September 29, 2026
James Lang/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Dan Vladar and the Flyers' next journey begins Wednesday night.
The noise never stopped, and the chants continuously echoed through the building until captain Sean Couturier took the last step down the tunnel.
The Philadelphia Flyers left the ice, swept out of the second round by the eventual Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes, but they weren't met with indifferent silence or aggravated boos, which had become the bitter and apathetic norm for so many years prior.
They were met with cheers and a standing ovation from an Xfinity Mobile Arena, to which they met with their own raising of their sticks in salute.
It was a final "thank you" from a city that finally got to rally behind them again. Because finally, they had a reason to.
The 2025-26 Philadelphia Flyers came together at nearly the final hour, and patched together a rally into the playoffs, led heavily by a young core that was ready to meet the moment.
Trevor Zegras revitalized his career as a star playmaker, Jamie Drysdale took a major step into his own as a complete defenseman, Travis Sanheim stepped into the Olympic spotlight to gain traction as one of the NHL's better blueliners, and a youth movement that went into overdrive with the late arrival of Porter Martone, plus continually stellar goaltending from Dan Vladar as one of the best free-agent signings of last summer, all took the Flyers into the postseason for the first time in five years and then past the rival Pittsburgh Penguins in a first round return for the ages.
But above all, they brought the distinct thrill of good, meaningful hockey back to Philly. The arena filled up again in a sea of orange, the "Let's go Flyers" chants swelled, and when Cam York wired that OT winner in Game 6 to the back of the net, and sent his stick launching into the seats, there was no louder place in the world.
Now the 2026-27 Flyers, who are largely the same group and will be leaning on continued internal growth, face the next test (and a tricky one): following it all up with even better.
If they are going to reach for higher, these are the storylines that will be crucial to how...
A lot is leaning on Matvei Michkov this season, and everyone from the player all the way up to the front office knows it.
Michkov disappointed heavily last year, which became a drawback that constantly hung over the team, even as they were sprinting their way into the playoffs.
He didn't report in shape, which left him behind the eight ball through the first half of last season. He crammed workouts into the Olympic break and came back much better and a lot more productive, but then got overwhelmed in the playoffs, leading to two polarizing scratchings.
And no one left happy about it – not Michkov, not head coach Rick Tocchet, not Danny Brière or Keith Jones up top, nobody.
But a message was received.
Michkov, during exit day press conferences in May, immediately got back on the ice as soon as his turn in front of the media was done, then went back home to Russia for the summer to keep working.
The 21-year-old reported back to Voorhees earlier this month looking a lot leaner, a lot faster, and during camp drills and his first preseason game, a lot more aggressive.
Tocchet said he believed last year's struggles were going to kickstart a Michkov "vengeance tour."
Brière seemed highly optimistic about Michkov's maturity and competitive drive to improve through these past several months.
And as for Michkov, so far, he's skating like he has something to prove – that he can and will be the star the Flyers were betting on when they took him seventh overall in the draft three years ago, as a cornerstone of their rebuild.
"I think this is so good for me," Michkov said, in English to the press for the first time, earlier in camp about his better shape and conditioning. "I feel, right now, lighter on the ice...every skill has more speed, you know? Better speed."
And he wants it to equate to far better on the ice. For the Flyers, they need him to be.
A quicker and leaner Matvei Michkov should move the puck around faster for the Flyers.
Porter Martone, after months of fans keeping tab on Michigan State hockey, joined the Flyers late in the season, immediately looked like a future star, and served as that last needed boost for the jump into the playoffs.
Now the Flyers will have last summer's sixth overall pick for a full season, where, heading in, the 19-year-old is an early favorite to win the Calder Trophy for rookie of the year.
If he carries over that pace of 10 points in nine games that he closed out last season with, he'll easily be in the running, and could be the first Flyer ever to win it.
There is concern of a Year 2 slump similar to Michkov, but from the looks of it, Martone – and to the same extent, fellow key youngsters Denver Barkey and Alex Bump – took every measure to avoid that.
The three still attended the Flyers' development and rookie camps, even though they didn't really have to anymore, and seemed to have each held to a belief that they haven't earned anything just yet.
"I got a jump start last year when I got to come in at the end of the season," Martone said back in June. "But, you know, there's still a team to make and a job to earn."
And now, across a full 84 games, a chance to show what Martone can really do as a sharpshooting power forward.
The Flyers will be getting a full year of Porter Martone for the 2026-27 season.
Eric Hartline/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
It happened gradually in the background, and then suddenly at the NHL level, but the Flyers' youth movement is full steam ahead now.
Martone, Michkov, Bump, Barkey, Trevor Zegras, Tyson Foerster, and Jamie Drysdale make up the heart of the Flyers' lineup, and none of those names are any older than 25.
There's plenty of veteran support, too, between leading defenseman Travis Sanheim, fiery winger Travis Konecny, and a reborn fourth-line grinder in Couturier, but this team, by design, is set up to start being carried by its on-the-rise talent.
And it's going to be on them to not just take the torch, but carve the next steps that will take them past the second round of the playoffs.
There's more in the pipeline expected on the way, too. Oliver Bonk is a young defenseman in the AHL and sitting on that roster bubble now, while Cole Knuble turned a lot of heads during camp and the preseason to a degree that had him looking NHL-ready far sooner than most thought he would be. Even Jett Luchanko, who became an embattled and polarizing prospect in the past year, looked like a much smoother skater during the preseason, who showed the signs of getting back on a better track now that he can get steady minor-league minutes with the Phantoms down in the AHL.
