Flyers are in the playoffs (for the moment), which validates Danny Brière and Keith Jones’ strategy
Getting playoff-level experience for cornerstone kids like Matvei Michkov and Porter Martone has been well worth the trade deadline strategy of the Flyers brass.
A little more than a week after he played his last game as a freshman at Michigan State, Porter Martone scored the overtime goal that pushed the Flyers past the Boston Bruins and into the playoffs on Sunday — at least for the time being.
It was more than his first goal as a professional. It was a statement goal for the franchise.
No matter what happens in their last five games, the organization’s trade-deadline gamble has paid off. The Flyers ignored pressures to tank for a better draft pick because their postseason prospects looked poor. Instead, not only have the Flyers, with a scintillating core of youth, played meaningful games for a month, they have reached the top of a mountain most considered unattainable.
They occupy third place in the Metropolitan Division entering Tuesday night’s game in New Jersey. Even if they slide back a bit and miss the playoffs for a sixth consecutive season, they’ve given the team a taste of meaningful hockey and they’ve rewarded veterans who have endured a half-decade of irrelevance.
“I think it’s important to be around a winning culture, you know?” said captain Sean Couturier. “I guess it’s fine rebuilding, tanking, whatever you want to call it, but when you don’t win, it’s hard to learn how to win. You can’t just linger for years at the bottom of the standings and, after four or five years being in the bottom, to just all of a sudden be top contenders, I think it’s important to put yourself into these situations, these big, meaningful games, and guys get experience.”
Maybe they learned that from the team that shares their building.
» READ MORE: Tyson Foerster’s improbable return from injury has given the Flyers’ playoff hopes a lift
When Martone scored his goal, Xfinity Mobile Arena exploded. These days, the barn is more electric than it has been in years.
Martone is the latest object of the love affair between Flyers Nation, first-year coach Rick Tocchet, and a collection of imperfect, plucky young players like rookie forwards Denver Barkey and Alex Bump, and, of course, enigmatic star-in-waiting Matvei Michkov.
Tocc, like GM Danny Brière and president Keith Jones, is an adored Flyers alum. None was especially adored a month ago, when, at the deadline, the Flyers mainly stood pat.
Despite having won just six of their previous 20 games, they decided not to trade big-name defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen. They made other, largely cosmetic moves, but with about a 7% chance of making the playoffs according to Money Puck, they bet on themselves.
That percentage grew to more than 53% on Sunday. The Flyers are 11-4-1 since the deadline.
Did Brière feel relief? Validation?
“It wasn’t about validation for what we did,” Brière said Monday after posing with the rest of the organization for the annual team picture. “But yes, it was a gamble.”
Brière had gotten a fresh haircut two days earlier in anticipation of the photo session. As he leaned against the wall of the tunnel that leads to the ice, his impish grin gave him the appearance and air of a mischievous schoolboy who was telling a harmless fib.
“What we did — it was thinking about what we want to do, and, as we’ve said for years now, we want to try to build a team that’s going to be able win for years to come,” Brière said. “To me, what we’re going through right now is awesome, experience-wise, for our guys to go through. Very important.”
» READ MORE: Porter Martone’s fast start with the Flyers was forged in Michigan State’s gym: ‘The best decision I ever made’
Obviously, the four youngsters mentioned above haven’t been to the playoffs, but neither have players like Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale. Owen Tippett played a minor role in six playoff games in 2021 with Florida, but that was his first full NHL season. Now, he leads his team with 28 goals.
Nine of those goals have come in his 21 games since the Olympic break, which just preceded the trade deadline. Michkov, who reported to camp out of shape, spent the break working out, and he’s got 14 points and is plus-1 since the break; he was minus-7 entering it. Backup goalie Sam Ersson is 5-1 in his six starts since the break. Ristolainen struggled through two injuries before he joined the Finnish team for the Olympics and was minus-4. He’s plus-11 since.
Tocchet spent the break simplifying his system so his younger players didn’t have to think so much, which has led to faster play and fewer mistakes.
The Flyers got another boost when 24-year-old winger Tyson Foerster returned. Foerster’s 25 goals were second on the team last season, but he missed four months this season after upper-body surgery and was considered done, but he came back Thursday.
“Getting Martone signed and getting Foerster back,” Brière said, “that was like adding on at the deadline.”
He wasn’t completely inactive March 6. Wing-heavy, he shipped Bobby Brink to Minnesota to take a chance on former first-round defenseman David Jiříček, sent veteran Nic Deslauriers to Carolina to chase a Stanley Cup, and claimed workman center Luke Glendening off waivers.
They hoped Foerster would return. They knew they’d get Martone, too, as long as his Spartans lost early enough in the NCAA Tournament. Martone joined a team reluctant to fire the puck, but he’s already got 20 shots in four games, which is about twice as many as Tippett averages.
Things have fallen the Flyers’ way.
Columbus has won once in its last eight games, and its only win was in Philly. But the New York Islanders are on a four-game slide, with a home loss to the Flyers on Friday, and they fired coach Patrick Roy on Sunday. The Flyers’ 90 points are tied with Ottawa for the final wild-card slot.
Granted, the Flyers haven’t won the Stanley Cup yet, and they haven’t even secured a playoff spot, but if they do, there’s a pretty good chance they could win a first-round series.
Regardless, with 90 points for the first time since 2018, and with a quarter of a season’s worth of meaningful games, the year already is a success.
“I can tell, from some of the young guys like Bump,” Tocchet said, “the last couple of games, he’s doing some stuff that he didn’t do two weeks ago. He’s learning under the fire. I think it’s great learning experience for those guys.”
Playoffs or not, that’s how the deadline gamble is paying off.