Flyers Offseason Preview: Line Combinations and Free Agents

(Kate Frese)

By Jeff Quake, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 

If the Philadelphia Flyers want a longer playoff run in the near future, head coach Dave Hakstol certainly has to give the team that opportunity in who he puts together on a line, along with who gets the most amount of ice time.

This was one of the Flyers’ biggest weakness in the playoffs and a good reason why they lost in six games to the Pittsburgh Penguins. The key to success in today’s league is all about speed, skill and depth. If you look at a team similar to Pittsburgh, then it makes complete sense on why they won consecutive Stanley Cups. Their GM Jim Rutherford made minor, but key moves to cunningly improve the team.

While acquiring a player such as Derek Brassard was a big move, it took smaller moves like getting Riley Sheahan from the Detroit Red Wings to improve their roster.

The Flyers have to do the same if they want to succeed, and they have the tools to do it. In Part 1 of our Flyers Offseason Preview, we looked at the contracts that are expiring and how Ron Hextall may address them. In Part 2, we'll look at what the Flyers line combinations could look like at the start of the 2017-18 season.

Game 6 against Pittsburgh saw some unusual lines, below is what the team looked something like this during the elimination game:

Claude Giroux-Valtteri Filppula-Jake Voracek

Oskar Lindblom-Sean Couturier-Nolan Patrick

Travis Konecny-Jori Lehtera-Wayne Simmonds

Jordan Weal-Scott Laughton-Michael Raffl

Now here is what the defensive pairings looked like:

Ivan Provorov-Andrew MacDonald

Robert Hagg-Shayne Gostisbehere

Brandon Manning-Radko Gudas

By now, it has been made known that the Flyers will not be bringing back the likes of Manning, Matt Read, Johnny Oduya and Petr Mrazek. On another note, Filppula may be gone as well, but he is the only one that GM Ron Hextall is considering bringing back.

With Read earning some ice time and making a few appearances during the remainder of the regular season and some in the playoffs, that will give some of the younger wingers a chance to compete for a roster spot. The same can be said with Manning leaving, as there is technically an open spot. Once Manning leaves, that will open the door for Travis Sanheim who rightfully deserves a roster spot.

Probably the biggest issue many people have with Hakstol during the season is having young players like Hagg or Sanheim sitting out games as healthy scratches. Hakstol finally decided to play Hagg in Game 6, but of course that was too late by then. With Manning and Oduya gone, not only will Sanheim and Hagg both get spots in the lineup, but this also gives someone such as Sam Morin or Philippe Myers a chance to be the seventh defenseman.

The bottom-six forwards were a better upgrade than just a year prior when the team had Chris Vandevelde, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Ryan White. Sure, Bellemare wasn't the worst player but the players around him weren't the greatest help. The youth and speed now on the Flyers bottom six are much better and it looks like it will stay that way for years to come.

Below are my possible line combinations for the Flyers in 2018-2019:

Giroux-Couturier-Konecny

Simmonds-Patrick-Voracek

Raffl-Laughton-Filppula

Leier-Vecchione-Weal

Extra forwards: Dale Weise, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Danick Martel

Provorov-Gostisbehere

Sanheim-MacDonald

Calvin de Haan-Hagg

Extra defensemen: Myers, Morin 

Brian Elliott

Alex Lyon

Simmonds is included on the line combinations for now, however there is the possibility that he will get traded. If it were to happen in the offseason, a deal at the NHL Draft next month would be the most likely time for it to happen. He has one year left at a very reasonable cap hit for him and every NHL "hockey man" loves Simmonds and the way he plays the game.

It really depends on how Hextall views him and the future of the team next year. There is a small percentage that Philadelphia re-signs him, as he is becoming an aging power forward that will ask for at least $6 million or more for a long-term, so essentially it might be a relatively bad idea to resign him Simmonds.

de Haan is only 27, and although he was limited to just 33 games this year, his game was pretty strong for the most part with the New York Islanders. He will become a UFA and realistically, the Flyers could end up signing him to a short-term deal around two or three years. He had 12 points and was a plus-11 last season.

Although he logged just 619 minutes of ice time, the past few years with New York he has logged well over 1,000 minutes in the past 4 seasons. de Haan still has much to learn in this league, but with a team such as the Flyers, he could fall right into place as a veteran member of the third pairing.

Elliott had a record of 23-11-7 in 43 games played, 42 in which he started. He also posted a GAA of 2.66 and a SV% of .909 and although he looked shaky at some points and wasn’t always the healthiest, he has the edge over Michal Neuvirth.

Alex Lyon proved himself after Elliott and Neuvirth went down and splitting time with Mrazek. Lyon himself just showed the entire hockey world what he can do with an astonishing 94-save victory in five overtimes over the Charlotte Checkers in Game 4 of the Atlantic Division Final.

Overall, the Flyers will have some of their younger talent up for the 2018-19 season and Hextall essentially can do what he pleases during free agency. Realistically though, for those who want Philadelphia to make a splash and land John Tavares, it won't happen.

Sure they have plenty of cap space for the first time in years, but expect them to make smaller moves to craft a much better lineup than they have had in the past, while still leaving room for the kids already on the roster and to come to take the next steps.