Andrew Noel, Editor

The Flyers self-declared rebuild is well underway, as the team has been in the making for two and a half seasons now. With the trade deadline coming up on Friday, now is a good time to look at the rebuild so far and evaluate what the team still has to do in order to get back in Stanley Cup contention.

Let’s start by looking at the Flyers roster in the present. In goal, Sam Errson seems to be a future backup at the very least, or maybe even a low-end starter. The farm is well stocked with Carson Bjarnsson and Egor Zavargin being two of the best goalie prospects in the sport.

On the blue line, Travis Sanheim and Cam York have established themselves as core members of the Flyers defensive team. Jaime Drysdale has also made encouraging steps in his development, and Oliver Bonk remains one of the more underrated defensive prospects in the sport. It’s not a Stanley Cup winning core, but it’s certainly on the road towards becoming one.

The most important position in hockey is arguably center, and center is without a doubt the Flyers’ biggest weakness. Noah Cates is a solid contributor, and Jett Luchenko and Denver Barkey are both good prospects. However, none of them will be the difference between winning a Stanley Cup and not. Center is no doubt the biggest area of need, and consequently the biggest thing holding the Flyers back from contending.

On the wings, the Flyers are almost set. Travis Konecny is on his way to being a Flyers legend. Owen Tippett has developed very well, and Matevi Michkov has been everything he was advertised to be. 

To make things more exciting, the Flyers have six picks in the first two rounds of the year’s NHL draft. This means that an already solid prospect pool will be made even better. There is still work to do, but it is fair to say that rookie general manager Danny Briere has the Flyers in a lot better position than he did when he took over the role two and a half years ago. Rebuilds are long and often complicated. Although the job isn’t done yet, there is no doubt that the Flyers are as close as they have been to contending since beginning the rebuild.