippett made it 5-1 with his third goal in three games. Emil Andrae kept the puck in at the blue line and sent it down the boards to Sean Couturier, who sent a no-look pass to Michkov. The Russian winger then did the same to Tippett with Mattias Samuelsson, the son of former Flyers defenseman Kjell Samuelsson, on him.
Tippett went backhand to forehand and had his initial shot go off Ellis’ shoulder. But the Flyers forward stuck with it and battled the puck out of midair for his ninth of the season.
Tocchet didn’t like the first goal the Flyers gave up. After Monday’s game, he chastised the penalty kill, citing that he didn’t like the structure; he prefers an aggressive diamond and hates the box. Well, the goal by Sabres forward Jason Zucker was because the penalty kill fell into the box and he was able to score in front off a pass from Josh Doan.
Buffalo’s second goal of the night, which made it 4-2, came off the stick of Bowen Byram. On a bouncing puck, the defenseman fired the puck past Flyers goalie Sam Ersson.
The Flyers now have 11 comeback wins and are 10-6-2 after trailing first. Both lead the NHL. … Ersson made 27 saves, and the Flyers put 35 shots on goal. The Flyers’ goalie is now 5-2-2 on the season. … Forward Carl Grundström, who was recalled from Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League on Tuesday, and defenseman Noah Juulsen were the healthy scratches. … The Flyers challenged a goal by the Sabres in the third period, and it was determined that Buffalo was offside.
The Flyers have a few days between games, but next face the NHL’s top team, the Colorado Avalanche, on Sunday (1 p.m., NBCSP). How good are the Avalanche? They’ve lost once in regulation this season.
The Flyers will be without Tyson Foerster, the team’s leading goal scorer, for the next two to three months after he suffered an upper-body injury in Monday night’s loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins and was placed on injured reserve Wednesday.
It is a major blow to a team that is averaging 2.76 goals this season, the seventh-lowest total in the NHL. But as coach Rick Tocchet said, “The poor-is-me stuff, that can’t linger in that room.”
And with that, the bench boss whipped up some new line combinations at Wednesday’s morning skate. Tocchet likes to keep pairs together, and Trevor Zegras and Christian Dvorak are a duo that is working well. They will now have Travis Konecny on their wing. According to Natural Stat Trick, they’ve played as a line for just 97 seconds at five-on-five this season.
The fourth line remained somewhat the same, with Rodrigo Ābols, Garnet Hathaway, and Nic Deslauriers skating together. Deslauriers, who started his career with Wednesday’s opponent, the Buffalo Sabres, last played Nov. 24 in Tampa Bay. Carl Grundström was recalled on Tuesday from Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League, but it looks like he will be a healthy scratch against the Sabres (7:30 p.m., TNT).
Speedy winger Owen Tippett was moved alongside Matvei Michkov and Sean Couturier. The trio has not played together this season, but did last year, skating almost 125 minutes together. With that line on the ice, the Flyers had a 52.57% Corsi For, 56.36% of the scoring chances, 60% of the high-danger chances, outshot opponents, 76-51, and outscored their opponents, 10-8.
Not too shabby. However, there is one difference now: Tippett will be on the right wing, with Tocchet liking the speed and north-south game Michkov plays on the left.
“The last two or three years I’ve played left more consistently, so obviously I’ve gotten more comfortable with it,” Tippett said about playing the right side. “But again, I’ve played right my whole life, and even now, there’s been some shifts or some periods where I’ve had to go back to the left. I think I’m ready for it whenever it happens.”
And of course, the biggest move of the day involves Nikita Grebenkin, who — some would say, finally — has been moved into the top nine. He is playing with Bobby Brink and Noah Cates.
“Tyson [has an] injury now. It’s bad for the team [because] Tyson, big guy for Flyers. It’s bad, but now I have maybe more time [and it] is good for me,” Grebenkin said. “It’s a big chance for me, and I want to help the team every time. Let’s go Flyers.”
Acquired in the deal that sent Scott Laughton to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Grebenkin has played in 16 of the Flyers’ 25 games, mostly on the fourth line. He has one goal and three points while averaging 9 minutes, 52 seconds.
Some of the critiques from Tocchet have focused on Grebenkin’s decision-making. He wants him to be “sticky” and stay in piles. On Wednesday, Tocchet wants to see the 22-year-old make good decisions, play mind free — he’s mentioned in the past the Russian has told him he’s overthinking — and move his feet more.
“In practice, when he has two-on-ones, he slows down, and he tries to pass the puck. So against Pittsburgh [on Monday night], he had all day to go in and fire the puck, but he waited, and he tried to make the pass, and it got picked off,” Tocchet said.
