The Philadelphia Flyers looked like a playoff team all season, playing above their weight and sitting in the third or fourth spot in the Metropolitan Division. It turns out, their flaws were covered up by elite goaltending by Dan Vladar.
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Anyone who watched the games knew it was Vladar and points from 17 OT games that kept the Flyers in the playoff race early. They were never a borderline team in talent or coaching. Tocchet’s answer to any question regarding his lineup decisions was to point, somewhat erroneously, to the Flyers record and now that he can’t point to his record the post game press conferences have become even more unhinged.
The Flyers need a complete rebuild and despite the promotional branding, haven’t even started an actual rebuild. They have ZERO foundational pieces in the pipeline and really the only top end talent is MM and Martone who don’t play core positions. So before worrying about timelines, they need to start the clock by getting the first core piece. TK, as great as he has been playing, signed with a team with no future and that hasn’t changed.