Lace ‘Em Up
As season begins, Flyers face questions up and down depth chart
PHILADELPHIA » Younger and faster, deeper through the middle, different in goal, the 20172018 Flyers will resume their never-ending search for NHL fulfillment Wednesday night in San Jose.
In 82 games, and not a shift earlier, the only answer that matters will be revealed. In 82 games, it will be revealed if his three-year project has yielded Dave Hakstol’s best NHL team.
“That,” the Flyers’ coach said, “remains to be seen.” And his opinion? “That,” the Flyers’ coach said, “remains to be seen.”
That kind of being how sports work, it’s true: The Flyers will have their strengths or flaws revealed only in ice rinks, not in printed projections, betting lines or general hockey chitchat. But as he completed his third NHL preseason over the weekend, Hakstol was OK with sharing at least one view of what’s next. And there is something about his team that causes him excitement.
“Absolutely,” he said. “It’s nothing in particular. I love the level of camp. I like the demeanor of our players. And thus far, the work level has been good.”
Hakstol has had one team good enough to reach the playoffs and another inconsistent enough to re h exasperation. But it was that upheaval, and the resulting training-camp dynamic, that can straighten the Flyers’ crooked path.
Five rookies were in the Flyers’ traveling party to California, including three first-year defensemen and 19-year-old center Nolan Patrick, the No. 2 player selected overall in the last draft. That was an indicator of roster upheaval, but also a reflection of a newer, important injection of in-house competition.
“I think I see a renewed energy there that maybe wasn’t there during times last year,” Hakstol said. “So I think competition, young people, young players have a way of bringing out the best in competitive people. And I think that’s the case.”
That will serve as the Flyers’ stump speech at least until they can be defined by a record. And considering that they often looked talented last season, but just as often looked tired and disinterested, it will be a workable, reasonable position.
Enough of the core that made them a 2016 playoff team has remained that it can all benefit from the injection of youth two
years later.
“I think we have a boatload of skill from the first line to the fourth line, whoever is in on any given night,” Wayne Simmonds said. “I obviously don’t know what’s going to happen. We are confident in here and in every single guy we have had dress. We are going to be ready to go. Our plan is to come in and play hard and do what we can do.”
With the standard anticipation of shift-to-shift fluctuations, here is how the Flyers will attack the NHL, at least beginning at 10:30 Wednesday night:
n Sean Couturier will center Jake Voracek and captain Claude Giroux, who will make a sharp turn from center to the left wing.
n Patrick, who did not score a goal but was hardly out of place in the preseason, will center Jordan Weal and Simmonds.
n Valtteri Filppula, who arrived from Tampa Bay late last season to provide depth at center, will be surrounded by Dale Weise and Travis Konecny.
n Scott Laughton, who displayed some exhibition-season spark, will be between Michael Raffl and rookie Taylor Leier.
Rookie defensemen Robert Hagg, Samuel Morin and Travis Sanheim will be on the early roster, the Flyers carrying eight defensemen. That includes Shayne Gostisbehere, who left their final preseason game early with an upperbody situation.
Ivan Provorov and Andrew MacDonald will be a defensive paring, as will Brandon Manning and Radko Gudas. When healthy, Gostisbehere will work with Hagg.
Giroux, Voracek, Simmonds and Gostisbehere will return to their top power-play unit spots, with Filppula replacing Schenn. But the second power-play crowd of Weal, Patrick, Couturier, Provorov and Konecny was the more impressive of the units in the preseason.
The goaltending will be split between Michal Neuvirth and Brian Elliott, who arrived as a free agent from Calgary. At age 32, Elliott is more reasonably cap-priced and less likely to stress over sharing a job than the departed Steve Mason.
Jori Lehtera, acquired in the offseason for draft picks and Brayden Schenn, will add forward depth.
When right, that is a potentially successful roster. Vegas odds say the Flyers will be close to, but fail to reach the playoffs. The turning point likely will be the readiness, or lack of it, of the five first-year players, the most the Flyers have had to start a season since 1992.
“We are going to have a number of rookies,” Ron Hextall said, “and we expect them to make big contributions.”
Hakstol is no longer the essential rookie dragged by Hextall from behind the bench at the University of North Dakota and into the NHL. He has had two-plus seasons to prepare a presentable hockey side. The competition for jobs in training camp was a signal that the depth and the competitive level were high.
“That’s a sign of continuing,” Hakstol said, “to push in the right direction.”
Three years later, he’s just not ready to project how far.