April 15, 2026

The Flyers' future might be much closer than you'd think

The Flyers let the kids play in the regular season finale, and they beat the Canadiens, signaling that there's still so much more to come.

By Nick Tricome
PhillyVoice Staff

Eric Hartline/Imagn Images

Oliver Bonk's first NHL game brought on his first NHL goal with Tuesday night's Flyers regular-season finale.

The Flyers' future stared everyone right in the eye these past two nights in South Philadelphia.

On Monday, they completed the month-long climb. A largely unproven, but rapidly developing team made up all the ground in the standings, then gave it everything they had to beat the Carolina Hurricanes in the shootout, finally clinching the franchise's first playoff berth since 2020.

Then on Tuesday, they showed what comes next, not immediately, but for in another year or two.

Against the Montreal Canadiens, most of the veterans and lineup regulars were afforded a breather, while a handful of prospects got their call-ups from the AHL's Phantoms to skate in the Game 82 finale.

And they took care of the Habs, 4-2.

Porter Martone, Matvei Michkov, Alex Bump, and Oliver Bonk, in his NHL debut, each scored to close out the regular season.

Bonk, Martone, Michkov, and an also debuting Hunter McDonald notched assists as well.

All of them are under the age of 25.

The future is right there. The Flyers are showing it to everyone. Enough of it just came together to push them back into the playoffs, and more of it looks on the way.

They might be much closer than most realize.

"It's a positive situation," head coach Rick Tocchet said postgame. "I mean, you look at Bumper, that's a hell of a goal. I thought [Denver Barkey] at center was really good tonight. Obviously, [Michkov] had a terrific game, [Martone], all those kids are really developing in some tough situations, right?

"So obviously it's a good future."

That the Flyers, and their fans, have been waiting a long time for, and can finally start to enjoy now.

Martone continues to make it all look effortless.

The quickly rising star parked himself right at the front of the net again on Tuesday night and redirected Michkov's shot under the pads of Montreal goaltender Jakub Dobes to get the Flyers on the board.

Since debuting back on March 31 in Washington, the 19-year-old has piled up four goals and six assists to play at a pace of 10 points and a plus-4 rating through his first nine NHL games.

He jumped into the lineup alongside veterans Travis Konecny and Christian Dvorak, and immediately brought an extra bit of physicality, a willingness to do the dirty work in the corners and at the front of the net, and maybe above all, an intention to shoot when he has the puck, which was maybe the last spark that this season's Flyers needed.

To him, he was ready to be that, and now he's carrying it straight into the playoffs.

"I think I made the jump to come to the NHL because I thought I was ready," Martone said from the locker room after the Montreal finale. "I thought it was my time.

"If I didn't, I would've stayed at Michigan State for another year. These guys have been amazing with me, whether it's playing with Dvo or TK for the first couple games and the coaching staff really believing in me, it's been awesome, and I'm just trying to get better every single day."

Matvei-Michkov-Goal-Flyers-4.14.26-NHL.jpg

Eric Hartline/Imagn Images

Matvei Michkov is still going to be the star winger the Flyers are depending on.

Michkov, less and less quietly, has been so much better since the Flyers returned from the Olympic break in late February.

Before then, it was rough. He was struggling, and that was a real sore spot across the entire Flyers sphere for a lot of reasons.

But the 21-year-old made a point to use the Olympic time off to train and come back strong. His play since has backed that up.

Michkov scored a huge goal in the clincher Monday night against Carolina, then fired home a loose puck Tuesday night against Montreal to top off a three-point game where he was flying everywhere.

Since the Flyers left for their West Coast trip starting in Anaheim on March 18, Michkov has been on a run of four goals, 14 assists, 18 points in total, and a plus-11 rating over his last 16 games.

He's going to be alright.

Bump will, too.

Eric Hartline/Imagn Images

There's a role for Alex Bump in the Flyers' lineup, but head coach Rick Tocchet has to find the lineup space for him.

As the other 21-year-old wing who made his way up from the Phantoms this year, Bump sat for the last two critical games against Winnipeg and then Carolina with the Flyers trying to clinch, but hopped back in Tuesday night and went on to chase down a puck through a ton of contact that fell right back to him at the front of the crease to snap it in.

Afterward, Tocchet said the reason Bump was originally scratched from the lineup wasn't because of poor play, but a numbers game that the coach is going to have to figure out one way or another.

"I said to [Flyers president Keith Jones] after the game, 'I gotta get this guy in the lineup somehow,'" Tocchet said. "He's going to get in, we just have to figure out when. But really enjoyed his game tonight."

And Bonk and McDonald, the two defensive prospects who the organization has been high on for a while, they both looked well on their way.

They were skating confidently on the back end as a rookie pairing, and both played to their strengths on the sequence that led to Bonk's first NHL goal, and McDonald's first NHL assist.

With the Canadiens trying to dig the puck out of their zone late in the first period, McDonald, at his hulking 6'4" and 238-pound frame, took a stride down the wall and crushed Montreal forward Jake Evans with a check that jarred the puck loose and gave it back to the Flyers.

Michkov recovered it and slipped a pass over to Bonk, who read the play and dropped into open space, then took an extra stride before loading up a shot that Dobes squared up to but couldn't track.

The light went off and Bonk dropped to his knee and gave a pump of his fist, as an amped up crowd jumped to its feet while Michkov and McDonald drifted in to celebrate.