The Flyers’ 2025-26 schedule opens with a quick reminder that there won’t be much time to breathe.
Training camp begins on Sept. 17, and the regular season follows on Sept. 30, making this the first time in franchise history Philadelphia will start a season in September. It also means a shorter offseason after the Flyers reached the second round of the playoffs, with only 143 days between their last postseason game and opening night. That’s a month less than the year before, when they had 174 days between games.
Nobody in the organization is likely to complain. That’s the tradeoff for being a contender: fewer quiet months, more hockey deep into June.
The early stretch won’t exactly be gentle, either. Philadelphia opens against the Penguins and then gets the Hurricanes three days later, before Carolina returns to town eight days after that.
Eight of the Flyers’ first 13 opponents made the playoffs last season, and four of those teams got to the second round. It’s a demanding first month, but it should tell a lot about what this group is made of.
One other date that stands out early is Oct. 24 against the Ducks.
The back end of the schedule brings its own pressure. Eight of the Flyers’ final 10 games are against division opponents, a stretch that could shape their postseason fate.
And then there’s the possibility that the last game of the season carries a different kind of weight entirely.
Alex Ovechkin’s final regular-season game could come in Philadelphia
Ovechkin’s future still isn’t settled, just as it wasn’t last offseason. He’s already played well over 1,500 games and broken the NHL’s goal-scoring record, but another milestone sits out there: 1,000 career goals.
He’s at 929 now, and reaching that number could take at least two and a half to three more seasons. His scoring pace has dipped a bit, but he’s still putting up more than 30 goals a year.
If that chase matters to him, retirement isn’t around the corner.
Washington’s offseason moves also suggest Ovechkin wasn’t the only one thinking about another run. The Capitals traded for Jordan Kyrou and Alex Tuch, and they added Vincent Desharnais and Boone Jenner. Those additions leave them with just 75K in cap space, but that’s a price they’ll gladly pay if it helps fuel another postseason push for Ovechkin.
If this does turn out to be his last season, the Flyers may get the final regular-season stop on the tour. The two teams close the schedule with one more meeting, and it comes after they’ll already have played nine days earlier. Both games are in Philadelphia.
That would fit a career that has been especially productive against the Flyers. Sidney Crosby has the most career goals against Philadelphia with 60, and Ovechkin is right behind him with 54.
He also has 86 career points against the Flyers, which ranks ninth all-time. Usually, he finds a way to leave his mark; he’s been held pointless in a season series only once, during the 2019-20 season.
Ovechkin hasn’t said what comes next, so nobody will know for sure whether that game is the end until it arrives. But if it is, Philadelphia would be a fitting place for one last regular-season farewell.
In Other News...
Flyers Just Made Their Trevor Zegras Commitment Official
Trevor Zegras arrived in Philadelphia with plenty of intrigue, and his first season with the Flyers gave the organization a pretty clear answer about where he fits in the long term. Acquired from Anaheim last summer, he quickly became one of the most productive players on the roster, setting career highs across the board while handling a versatile top-six role that had him moving between center and wing as the season went on.
The bigger takeaway for the Flyers is how much Zegras mattered when the games got tighter. He played 81 games, led the team in playoff points and delivered the kind of all-around offensive season that made a commitment feel inevitable, even before the front office made it official. For a club trying to build something more stable up front, keeping a player who can drive play in a few different spots is a meaningful piece of the puzzle. [Read more 🡒]
Flyers May Finally Have A Goalie Prospect Fans Can Believe In
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The bigger question for Philadelphia is whether that promise can eventually translate into something the organization can actually count on. The Flyers are set to open the upcoming season with Dan Vladar and Joseph Woll as their NHL tandem, but Zavragins rise gives the front office a potential long-term answer if his development keeps moving in the right direction. For a team that has waited a while to feel good about a goalie prospect, that alone is worth watching. [Read more 🡒]
Brieres Boldest Flyers Move Just Raised A Bigger Offseason Question
Daniel Briere has spent the summer trying to show the Flyers are not content with another quiet offseason, and the front office has already made that point in more than one way. Philadelphia has added a few pieces in free agency, but the bigger message came from the aggressive push for Leo Carlsson and the extension for Trevor Zegras, moves that signaled a willingness to be bold rather than merely patient.
What makes the next stretch interesting is that the Flyers still have room to keep working, with cap flexibility left to maneuver and a roster that could still change before the season begins. Briere has made clear the door is open for more if the right opportunity appears, which leaves Philadelphia in a familiar but more intriguing place than usual: active enough to matter, yet still waiting on the move that would tell everyone how far this offseason is really going to go. [Read more 🡒]