The Flyers, for years, put a steady priority on getting younger, and thus more talented.
Now their roster is flush with a bunch of 20-somethings, who still have a lot to learn, sure, but after a breakthrough playoff run, did just show how good they can really be.
Dan Vladar last season gave the Flyers something they haven't had in years, decades even: true stability in net.
He was a wall, who they heavily leaned on down the stretch, and then who got even better once the lights got that much brighter in the playoffs.
Vladar is back as the leading goaltender, after the Flyers gave him a no-brainer five-year extension to keep him around.
But Brière knew it would be ill-advised to leave nearly all of the workload in the crease to him again, especially since the season is gaining two extra games on the schedule.
So the GM sent former backup Sam Ersson to Toronto for Joseph Woll, who's been a backup, a starter, and a 1A/B through the Maple Leafs' own multi-year adventure of goaltender instability.
But Woll has had his success in spots through those uneven years in Toronto, and the hope now is that he and Vladar can dependably get the Flyers through the year without worry – for the first time in forever.
Dan Vladar isn't going anywhere after establishing himself as the Flyers' No. 1 goalie.
The young Flyers went to overtime and the shootout a lot last season, and won games by the skin of their teeth with some largely low-event hockey (taking scores by 2-1 or 3-2 margins).
Because Tocchet was in his first year as coach, the Flyers were a defense-first team, trying to get a grasp of new systems and philosophies and going from there.
For Tocchet, that was intentional, partially. But the Flyers did flash offensive talent that was capable of much better. There was just a lack of finish, and another year of an atrocious, stagnant power play.
Tocchet, though, has ambitions of his team ramping up the offense this season.
Michkov's creativity will factor heavily into that, along with Zegras as a full-time center, and then Foerster, Martone, and Bump's strength in barreling down the walls as wingers, with the willingness to cut in and shoot.
But then there's also trust.
Now that the roster is, presumably, defensively committed, there's going to be more leeway to take more risks and bigger gambles to go and score.
That's a natural step in evolution the team is expecting to take.
But there is another part that absolutely has to get better if they will.
Tyson Foerster has quietly become one of the Flyers' better scorers.
The power play has to start showing signs of life, after sleeping in the league's basement for the past five years.
The team is taking the beginning of a new season as a clean slate for it, again, but this time, the organization hopes that it does genuinely mean something.
Tocchet stacked up the Flyers' best offensive skaters onto the top unit in camp – Michkov, Martone, Foerster, Zegras, and Drysdale as the point man – and already, those players together have exhibited far more movement and creativity at 5-on-4 than anything that any previous Flyers roster since the pandemic has been able to yield.
Practice is one thing, though. The power play has to be able to score when it counts, which hasn't been seen in the accelerated preseason, but has to hit the ground running the second a Penguin goes into the box Wednesday night.
"We have to get better at that because I think, last year, the reads were a little bit off, and, you know, I blame myself," Tocchet said last week. "I'm gonna pound a lot of this at them early on. I don't think we did it as much last year. I don't know why we didn't. Maybe new guy on the block, and I was worried about the 5-on-5. But we have to really hone in on the details about the power play."
Otherwise, they're going to be leaving so many punishing goals on the table. They're not in a spot to be letting those go anymore.
Trevor Zegras has been a perfect fit for the Flyers.
The Flyers made the playoffs, and while it should be a fair expectation now for them to make it back, the Metropolitan Division and the Eastern Conference on the whole didn't stay at a standstill for them.
The Capitals re-stocked after falling out of the race late last season, the Islanders are going to be trying again, too, after they also faded, the Penguins intend to stay in the mix so long as Sidney Crosby is still putting on skates for them, and the Devils are going to want back in the hunt with Jack Hughes as their star so long as they can stay healthy. Plus, the Hurricanes are still there as the reigning Cup champions, and after they just showed how big of a gap there really is between them and the Flyers through that second-round sweep – as admirable as the effort from the Flyers was.
And that's just the Metro.
The Panthers and Maple Leafs are both looking for bounce-back years after injuries destroyed them last season, the Sabres and Canadiens are two of the Atlantic Division's new powerhouses, and then the Lightning and the Bruins just never seem to go away.
The Flyers are good, but the Metro is tough, and the whole conference is even tougher.
No one's going to be sleeping on Philadelphia anymore either now that the team has broken through.
There's no element of surprise, and no guarantees, aside from that everyone is going to be bringing their best against the Flyers now.
They have to be ready to match it.
Rick Tocchet has to keep the Flyers sharp in his second season behind the Philadelphia bench.
The Flyers are a lot better from where they've been. They have stable goaltending, physical and dependable defense, and a pretty well-rounded forward group from lines 1-4.
But they don't have that one true killer, that superstar.
Brière took the big swing after one this offseason, when he submitted a record offer sheet to Anaheim center, and at the time restricted free agent, Leo Carlsson that instantly made him the highest-paid player in the NHL – at least for a bit. The attempt ultimately failed with the Ducks matching to keep their star center, but even taking the gamble in the first place left an impact.
Immediately, other teams wasted little time getting their own young stars signed to massive deals, partially because the notorious offer sheet was suddenly made a very real threat.
The league saw what the Flyers did, fans saw they were serious about trying to improve by whatever means, and maybe most important, other star players who will be due up for paydays soon saw what the organization was willing to offer.
They didn't get Carlsson, but they're not done. They're just waiting.
"That's the way I see it," Brière said earlier this month. "If something comes up that makes sense, yes, definitely, we won't be afraid to swing it."
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