The Philadelphia Flyers are not going to make the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Any faint hopes of the team truly surging back into the race have been washed away during the first half of their seven-game homestand, as the Flyers have five goals through four games and have lost each contest. The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn and MoneyPuck.com‘s models have their playoff odds at less than one percent (from ‘NHL 2024-25 Stanley Cup playoff chances and projected standings,’ The Athletic, Mar. 11, 2025.) It’s over.
While the results of their final 17 games may not matter much (other than for determining NHL Draft Lottery position), there is still meaning to the last five weeks of the 58th season of Flyers hockey. From building up the youth to putting players in the best position going into 2025-26, here’s what to watch for the rest of the way for the Orange and the Black.
Fix Travis Konecny
The eight-year, $70 million extension Travis Konecny signed in the offseason looked like a steal at the start of the 2024-25 season. Konecny was dynamite throughout the first four months of the season, recording 58 points in 53 games, putting him in the league’s top 15 in scoring when the calendar flipped to February. He was an easy pick for Team Canada for the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Yet Konecny has been in a rut over the last five and a half weeks. He has just one goal and six points since the start of February and only two goals in the previous two months. His play-driving has also dropped off; before February, Konecny had a 52.87 expected goals (XG%) share (slightly below average relative to his teammates at -0.21%) and was outscored 30-35. Over the last 38 days, that has cratered to a 41.6 xG% rate. The team has struggled, but Konecny’s negative-8.35% mark relative to teammates is one of Philadelphia’s worst.
He’s also been outscored by five goals in that span, which makes for a ghastly 22.2% on-ice goals for rate. That doesn’t include an underwhelming performance with Team Canada in which he was healthy scratched twice and put up a putrid 17.83 xGF% in the two games he did get into.
“You can probably assume how I feel, frustrated,” Konecny said after Tuesday’s loss to the Calgary Flames, during which he hit the crossbar and finished with an ugly 9.99 xGF%, second worst on the team. Konecny also agreed with Noah Cates’ assessment that the Flyers can sometimes get too flashy at home, leading to sloppy mistakes. The…
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