Almost a quarter of the way through the 2025-26 season, it's becoming clearer that the Philadelphia Flyers are still a far cry from the Stanley Cup-contending team they aspire to be.
Yes, the Flyers are in a playoff spot at the time of this writing, but they're also two points away from being the second-worst team in the Eastern Conference.
Teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs, Columbus Blue Jackets, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Florida Panthers have too much talent to lay dormant forever, though injuries are certainly taking their tolls on those teams.
And, when it comes to tiebreakers, the Flyers are tied with Buffalo for the fewest regulation wins (4) and have the second-fewest regulation and overtime wins (5).
If the team isn't currently thinking about the postseason, they'd be in the right frame of mind.
The Flyers aren't a bad team, necessarily, but they are painstakingly boring and still haven't found a way to consistently generate offense.
In the Rick Tocchet era thus far, the Flyers are dead last in the NHL in shots per game (24.6), tied for the third-fewest goals per game (2.56), and more generally have seen very little improvement from many of their core players.
Franchise player Matvei Michkov is at the heart of those issues, and it's not all his fault.
Porter Martone Doing Everything Flyers Needed to See in NCAAThe Philadelphia Flyers have to be thrilled with how Porter Martone has been developing on the ice and in the gym.At 5-on-5, Michkov, 20, leads the Flyers in on-ice goals for per 60 minutes (3.15) and on-ice shooting percentage (12.05%) and ranks second in on-ice goals percentage (58.82%) and expected on-ice goals for per 60 (2.63), according to Natural Stat Trick.
The problem, however, is that Michkov is averaging just 11:55 a night at 5-on-5, which ranks ninth on the Flyers behind Travis Konecny, Sean Couturier, Owen Tippett, Noah Cates, Tyson Foerster, Christian Dvorak, Trevor Zegras, and Bobby Brink.
To put all of that information into layman's terms, the Flyers are generating and scoring the most with their Russian talisman on the ice, but he's barely playing third-line minutes.
And to wrap it up, Michkov is sixth in scoring amongst his 2023 draft classmates, while players like Leo Carlsson, Connor Bedard, and Will Smith have all taken off this season with 17 or more points. Michkov, on the other hand, is stuck at nine points and pacing for 47 on the year.
After hot starts, Foerster and Tippett have all but faded into obscurity, too.
The former, returning from an 11-day layoff due to injury, has managed just one goal and one point in his last five contests.
Foerster is on pace for 46 points, narrowly besting his career-high of 43 from last year, despite playing nearly two minutes more on average going from 16:52 a night to 18:24.
If the 23-year-old continues to feature exclusively as a checking-line forward, then he'll only ever be a checking-line forward who doesn't reach his full potential offensively. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
As for Tippett, his game has completely stalled out after scoring five times in the first six games of the season. Since then, he has one assist in his last 10 games.
Tocchet admitted recently that Tippett needs to "stay a little bit more focused in the game," but Tippett immediately went offside on what would've been a game-winning Konecny goal with 26 seconds left in a 1-1 game against the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night.
Flyers: Are We Headed Towards a Goalie Controversy?The push and pull between Sam Ersson and Aleksei Kolosov may force the Philadelphia Flyers into having an uncomfortable conversation about goaltending.That goal, of course, didn't stand, and the Flyers lost 2-1 in overtime on an unfortunate and uncharacteristic error from Cam York.
Zegras's point-per-game pace and Konecny's resurgence are things to be happy with, as is Dan Vladar's .919 save percentage.
As for the young players, and the ones who didn't just arrive in Philadelphia this summer? It hasn't been perfect.
York and Jamie Drysdale look improved, but, as mentioned above, York did just lose them a game with a turnover, and Drysdale's game still lacks end product with seven points in 16 games.
Rookie forward Nikita Grebenkin, who has flashed promise and his playmaking chops at various times throughout the nascent season, didn't even play against the Oilers on Wednesday night.
That came at the cost of 6:59 of ice time for Nick Deslauriers, 7:50 of ice time for Garnet Hathaway, and 6:21 of ice time for Rodrigo Abols, who also went 0-for-5 on faceoffs.
Overall, the way the Flyers are developing their current players and the direction of the rebuild overall has clearly taken a downward turn.
Whether that is temporary or not remains to be seen, and the sky isn't falling.
As far as reinvigorating interest and excitement in the Flyers? The progress amongst the fans, at least those with voices on social media, has been inscrutable.