Will Flyers ‘take an axe’ to veteran core if season doesn’t turn around?
There isn’t a lot that has gone right for the Philadelphia Flyers this season. They sit with a record of 5-10-5 (despite Monday night’s win versus the Vancouver Canucks), and a lot of questions are being justifiably asked about the Flyers’ direction and if their current trajectory is a winning one.
This is year four of the team being overseen by president of hockey operations Keith Jones and general manager Daniel Briere. Coming off a playoff berth and subsequent first-round series win, expectations were raised for the Flyers by pundits and fans. That being said, Briere himself did make mention of a potential “step back” last summer – it was a hot topic – indicating that the internal expectations were much lower than those of the public. But it would be fair to say that nobody was expecting this much of a regression.
So what exactly has gone wrong?
Any way you cut it, the Flyers are not going to take the next step without a top-six center – full stop. The front office knows this, as their $90-million offer sheet to Anaheim Ducks center Leo Carlsson was indicative of that.
The Flyers have been heavily critiqued for not completely tanking and putting themselves in a position to draft a Carlsson, Connor Bedard or Macklin Celebrini themselves. It is a valid argument, as top-end centers are rarely moved in today’s NHL, and the top of the draft is the most likely place to get them – but it isn’t a guaranteed formula.
Yes, the Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks landed Bedard and Celebrini, respectively, via the draft, but their respective rebuilds aren’t exactly peaches and cream right now. Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson is set to address the local media on Wednesday due to his team’s putrid start, and the Sharks have lost seven of their last 10 games and sit four points back of a playoff spot.
The Ducks are an example of what a full teardown can look like in its best form, as they landed the likes of Carlsson and winger Beckett Sennecke in the top three of their respective draft classes. Rebuilding at its full extent isn’t a guaranteed formula, even if it increases your chances at landing high-end talent.
The Flyers chose a different path under Briere and Jones, which is fine, but there comes a point where you have to adapt. For better or for worse, the Flyers have overvalued many of their (abundance) of wingers, hanging onto the likes of Tyson Foerster, Travis Konecny and Owen Tippett (extending all three on eight-year contracts in the process over the last three years) despite heavy interest in all three of them on the trade front. The individual talent of all three forwards is well evaluated by the Flyers, but the sum of the parts does not equal in value on a Flyers squad that has a lot of redundancy on the wing.
Foerster, 24, has been particularly polarizing this season, as he has only registered three goals and five points through 19 games. The Flyers have held Foerster in high regard in the past, viewing him as borderline untouchable and handing him an eight-year, $56.8-million contract last summer that is set to kick in next year. On Pattison reported last week that Foerster is dealing with an injury; speaking with sources on Monday, Daily Faceoff was told that “everyone is dealing with bumps and bruises” and the sense was that it is no excuse for the player’s lackluster start.
Speaking with sources, DFO was told the veterans on the Flyers are the biggest issues right now. Suggesting “the play of (Porter) Martone and (Matvei) Michkov isn’t the problem,” sources explicitly called out names like forwards Konecny, Sean Couturier and Trevor Zegras along with defensemen Travis Sanheim and Cam York for not pulling their weight and helping the team close out tight games.
DFO reported last month that the team would approach Konecny about waiving his no-movement clause if things didn’t turn around – that seems to still be the case. There is a sense that the 29-year-old winger has no interest in leaving Philadelphia, but the overall vibe speaking with team sources since the beginning of the year is that the team is not happy with the player going back to last spring’s playoffs. Keeping Konecny through the rebuild was to avoid bottoming out and keeping the team (and culture) competitive while the newer group was ushered in; if that isn’t happening, keeping the 2015-first-round pick is rather meaningless.
Even if Konecny were to hold firm and enforce his no-movement clause, the Flyers will look to take an axe to their nucleus of veteran players if the season doesn’t turn around, sources told DFO. Couturier won’t get you much on the trade front given his age and contract; despite his up and down season, Sanheim is too important to this team to move (unless you want to tank); Zegras just signed a four-year extension this summer and is a year removed from an impressive inaugural campaign with the team and still has 14 points this season.
That brings us to Tippett, who has five years remaining on his contract that carries an AAV of $6.2 million and contains a 10-team, no-trade list until 2030. The Flyers have valued Tippett highly and kept him despite continuous interest from other teams, but given the state of the team and the outlook of the roster, he may be a victim of a “numbers game” on the wing and be a trade candidate as we approach the deadline.
York, 25, is in the second season of a five-year contract he signed in the summer of 2025 that carries an AAV of $5.15 million. There is no denying that it has been a rough year for York and, speaking with sources, the team is certainly open to moving him if the right deal were to come along. York has struggled this season but could certainly be a good second-pair defenseman on a contending team, especially considering his contract in a rising-cap world.
Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen has seemingly been in trade talks for three years at this point and has battled injuries over that period. The Flyers could’ve gotten a late, first-round pick last year for Ristolainen, but it would’ve involved taking back a less-than-ideal contract to facilitate the transaction. They ultimately made the playoffs and had Ristolainen play a major role in the process – a good trade off from an objective stand point.
It would be outright shocking if Ristolainen is a Flyer beyond this year’s Trade Deadline, as sources indicated to DFO recently that he is “their guy” to move. Even if Ristolainen only garners a second or third-round pick via trade, not settling for anything less than first-pick value was a fair stance by the Flyers last season and ultimately ended up with a playoff berth.
It’s all well and good that the Flyers are ready to fire sale if need be, but that doesn’t do anything for the here and now. Most teams are looking to add to their teams in a parity-filled NHL, with future assets being on the table as opposed to “hockey trades” with player-for-player swaps. The Flyers are guilty of this too, and the league is filled with teams overvaluing their own players.
Yes, trades are difficult to make right now, but that doesn’t give the Flyers a pass for another season that may end up in a “punt.” Banking on free agency in 2026 was clearly a misfire, and the Flyers were left on the sidelines with no major additions to show for it. They need to be accountable for that, along with overvaluing their own players and trusting that their “process” could ameliorate organically from within.
That being said, making trades from a position of weakness won’t solve anything, as clubs dealing with the Flyers currently are trying to pick the bones and play off desperation. It sucks to say, but the play right now for Philadelphia is to sit in your mess and ride out the season. In a league where virtually every team is trying to make the playoffs, Briere and company need to zig while everyone else is trying to zag and corner the trade market as pure sellers.
Deal as many players as you can for assets; figure out who is part of the solution and part of the problem; address why the veterans aren’t playing at the same level as last season; and, above all else, get a centerman in the system that has top-six potential.
As for head coach Rick Tocchet, there is no denying that he deserves criticism chucked his way. Is it somewhat overblown at times? Probably, but he has done himself no favors in trying to avoid it, as his unsavvy-media presence has been on full display.
At this point, firing Tocchet is not something the Flyers have discussed, sources told DFO. Honestly, it probably wouldn’t change much results wise, as the roster is clearly flawed, but the discussion is valid from an optics-based lens. Connecting dots and more speculatively speaking, Tocchet’s job will be more under the microscope at the end of the season – providing things continue on the current trajectory.
So in conclusion, what has to be done? Stop overvaluing players, address the leadership group, analyze the coaching and, for the love of everything right in this world, get a center by any means necessary – even if it means taking a “loss” in a trade from a pure-value perspective. It isn’t as doom and gloom as the record indicates, but the time is now for the Flyers to right the ship and correct the mistakes they have made to this point.
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