The Flyers don’t have a true superstar skater. At least, that’s how the NHL Network’s August positional rankings read, and the lack of a name in those top-20 lists says plenty about where Philadelphia stands entering the 2026-27 season.
Dan Vladar was the lone Flyer to show up, landing at No. 8 among goalies. None of the team’s skaters made the cut at center, wing, or defense. That puts Philadelphia in a small group of clubs with no skater represented, even though the Flyers did have one thing going for them: they got back to the playoffs last season for the first time in six years without a true star up front or on the blue line.
The comparison that jumps out is Washington. The Capitals are in the same boat in one sense, with Logan Thompson as their only ranked player at No. 6 in goal.
But the rest of the picture looks different. Washington finished 2024-25 with a conference-best 111 points after a 91-point season that barely got them into the postseason the year before.
Philadelphia, meanwhile, made the playoffs last season with 98 points while the Capitals’ 95 weren’t enough.
That’s why the Flyers’ ceiling this year may hinge on whether one of their young pieces forces his way into star territory. The Capitals look better on paper, especially after adding Alex Tuch and trading for Jordan Kyrou to support Alex Ovechkin in what could be his last NHL season. Philadelphia, though, has a path to changing the conversation if the right player takes a leap.
Trevor Zegras is the obvious place to start. He was once on a star track in Anaheim, finishing second in Calder Trophy voting in 2022 and even landing on the cover of NHL 23 that fall as a 21-year-old who hadn’t yet played 100 NHL games.
His time with the Ducks turned messy after that, but the Flyers bought low and it paid off immediately. Zegras posted a career-high 26 goals and 67 points in his first season in Philadelphia.
The only real question with Zegras is where he belongs. The center-versus-wing debate could keep him from showing up in a top-20 positional ranking, but the talent is obvious. If anyone on this roster is most likely to break into star status, it’s him.
Matvei Michkov is another name that belongs in the same conversation. Some of the noise around him last season made it sound like he vanished, but the production was still there. After finishing fourth in Calder Trophy voting and making the All-Rookie Team in 2025, he followed up his rookie year with 20 goals and 51 points, down from 26 goals and 63 points, while playing nearly two minutes less per game under a new coach.
He’s only 21, he’s got the swagger, and he looks ready to hit training camp with a point to prove. A stronger season would put him back in the spotlight for the right reasons after a year that came with plenty of drama, some of which may or may not have been tied to his coach.
Then there’s Porter Martone, who already has the look of a future star. The 19-year-old forward put up 10 points in nine regular-season games and added five more in 10 playoff games after a huge season at Michigan State, where he had 50 points, including 25 goals, in 35 games as a freshman. He also suited up for Team Canada at the World Championships and recorded five points in 10 games, even getting time on the top line.
Martone may go through some growing pains in his first full NHL season, so this might not be the year he becomes the guy. But the raw ingredients are all there.
If you want the closest thing the Flyers have had to a star in recent years, Travis Konecny belongs in the discussion. Since the start of the 2021-22 season, his 325 points in 374 games rank 50th among NHL forwards, and he’s done it with some shaky help beside him.
And yes, Owen Tippett deserves a mention too. He’s been responsible for some of the Flyers’ best highlights over the past few seasons and has scored at least 20 goals in all four years in Philadelphia. If his shooting percentage ever climbs closer to 20% than his career 10.5%, the star talk around him could get a lot louder.
In Other News...
Flyers Fans Just Got Another Painful Draft Reminder
Another former Flyers second-round pick is taking the overseas route, as Samu Tuomaala continues his career in Sweden after injuries slowed his climb through the organization. Philadelphia drafted the winger in 2021, and he never really got the kind of runway teams hope for from a prospect taken that high, with his development interrupted early and his North American pro track never fully finding traction.
After a limited stretch in the AHL and a later move into the Dallas organization, Tuomaala has now landed with Linkoping HC in the SHL, where the clubs general manager is already talking up what he might bring. For Flyers fans, it is another reminder of how quickly draft value can slip away when injuries get in the way, especially when the names taken around a player start to look a lot more familiar in the NHL. [Read more 🡒]
Flyers Fans Wont Love How Much Spotlight The Capitals Are Getting
The leagues spotlight is leaning hard toward Washington again in 2026-27, with the Capitals landing 17 nationally televised games across TNT, ESPN, ABC, ESPN+, Hulu and Disney+. A big share of that attention comes from familiar marquee matchups, including the kind of rivalry dates the NHL knows it can sell on name recognition alone, and the broadcast slate even has a heavy dose of Pittsburgh built in with every meeting against the Penguins set for national air.
For the Flyers, the part that stings a little more is how one of those nationally featured dates falls on April 10 in Philadelphia, a game being framed as a possible farewell stage for Alex Ovechkin. Between the Ovechkin angle and the broader industry obsession with Washingtons biggest stars, the Flyers keep finding themselves on the edge of someone elses celebration, and this one could carry a little extra weight in a building that has seen plenty of those nights already. [Read more 🡒]
Flyers Re-Draft Twist Shows What This Young Core Might Be Missing
A fresh look back at the 2022 NHL Draft offers an interesting reminder of how quickly the Flyers young core could have been reshaped. In the kind of hindsight exercise that always sparks debate, Philadelphias re-do path points away from the original choice and toward a winger whose game has already started to translate from college to the NHL. For a roster still trying to sort out its long-term answers on the wing, it is the sort of alternate-history discussion that naturally circles back to what the Flyers have and what they still need.
The intrigue goes beyond one pick because the Flyers have already lived through the ripple effects of the Cutter Gauthier situation and the Jamie Drysdale trade, both of which helped change the shape of the clubs future. Snuggeruds emergence only sharpens the contrast, since his recent scoring run and early pro promise highlight the type of skill Philadelphia could use more of in its forward group. It does not rewrite what happened, but it does leave a lingering question about whether the Flyers may still be missing a cleaner fit for the core they are building. [Read more 🡒]