2. Flyers quite possibly didn’t improve as much as some people think... Niskanen didn’t exactly play much better than Gudas last year, goalie is relatively unproven and I have no idea who is backup is
Really I’m not super comfortable predicting their standings chances until I actually see some games, because like I said really the whole division has improved and everybody could be taking expected points away from everybody.
But until I see otherwise, I’ll always assume
1/2: Caps/Pens
2/3: someone else
Posts like this are my exhibit for the premise that the Flyers are under-rated. (I also saw an article where 8 of 9 forecasters had the Flyers missing the playoffs.) So, to me, the general consensus is that the Flyers are a non-playoff team or a playoff WC bubble team at best.
I think that's under-rated and here's why.
Niskanen isn't the main basis for predicting anything significantly better for the Flyers - he might help a bit, because the Flyers D is young and they haven't had an experienced vet with any track record of success for 5 years, but its more about the following ....
The 3 things that forecast a significant improvement for the Flyers are:
1) Goaltending. They went thru EIGHT goalies last year. Goaltending was chaotic and terrible on lots of nights and that doesn't just affect the goaltending numbers, it disrupts the team. Hart might be great, but even if he is only average, that's a 5-10 pt improvement just based on not having another record setting disaster year in net.
2) Coaching. AV, and the rest of the staff, are a huge upgrade over one of the worst coaches in the NHL - Hakstol, and an AHL-calibre interim in Gordon. That's a 5-10 point upgrade as well.
3) Roster depth and quality. The Flyers lost nothing and added a legit top 6 centre in Hayes. They also have a group of kids that have now got enough experience that they should be settling into their prime in Provorov, Konecny, Sanheim, and Lindblom. They also are at the point where the huge organizational depth is starting to produce actual NHLers to fill the gaps as needed. The AHL team is now stacked with NHL calibre depth - guys like Myers, Morin, Farabee, Frost and others would have been playing on a thinner Flyers team 3 years ago. That's good for ~5 points over last year.
The Flyers are a 95-105 point team. Almost certainly in the playoffs and maybe competing for the division. So, ya, they are being under-rated ... at least that's my take.
