Projecting the Flyers’ Special Teams Units for 2019-20
Possibly, the Flyers greatest flaw last season: the poor play of their special teams’ units. The struggle from the penalty kill was to be expected as they have not finished higher than 20th in penalty kill percentage since the 2013-14 season.
Yet, last season seemed especially frustrating as they were at the bottom of the league for much of the season and ended up 26th at 78.5 percent.
Penalty Kill Defenseman
This summer, Chuck Fletcher went out and acquired two veteran, defensively-minded defenseman in Matt Niskanen and Justin Braun; both, Niskanen (220:40 TOI) and Braun (178:50 TOI) played heavy shorthanded minutes last season. The two figure to join the Flyers’ top penalty killer in Ivan Provorov who logged over 238 minutes on the penalty kill.
While Provorov, Niskanen, and Braun are all sure things to play key minutes on the PK, who the Flyers choose as their fourth defenseman is still up for debate. Last season, Robert Hagg was fourth among Flyers defenseman in shorthanded time on ice but will likely not be in the Flyers’ defensive depth chart with the additions of Niskanen and Braun. The most viable option to replace Hagg should be Travis Sanheim. While he played just 49 minutes on the penalty kill last season, he seems to be the only option that makes sense.
Projected Penalty Kill Defenseman Units
Niskanen – Provorov
Braun – Sanheim
Penalty Kill Forwards
Based on their shorthanded time on ice last season, Sean Couturier (184 minutes) and Scott Laughton (183 minutes) figure to be key cogs on the Flyers’ penalty kill again in 2019. After Couturier and Laughton, Giroux and Lindblom came in at 3rd and 4th, respectively, as the most used forwards while shorthanded. With the addition of Kevin Hayes, who logged 126 minutes on the penalty kill, would be a likely option to replace Giroux and give him an extra breather after logging top-line minutes.
Much like the situation on defense, the last spot among the forwards is still up for debate. We could see Oskar Lindblom or Michael Raffl get another shot or new addition Tyler Pitlick come in and take the final spot.
Projected Penalty Kill Forward Units
Couturier – Pitlick
Hayes – Laughton
Powerplay Units
While the Flyers struggles on the penalty kill have been ongoing for a while, their poor performance on the power play was unprecedented. Especially with just how much talent they have on their power-play units. A Flyers team that usually finishes at least in the top half in power-play efficiency, dropped down to 23rd at 17.1 percent. With elite offensive talent in Giroux, Voracek, van Riemsdyk, Couturier, and Gostisbehere, it’s difficult to understand just how much they struggled with a man advantage.
As they enter this season, they will be without a long-time presence in their powerplay unit in Wayne Simmonds who will likely be replaced by new addition Kevin Hayes who flourishes in front of the net.
The Flyers’ first powerplay unit should look the same as last season. There is simply too much talent for them to struggle like they did last season. The combination of four forwards in Giroux, Voracek, Couturier, and van Riemsdyk along with defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere should start out the season as the Flyers first unit and hopefully, with much better results.
Projected First Powerplay Unit
Giroux – Couturier – JVR – Voracek
Gostisbehere
The Flyers’ second unit is one where we should see some changes. It goes without saying how much the Flyers’ second unit has struggled over the past few years and the need for them to finally start to carry some of the load. Adding a good net-front presence in Kevin Hayes should pay dividends for a guy like Travis Konecny who will be ripping shots from the circle looking to score and create rebounds.
Along with Hayes and Konecny, third-year players in Lindblom and Patrick will likely get the other two spots and hopefully take another step forward to get the second unit going.
Another area where we could see a change is Travis Sanheim taking over the second unit responsibilities from Ivan Provorov, who we have seen is a better 5v5 scorer. Sanheim, however, took a giant leap forward last season and looks to be an ideal player to run the second unit and let Provorov focus on his heavy responsibilities as the Flyers’ number one defenseman.
Projected Second Powerplay Unit
Lindblom – Hayes – Patrick – Konecny
Sanheim
Along with the changes in personnel, both the penalty kill and powerplay will be under new leadership with Michel Therrien taking over the powerplay and Mike Yeo coaching the penalty kill.
On paper, the Flyers special teams look poised to take a step forward with the additions of Niskanen and Braun to the penalty kill. Meanwhile, the powerplay will hopefully be able to rebound with some small changes in personnel and some better luck in 2019-20.
Featured Image: Eric Hartline
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Categorized:Flyers