The Philadelphia Flyers are a top 5 team in the league

[aufheben]

Retained a million on Gudas. Capitals got over $4 million in much-needed cap space and got a decent third-pairing RHD on the side, the Flyers got a veteran top-4 RHD that they also badly needed. Solid trade for both teams.

What do the Flyers even need at this point?

 

[holy]

Flyers fan base being loud and obnoxious has always been good for the league imo. I welcome it back as long as they don’t slap the **** out of my team anymore.

 

[BruinLVGA]

What is Nolan Patrick timeline to come back?

 

[absolute garbage]

AV doing AV things. The roster is solid too though. Hayes' and JVR's production is pretty abysmal for the money they are being paid though.

 

[Dooble08]

What is Nolan Patrick timeline to come back?

Unfortunately no timeline. He still get's migraines. All he said when asked was "if I wasn't getting them, I'd be playing." He is practicing, yet isn't taking contact yet. He plans on playing this year though.

 

[BruinLVGA]

Unfortunately no timeline. He still get's migraines. All he said when asked was "if I wasn't getting them, I'd be playing." He is practicing, yet isn't taking contact yet. He plans on playing this year though.

Wow that's harsh for him. Flyers have a good team, scoring in the league is up, this is probably the best environment for him to gain some confidence by increasing production. Kid isn't lucky, but I hope he's right about being able play this year. He seems nothing but a likeable individual.

 

[KingsFan7824]

This post is just a whole bunch of nothing. You're really grasping at straws trying to make it sound like this is somehow unsustainable or that it's not telling the whole story. You conveniently go back to a very specific date to make your point but why not go back another week to 11/10/19 when they were again 6th in points %? You can't just remove a 5 game winning streak from their record and then stop right after they lost 4 in a row and pretend like you're being objective about what this team really is. Their record is what it is and I'm sure they're bound to have a rough stretch of 5-6 games at some point but guess what, they'll probably also have more hot streaks too. I don't know if they'll end up 5th or 6th in the NHL when all is said and done but I fully expect them somewhere around the top 10 and very possibly top 3 in their division.

We don't know the whole story yet. Why not go back to 11/3/19 when they were tied for 21st? It doesn't matter to me if the Flyers finish 2nd, 7th, or 20th, so I'm not grasping to prove anything. A 9-1-4 home record through 14 games is exceptional though, and that I would say is unsustainable. That's basically equivalent to TB's home record last year. Better than Nashville's home record in 17-18. Unless of course the Flyers are that good. Which we won't know for sure until actual games get played in the future.

I didn't say the Flyers were good or bad. Just throwing some stats out there, and stats can be used to say pretty much anything, or looked at in any way. No different than taking a snapshot on the particular day that they sit 5th in total points and calling them a top 5 team. They might be, they might not be. The Presidents trophy winner, or even the Cup winner, are not necessarily the "best" team(s) in the league either.

 

[Rich Nixon]

What do the Flyers even need at this point?

Not a lot, really. Health and consistency and guys playing to their potential.

I mean, right now they have a multiple-President’s Trophy-winning coach behind the bench. They have a 35-goal-scorer on the 4th line and they’re trying to make a former 65-point defenseman work on the third pairing beside a 6’5” 22-year-old who skates like the wind. Their best defenseman is a minute-gobbling all-situations 23-year-old on a bargain deal who just found phenomenal chemistry with a veteran newcomer and is playing the best hockey of his career.

Their big offseason FA is a third-line center who helped take their PK from bottom-5 in the league to top-5. Two of their best scorers are under the age of 23. They have two more even-younger first rounders up there contributing. All those guys are sprinkled in with a handful of veteran All-Stars and the guy who will likely win the Selke someday. Oh yeah, and their captain is (perhaps quietly) one of the 10 best forwards of the past decade and he’s hardly old at 31.

Their highly-touted baby goaltender had three rough games and is posting basically a .930 since. Their veteran backup has even stolen a few games.

And somehow they aren’t even firing on all cylinders yet...some of their biggest guns have yet to get rolling, they’ve stumbled into some games and blown a few late leads, the PP has gone cold lately. Even despite those things, they’re a formidable team. I’m pretty even-keel about my team, and the whole league really, but this group doesn’t have any holes anymore. If it stays healthy and keeps playing the same as it has, it’s easily in the playoffs, not as a WC. If Giroux or two of Ghost, Voracek, and JVR heat up, they’re a serious contender this year and beyond.

This is the deepest and perhaps the best Flyers team you’ve seen in a decade, and this is what all that hype for their prospect pool was. People just expected the breakthrough sooner (because it’s HF) and didn’t realize the things that were holding them back, and weren't paying attention as all those obstacles disappeared.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

they've had a great November.

 

[JasonRoseEh]

The East has been the dominant conference for 5 years running now.

 

[rodney dangerfield]

give it time. theyll collapse soon and go on a long losing streak. legit happens every year.

 

[ManwithNoIdentity]

A decent coach with a system that fits the rosters usage?

 

[NuxFan09]

They were my early pick for the Cup in late October. Still sticking with it. Continue the trend of teams busting looooong Cupless streaks.

 

[SelltheTeamFrancesco]

All Alain Vigneault does is win. In 15 seasons as a head coach he has only missed the playoffs 3 times. They might not be able to keep up their current pace but they will be in the playoffs.

 

[MacDonald4MVP]

Ditching Hakstol and Gordon for a coach with basic competence is huge.

Hakstol is an absolute trash of a coach.
For the longest time flyers used to have absolute trash of a supporting cast.
And seemingly by doing their best to address these issues their top players have been put in a position to succeed and its working.

 

[EdmFlyersfan]

Top 3 reasons:

1) All their coaches have vast NHL experience now (Haktol fired)
2) Hayes & Niskanen help balance the lines with skill and veteran presence
3) Provorov starting to play like his potential indicates

Honorable mention to tandem of Hart/Elliot

 

[ALLCAPSALLTHETIME]

Philly is good again. Now, I am supposed to dislike them.

I guess if they meet in the playoffs, that'll happen.

Still, I have a certain fondness for them. Love their goal horn, too.

 

[BrindamoursNose]

give it time. theyll collapse soon and go on a long losing streak. legit happens every year.

Not under this coach, obviously.

 

[BrindamoursNose]

But anywho:

I wish I had the energy to dig up my posts/some other posters' stuff, but I've been calling for Philly going to Round 2 this year since free agency.

While so many people were enamored with NYR and NJD's new, shiny toys they neglected to realize Philly was still twice as talented top to bottom.

AV was a big add, some guys stepping up in the NHL finally was a big deal (and no Nolan Patrick either, yet), and Elliot/Hart as a tandem has been huge. Oh, and the additions on defense (both prospects and Niskanen/Braun) have been huge.

 

[Karl Eriksson]

Ghost was holding them back

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

No. No they are not

 

[Heldig]

The East has been the dominant conference for 5 years running now.

Really? Not doubting but I would like to see what data/categories you are using to determine this dominance?

 

[KoozNetsOff 92]

They have been playing well and yes are top 5 in the standings right now. However, assuming every team is healthy, I'd pretty easily take caps, pens, canes, bruins and tampa over them in a playoff series and that's just off the top of my head in the east.

 

[phillydownsouth]

f*** yeah. Go Flyers. Be scared

Tables have turned in the east.

 

[FourRings]

I barely consider them a top 5 team in the metro tbh.

Who do you consider to be better than them? They are easily top-5 and are in the conversation for top 3.