Équipe: 2022-23 Flyers de Philadelphie

Date de création initiale: 19 août 2022

Publié: 19 août 2022

Mode - plafond salarial: Basique

I wanna preface this by saying I don’t think this team will be a team that has legitimate playoff hopes. However, looking at this team, I think they have a chance to be more competitive than the penciled in 8th place that most people are giving them. Obviously most of this is contingent on the health of ellis and couterier, but the top 6 is not terrible and the defense is actually pretty decent despite not having any real superstar talent. I think the top 6 consists of 6 guys who are legitimate middle 6 players with a couple having top 6 potential. With the exception of Couterier who is a true number 1 2 way center, none of these guys are ppg players. However i don’t think its insane to say they could all be in the 45-65ish range in the right situation. The defense certainly includes some flawed players and there probably isnt much seperation between ur 3 pairs, but honestly if deangelo and ristolainen end up being your 4th and 5th best defenseman with deangelo qbing the pp, I think at least on paper you are pretty deep on the d end. You still lack a true number 1 defenseman, but I think when healthy both provorov and ellis would be decent 2nd defenseman on most teams, and sanheim after that is solid as well. Theres definitely a major dropoff in the bottom 6 forwards and the goaltending is still very unproven but Harts still young enough to turn it around. The long-term outlook is certainly not there with some of the stinker contracts and this team probably tears most of it down before seeing the playoffs again, but I think this team could be a lot more competitive at least this year than most people are giving it credit for. Obviously its a tough division and the front office decision making has been highly questionable, but as somoene whos not a fan of the team and not so intimately close to the situation I wouldnt be surprised if they ended up ahead of 1, 2, hell even 3 teams in the metro if everything broke right for them. Would love to hear some opinions on this. Am I completely lost on this one, is this team guaranteed to finish 8th in the metro or could they finish ahead of a couple of the other teams?