“So we talked about it, and today his two-on-ones were outstanding. Hopefully, he can apply that in a real game. To be an NHL player, you’ve got to take that information, so hopefully he gets a two-on-one tonight and he moves his feet. I think he will because he did it today in practice.”
Grebenkin has not officially been on a line with Brink this season, but according to Natural Stat Trick, he has skated more than 25 minutes on Cates’ wing during five-on-five action this season.
It has worked well.
Without Cates as his center, Grebenkin has been on the ice for seven goals against, to just his first career NHL goal, scored against the Montreal Canadiens in early November. But when they’re on the ice together, the Flyers have outshot opponents 16-7 and outscored them 2-1.
“Obviously, a ton of skill and some speed from him. He’s been working at his game and getting a lot of good looks,” Cates said.
“I think we can work with each other and make some good give-and-go plays or cycle plays,” said Cates, who, like Grebenkin, excels below the hash marks. “I’ll get to the net, I think that’s the biggest thing. So he makes really good plays down there, and I just have to create some space when we’re getting to the net because he’ll find me.”
Grebenkin agrees that he’s been overthinking at times during games, but he has been working at it. He is looking forward to more minutes, helping the team excel, and wants to play better consistently.
But Tocchet knows it takes time for players to develop.
“He’s got to do the process. But do I feel like he’s ready for it? Yeah, I do,” Tocchet said when asked about Grebenkin being in the top nine. “I think he’s ready for it, but there’s a process to it, the way you practice, the way you take information, that’s the way it is.”
Sam Ersson (4-2-2, .859 save percentage) will start against the Sabres. He is 3-1-0 with a 1.83 goals-against average, .913 save percentage, and one shutout against the Sabres in four career games. … Defenseman Egor Zamula will play in place of Noah Juulsen. … Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen was on the ice in a non-contact jersey for morning skate. It is the first time he has skated with the group since he suffered an elbow injury in March. He underwent surgery on a right triceps tendon rupture later that month. In 2024, Ristolainen underwent two surgeries, including a repair to a ruptured triceps tendon. According to Flyers general manager Danny Brière in April 2025, the injury was similar, although he wouldn’t confirm whether he tore the tendon again. Tocchet wouldn’t put a timeline on his return to game action but said, “It’s not a month, it’s not a week. What’s that sweet spot? I don’t know.”
LAS VEGAS — Goalie Carter Hart, one of five 2018 Canada World Junior hockey players acquitted of sexual assault in July, will make his first NHL appearance in nearly two years when he starts in goal Tuesday night for the Vegas Golden Knights, who host Chicago.
The former Flyers goaltender was the first of those five players to agree to an NHL contract. The league ruled those players were eligible to sign deals beginning Oct. 15 and to play beginning Dec. 1. Hart signed a two-year, $4 million contract and has been working with the club’s American Hockey League affiliate in Henderson, Nev.
After he agreed to sign, Hart read a statement to reporters that, in part, said he wanted “to show the community my true character and who I am and what I’m about.”
Hart was asked Monday what steps he has taken to fulfill that pledge.
“There’s been a few things we’ve talked about,” Hart said. “We did a thing there in Henderson helping out the homeless. There’s some things we’ve talked about throughout the season. Whatever I can do to help, I’m happy to help.”
Giving Hart his first start at home could help ease him into what could be a rocky reception around the league. How welcoming Golden Knights fans will be remains to be seen, but after facing the Blackhawks, Vegas goes on a five-game road trip against Eastern Conference teams, including a Dec. 11 visit to the Flyers.
He worked in Henderson on getting back into NHL game shape. Hart appeared in three games and went 1-2.
“I’ve worked by [butt] off to get back to this point,” Hart said. “For me, the key is preparation and I’ve done everything I can to be prepared.”
The 27-year-old last played in an NHL game on Jan. 20, 2024, for the Flyers. Hart played six seasons for the team, going 96-93-29 with a .906 save percentage and 2.94 goals-against average.
“The purpose of Henderson was to get him back into live reps,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “He can practice with us with NHL shooters, but traffic around the net, screens, all that stuff is sometimes hard to replicate, especially when you haven’t played that often. We’re less worried about the results, more getting reps, getting used to that stuff.”
The Golden Knights could use the help in net, especially with starting goalie Adin Hill on injured reserve with a lower-body injury and his return possibly weeks away. Akira Schmid has received the majority of the work with Hill out and is 9-2-4 with a .896 save percentage and 2.51 GAA.
