Tag: Matt Niskanen

Free agency opened on Friday and many players are electing patience in making their decisions, hearing out offers. There was no tampering period as there usually is in free agency, so every team was able to make their pitch against one another at the same time. On Day 1, the Flyers elected patience as well and continue to wait for the right opportunity.

As free agency begins on Friday at noon, the Flyers have $8.6 million in cap space available, but have to sign Phil Myers and Nolan Patrick as well. That doesn’t leave the Flyers with much room for signing free agents, but they may explore low-risk forward options or look for a defenseman. Here are a few names to watch.

After drafting Tyson Foerster in the first round, Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher said that there will still 15 players he would be happy to draft in the second round. Turns out the Flyers were able to draft two of them on Day 2 as prospects of untapped potential fell to them.

For the Flyers, that means another first-round selection that could make an impact on their future. The team has the 23rd overall pick and there are many ways they could go with this pick. With the NHL Draft getting underway in just a few hours, here are seven targets for the Flyers at 23rd overall.

On Monday, reports circulated that Flyers defenseman Matt Niskanen was announcing his retirement. The defenseman confirmed in a statement through Flyers PR and GM Chuck Fletcher offered his thoughts on a conference call.

Defenseman Justin Braun returns to the Flyers on a two-year deal with a $1.8 million AAV, GM Chuck Fletcher announced on Monday afternoon.

In a surprising decision, Matt Niskanen will announce his retirement, according to multiple reports. He has reportedly also informed both the Flyers and his teammates of this decision.

A look at some of the things on the Flyers offseason agenda, areas they will look to address, the signings they have to make and some potential trade targets, trade options within the current roster, and free agents that could end up on their radar.

This is what is so hard about this Flyers loss. It’s not that it’s the end of the season. This happens for 15 other teams in the playoffs without a reward. Only one team comes away with the Stanley Cup. What’s so hard is having to once again hear “there’s always next year,”… and not knowing when next year really is.

Just like in Game 2, when the Flyers let another 3-1 lead in the third period get away, they had the answer in overtime. It took over 12 minutes, but the Flyers remain alive in the series with a deflection goal by Scott Laughton. 5 takeaways from Game 5.

The Flyers are not dead yet. A point shot by Ivan Provorov was deflected by Scott Laughton and beat Semyon Varlamov to give the Flyers a 4-3 overtime win in Game 5 that keeps their season alive. 

It played out so much like the other games in the series. The Flyers had their moments. The Islanders had more of those moments. They used turnovers and transition plays to their advantage again. And while the Flyers had more shot volume and traffic to the net than in previous games, the goalie who kept them in Game 2 made sure they were in Game 4 and got the result needed.

The Islanders scored twice in the third period, helping to put away the Flyers in the game and take a commanding 3-1 lead in the series with a 3-2 win on Sunday night.

The Flyers need more from these players, especially if they are to see this playoff run go any further. They need their top scorers. They need their best performers. They need the guys who get the most ice time to really earn it. They need their leadership group to step up on the ice. 5 takeaways from Flyers-Islanders Game 3.

The Islanders showed they are a team that has a lot – the talent behind the bench, the depth up front, the defensive structure and the goaltender to get the job done. The Flyers did not show what they wanted to show. They did not show they have another level. They showed their flaws. 5 takeaways from Game 1.

Even-keeled Flyers goalie Carter Hart downplayed the comparisons and significance of facing his boyhood idol in his first playoff series. But even he couldn’t hide the significance of meeting at center ice to shake hands with Canadiens’ veteran Carey Price after winning the series.

The long drought is over. The Flyers went back to the style of play that helped them secure the first three wins and it earned them the all-important fourth one to move on. Here are 5 takeaways from Game 6 of Flyers-Canadiens.

Both the Flyers and Canadiens will be without key players in Friday’s Game 6, and it should be an energetic affair that fits the mold of playoff hockey at its finest. Game 6 is set for 7 p.m.

Jesperi Kotkaniemi took a major boarding penalty. Matt Niskanen has been suspended for Game 6 for a cross-check to the head of Brendan Gallagher. Nick Suzuki fueled the fire by patting Carter Hart on the head after a goal. A collision between Sean Couturier and Artturi Lehkonen started an end-of-game scrum. The bad blood in this series went from 0 to 60 in Game 5.

The Flyers had to overcome a lot of obstacles to eventually tie the game in the third, but gave the lead back 22 seconds later, as the Canadiens carried the lead the rest of the way for the 5-3 win in Game 5 to force Game 6 on Friday.

The Flyers were 6-0 in games following a loss in the second half of the regular season. They can add a playoff win to that total with a greasy, bounce-back effort led by their goaltender. Here are 5 takeaways from the Flyers 1-0 win over the Canadiens in Game 3.

There was no sugarcoating this one after it was over. The scoreboard said it all. “We got our butts kicked today in all facets of the game,” head coach Alain Vigneault said.

The opportunity was there for the Flyers to take a 2-0 series lead after having what many viewed was only a B-minus, C-game from the Flyers. There were some who viewed Game 1 as a missed opportunity for the Canadiens, while others saw it as a game where the Canadiens showed they could hang around in this series. Man, did they prove that in Game 2.

622 days ago, the Flyers were a team in complete disarray. They needed a change and fired the GM. They followed by replacing the GM, firing the head coach and powering through with an interim coach and a rookie goalie in net. Now, they have claimed the top seed in the Eastern Conference for the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Consider this win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday everything. The Flyers have the top seed in the Eastern Conference. Who would have imagined that a season ago? Here are 5 takeaways from Flyers-Lightning.

Nicolas Aube-Kubel scored two goals, Joel Farabee added another and Carter Hart made 23 saves to secure a 4-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning and claim the top seed on Saturday night. 

There were players making their playoff debut, recent additions contributing, depth players stepping up in a big way and an overall defensive effort that completely shut down the powerful top line of the Bruins. Here are 5 takeaways from Flyers-Bruins.

When training camp started a couple weeks ago and the Flyers started to work back to where they were before the pause, the pairings remained the same and they have been unchanged since then. Alain Vigneault said he doesn’t plan to change them anytime soon.

Ivan Provorov was able to find an ice surface while spending the quarantine with his billet family near Wilkes-Barre. So it should be no surprise, after just two weeks of training camp, that Provorov jumped right back into his usual role, playing 25:39 in the Flyers 3-2 overtime win in an exhibition against Pittsburgh on Tuesday.