2024-25 Player Review: Flyers not here for a long time, or a good time

Looking back on some of the seasons from Philadelphia Flyers who were not with the club for the entire season, for one reason or another.

The Philadelphia Flyers season has come to a close. All 82 games have been played and the end result is praying for some draft lottery luck and hoping for general manager Danny Briere to add some solid young talent to this roster with eyes on competing for the playoffs in the next couple of years.

Very broad analysis aside, now that all the games are done and over with, we can now reflect on some seasons from players we got to watch. But, before we really dive deep into the individual player reviews, we need to make sure everyone is covered and that’s what we’re here to do: Just look back on some seasons from players who were not here for a long time — whether it is because they are just a prospect or was flipped at the trade deadline.

Helge Grans

When Helge Grans was recalled from the AHL, it came as a little bit of a slight surprise. He wasn’t racking up the points down with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, but was just playing some steady hockey in the middle of the blue line. Philadelphia needed a defenseman so the 22-year-old right-handed blueliner was able to make his NHL debut back in November.

And, he honestly did not look out of place. There were some of the classic limitations you see when a young defenseman that isn’t a top prospect, is thrown into the NHL but overall it was a fairly safe style of play whenever he was on the ice. Of course, it wasn’t overall perfect — the Flyers had 41.58 percent of the shot attempt share with Grans at 5-on-5 but 53.73 percent of the expected goals at the same time, according to Evolving-Hockey. That kind of discrepancy in between total attempts and weighing the quality of each chance was common among basically every Flyer this season. We’re not going to throw out his six games for that. Plus, he actually earned an assist in his debut on Tyson Foerster’s fourth goal of his season.

You’re not going to be jumping out of your seat when it comes to Grans, but his brief appearance for Philadelphia and just how safe it was gives us reason to believe he could certainly be part of the competition on the blue line this fall.

Andrei Kuzmenko

Andrei Kuzmenko did everything that was asked of him. In the seven games he played with the Flyers this season, after being acquired as a contract to just make the money work, from the Calgary Flames as part of the Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee trade, he produced enough. His five points in those seven games and suddenly giving the Flyers power play some jump and letting his skill shine on this roster. He had plenty of opportunity to score and he did just that.

It was enough for the Los Angeles Kings to come calling and trade a third-round pick for the pending unrestricted free agent. And look at him now — 17 points in the 22 games he played for the Kings in the regular season and in his first ever taste of the NHL playoffs, has three goals and six points in five games against the Edmonton Oilers. Everybody wins.

Thank you for your service, Andrei.

Karsen Dorwart

The one NCAA free agent signing the Flyers made this season, Karsen Dorwart was able to quickly join the Flyers after wrapping up his season at Michigan State and appear in five games for the club. He didn’t earn any points and played just under an hour of NHL hockey.

The 22-year-old center had a decent debut that made us fairly confident he could at least be an interesting farm hand in the near future, but after the schedule kind of caught up with him, Dorwart struggled as he closed out the season. Maybe it was just the entire team not looking too hot, but the young center appeared to be caught off-guard ever so slightly. For example, unfortunately in the 8-5 win for the Flyers over the New York Rangers, Dorwart was a minus-2.

He will almost certainly be in the AHL to start next season and maybe if he pops off down there, he will get another look with the big club.

Jett Luchanko

Just weeks after turning 18 years old, Jett Luchanko made his NHL debut to start this season. It was only him and Macklin Celebrini that made their NHL teams out of training camp after being drafted just months prior. It is going to take some serious brain power to try to remember how the start of the season was — oh, we were so full of hope and hype for Matvei Michkov — but all we remember about Luchanko’s four games was the word “solid”.

No points, but in the 56 or so minutes he played through those games, Luchanko managed to take three shots on goal, 10 total shot attempts for an individual expected goals of 0.96, drew two minor penalties, took one penalty, and then was 17-for-37 at the faceoff dot. That’s reading a stat sheet, but the impact Luchanko had was so present. He was just faster than almost every single player on the ice and forechecked like a mad man. And he was barely a legal adult.

It showed what he could be in the future. A slight glimpse at some of his tools to try and get a sense of what kind of player he can be at 23 or 24 years old. Just the first step in his journey, and he didn’t look half-bad outside of some teenaged jitters.

Olle Lycksell

Olle Lycksell had yet another chance to be something more than someone who bounces between the AHL and NHL and could provide a little bit of jump when needed. He did play in the most games out of this group of players — 19 appearances, five assists earned, just 10 shots on goal, and some decent underlying numbers like a 50.32 percent shot attempt share when he was on the ice, and a 55.41 percent expected goals share — but there was still just a lack of meaning behind his minutes.

Maybe we’re being too harsh on the 25-year-old forward who hasn’t even played in 50 NHL games yet, but when it comes to a player like him, he feels more like an AHL All-Star in a not-so-nice way. He could have gotten more opportunity than hanging out in the bottom six, but does he really deserve to play above the wingers the Flyers have already?

And that might just be the reason why the pending Group 6 unrestricted free agent (having played under 80 NHL games at 25 years old, he can head to the open market) could be part of either a different NHL organization or playing back home in Sweden next season.

He is a hell of a story. A sixth-round pick that performed well enough in the SHL to get noticed by the Flyers to bring him overseas, but there was always a ceiling with what he could do and right now, we’re afraid he hit it.

Devin Kaplan

He played 12 minutes and 12 seconds in the last game of the season that was a must-lose situation to maximize the Flyers’ draft lottery odds. Thank you, Devin.