Vegas had lost four straight games before defeating San Jose, 4-3, on Saturday night.
Cassidy said the upcoming schedule works in the Golden Knights’ favor in terms of not overloading the goalies.
“Akira’s played well, too, so we have to keep mindful he has to stay sharp,” Cassidy said. “So I’m sure you’ll see a lot of both goalies, but Carter’s waited a long time to play, so he’s definitely going to get his share of starts.”
The Flyers entered Monday’s matchup with the Pittsburgh Penguins with the league’s fourth-best penalty kill. When the night was done, the Flyers were handed a 5-1 loss to snap a three-game winning streak, and their penalty kill slipped to ninth.
In some ways, it made sense. The Penguins started the day with the NHL’s No. 2 power play and an impressive 30.2% effectiveness. Even with that, no one expected them to score three times in four opportunities.
The Penguins now have the NHL’s No. 1 power play at 33.3% — which is ridiculous when you think about it. But maybe not.
“Well, they’ve got a championship pedigree, right?” Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said. “They’re well-coached. They stuck to their game plan. They went north on us. First period, actually, we had some chances, [but] not much velocity on the shots. I don’t know, we weren’t assertive enough. And then obviously the PK, which has been good all year, struggled tonight.”
Tocchet knows the Penguins. He was an assistant coach on former Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan’s staff and won two Stanley Cups. And he ran the power play.
Yes, the Penguins’ power play boasts Sidney Crosby, who is 23rd in NHL history with 191 power-play goals and scored one on Monday night. And, yes, there’s Evgeni Malkin, who is four spots below Crosby and has 185.
But the Flyers coach also hasn’t liked his group’s penalty kill the last five games, noting the structure. It was exposed to the utmost degree at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
“We’ve been running around lately,” he said. “We’re an aggressive diamond … and if you look at the goals, after the shot, two guys ran out of position, opens up the middle. Twice. Those are killers.”
The diamond pattern is just that, a diamond shape. It allows there to be a defender, usually a defenseman, in front of the goalie with the other defenseman as one of the points on the side of the diamond picking up someone in the circle, aka on the flank. There is one forward opposite that defenseman and another at the top of the diamond shape.
The aggressiveness comes with the unit moving together as one of the penalty killers puts pressure on the opposition’s power play. Does it leave open the middle of the ice and the person in the bumper? Sometimes, but an active stick and closing lanes are critical to this type of penalty kill.
“If you give them the flanker shots, you can live with it,” Tocchet said. “I think the [Bryan] Rust flanker, [Travis Sanheim’s] got to get out there. That’s his flex. He was backed in too much.
“He flexes out; his job is to take the weak side away so [Dan Vladař] can see it. Things like that. But that’s just, maybe that’s guys being tired, mentally tired. I don’t know.”
The Flyers’ penalty kill has been a strong suit for a while. Over the first 24 games, the Flyers had killed off 100% of the penalties they faced in 14 games, had allowed just one power-play goal in nine other games, and, before Monday night, had allowed two goals on the man advantage just once all season, against the Montreal Canadiens in a wild 5-4 shootout win in early November.
“All year, PK has been great for us,” captain Sean Couturier said. “Tonight we didn’t have it. They picked us apart. It happens. We’ve got to fix it and get back on track next game.”
The structure has fallen by the wayside a bit. The New York Islanders had the second-worst power play entering Friday’s game, and Anders Lee could stand in front of the net and deflect a point shot in. Against the New Jersey Devils, Timo Meier was allowed to crash the net down the middle and clean up a loose puck.
On Monday night, Crosby buried the puck from just above the slot “because we cheated on one of them,” Tocchet said. Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson carried the puck from the left to the right and down the boards, causing the Flyers to overcommit. It opened the ice for Rust, who sent a backhand pass to Crosby coming down the middle — and Crosby isn’t going to miss from there.
The Penguins added a third power-play tally after Malkin put a shot on goal, Kris Letang retrieved the rebound along the boards, and set up Tommy Novak for the shot past Vladař. The Flyers were out of their structure.
Initially, when Malkin shot the puck from the point, they collapsed into an I formation, meaning everyone straight down the middle. When the puck went to the boards, Owen Tippett went to him, which is fine, but Noah Juulsen and Nick Seeler were too low to step into Novak or play a possible pass to Ville Koivunen, who was sitting wide-open across the crease.
“They snap it around, and they get a lot of shots from the middle, and that’s what we’re trying to get our guys to do,” Tocchet said. “It’s actually a good learning lesson … get that shot in the middle.”