The Flyers are rolling out a lineup Thursday night against the Rangers that comes with one especially notable wrinkle: Cole Knuble is getting a real shot down the middle.
According to NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jordan Hall, Philadelphia’s forward group at morning skate was set up like this:
Trevor Zegras - Christian Dvorak - Travis Konecny
Porter Martone - Cole Knuble - Owen Tippett
Tyson Foerster - Noah Cates - Matvei Michkov
Denver Barkey - Sean Couturier - Noel Acciari
The top line stays intact, with Dvorak centering Zegras and Konecny. The bigger story is the reshuffling underneath it, where Knuble moves into the second-line center spot with Tippett and Martone on his wings.
That is a major assignment for a player who has only seven games of NHL experience, but it’s not completely foreign territory. Knuble spent much of his college career at Notre Dame playing center, so the Flyers are not asking him to learn the position from scratch. Still, this is a significant jump in responsibility.
Knuble was also seen working on faceoffs with Sean Couturier before the game, another sign that Philadelphia is serious about testing him in the middle.
The setup around him could help. Tippett brings speed and size, while Martone gives the line another physical presence.
That combination should ease some of the burden on Knuble, whose hockey sense and two-way responsibility have stood out. There’s also the possibility that centering the line keeps him in areas where his fearless style won’t lead to as many heavy collisions as he’s taken at times this season.
The move, though, comes with a cost elsewhere in the lineup.
Martone is being bumped up from the line he’s shared with Michkov and Noah Cates, and that trio had started to show some real chemistry. Martone enters the game with three goals and five assists, and a good portion of that production has come with Michkov driving the play or making the difference when it mattered. Michkov has four goals in his last five games, and the two have also found some rhythm together on a power play that has shown signs of life over the last handful of games.
That makes the change a little hard to square. Tyson Foerster, who has three goals and an assist in 16 games, slides onto the third line with Michkov and Cates. It may create more balance across the forward group, but it also disrupts what had been one of Philadelphia’s most reliable offensive combinations.
On defense, the Flyers are sticking with the same pairings they used against the Wild. Travis Sanheim is with Jamie Drysdale, Cam York is paired with Oliver Bonk, and Simon Benoit and Nick Seeler remain together on the third pair.
David Jiricek is once again a healthy scratch, his seventh straight game out of the lineup. The Flyers are clearly hesitant to dress him because of his defensive struggles this season, but they also do not appear eager to place him on waivers and send him to Lehigh Valley for more minutes. For now, he remains stuck in a tough spot, with no obvious path forward.
In goal, Joseph Woll gets the start. It will be his first appearance in more than a week, after he played Oct. 28 in Philadelphia’s 5-2 loss to Washington. Woll also has a strong recent memory against the Rangers, stopping 40 of 43 shots in a 4-3 win for the Leafs last season.
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The uncertainty has only grown because York has dealt with recent challenges, including playing through injury, which has added another layer to how the Flyers evaluate his future. There are no confirmed trade destinations, but Detroit, San Jose and Chicago have been mentioned as possible fits, leaving Philadelphia with a decision that says as much about its defensive direction as it does about York himself. [Read more 🡒]