The Flyers didn’t leave training camp with much mystery, and that’s exactly the problem.
By the time the season opened, Philadelphia had already settled into a “preset mindset,” as Danny Briere put it before the year began. That approach may have felt practical in a shortened camp with only two preseason games for veterans, but it also left the Flyers with almost no room to reward the players who actually forced the issue.
“You almost have to come in with a preset mindset,” he said. “A couple things you tweak here or there if there’s injuries, but you don’t have six or seven games to give your young guys. If we kept playing Knuble and Luchanko, they may have snuck in.”
That line has aged quickly.
Cole Knuble and Jett Luchanko were the two forwards who made the strongest case to stick. Denver Barkey’s injury opened a door, and Nikita Grebenkin landing on IR created another one.
In theory, that should have given Philadelphia a chance to keep one more useful forward around. Instead, the Flyers leaned into the structure they had already mapped out.
There was logic behind the caution. Briere and the organization wanted those players in the NHL only if they were truly going to stay there.
Luchanko has already bounced around to a handful of different teams in the last calendar year, and Knuble could probably use more time and runway in Lehigh Valley. That part makes sense.
But it still feels hard to justify the way the Flyers handled the first stretch of the season. A usable 13th forward like Knuble or Luchanko might have mattered in those first four games. At the very least, it would have given the staff another option without forcing the same names into the lineup over and over again.
Luchanko probably made the cleanest sense. He can play center, he has some NHL experience, and Barkey had been lined up there in camp.
More than that, his speed could have brought something different to a transition game that has looked flat. It also would have sent a clear message that camp performance actually meant something.
Instead, Garrett Wilson has been the answer, and that feels like a step backward.
It was good to see Wilson get into three games last season after his long stretch away from the NHL, and he’s clearly done the work in the AHL with the Phantoms. Still, he’s not an NHL player. The Flyers should have stopped at the feel-good part.
What makes that choice sting more is the timing. Philadelphia didn’t even have a healthy forward available to make a change in the second game of the season after getting beat badly by their biggest rival in the home opener.
Even getting Wilson in there with fresh legs in the second half of a back-to-back would have made more sense. Instead, the Flyers were boxed in.
That lack of flexibility could carry into next year, too. The younger players may now walk into camp feeling like they have to climb over a preset depth chart before the competition even starts.
Or maybe the Flyers swing the other way and open things up. That’s a conversation for later.
For now, Luchanko still looks like a name worth revisiting soon. The center group isn’t producing much offense, and he’s already shown he can hold his own at the NHL level.
Alex Bump is another example of why camp and preseason should matter. He did not earn a roster spot, has already been a healthy scratch once, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he’s back in Lehigh Valley soon after the addition of Michael Bunting.
The Flyers mostly knew the 12 forwards they wanted. The real decision was the extra one, and Wilson shouldn’t have been it.
The same issue is showing up on defense, only louder.
Rasmus Ristolainen is already dealing with a hand injury, and David Jiricek was badly exposed by Pontus Holmholm in one of several rough moments through his first two games. Simon Benoit is what he is at this point, and with Ristolainen out, the Flyers are stuck using both Benoit and Jiricek. That’s not a comfortable place to be.
Oliver Bonk deserves mention here, too. He pushed enough in camp to make a real case as one of the team’s better six defensemen. But the organization’s plan was always going to favor more seasoning in the AHL, and there’s a reasonable long-term argument for that.
Still, the current version of the blue line is hard to watch. Travis Sanheim and Nick Seeler are the only defenders consistently doing their jobs. Jamie Drysdale and Cam York have both left plenty to be desired early in the season.
Bonk wasn’t going to get a clean path with Benoit already in the mix and Jiricek needing waivers. Even so, Philadelphia might have been better served adding another veteran defenseman to push those spots harder. The Flyers are reportedly looking for depth on the back end now, but after this start, they’ve already lost some leverage.
That’s the bigger theme here. The Flyers’ early-season problems look a lot like the problems they created in camp. There wasn’t enough juice, enough competition, or enough willingness to keep the door open a little longer.
Maybe a couple days off and some practice time will steady things. Maybe this all gets forgotten by Halloween.
Or maybe the way camp was handled will hang over the Flyers all year.
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Flyers Already Face Early Pressure In A Game That Could Shift Everything
The Flyers are already feeling the weight of an ugly opening stretch, and the timing hardly helps with Ottawa up next. A slow start was always going to invite scrutiny, but this one has been especially hard to ignore, with Philadelphia searching for traction while the schedule keeps offering little room to breathe.
The recent addition of Michael Bunting gives the lineup a bit more grit and some short-term help, but it is not the kind of move that changes the larger picture by itself. What comes next matters because the Flyers need more than a quick patch, and this upcoming run could say a lot about whether the early frustrations are just a stumble or the start of something much bigger. [Read more 🡒]