The Philadelphia Flyers were playing a serious game of musical chairs when it came to their blue line and goaltending situations during the 2023-24 season, causing players to soldier through plenty of injuries and exhaustion.
Despite the chaos, the Flyers did seem to have found the pairings they want to stick with for the 2024-25 season, with both players and coaches having plenty of optimism for what the defense can accomplish now that they're settled into more of a rhythm.
Lineup One: Ol' Reliable
York - Sanheim
Drysdale - Seeler
Zamula - Ristolainen
Cam York and Travis Sanheim being the first defensive pairing is pretty non-negotiable at this point. They've built up a great connection and have spoken at length about how much they enjoy playing together, so as long as the quality of play stays up, there's really no reason to separate them.
Jamie Drysdale and Nick Seeler both dealt with pretty nasty injuries last season, but having a veteran like Seeler to help Drysdale continue acclimating to the Flyers' blue line is an ideal situation. This has all the potential to be a really well-balanced pair—Seeler has the physical, hard-hitting defensive style, while Drysdale is best known for his skating abilities and being more offensive-minded.
The third pairing is where things will likely get a bit tricky. Rasmus Ristolainen is still recovering from an injury that sidelined him for a significant portion of the season, and it's looking increasingly likely that he'll be traded at some point this upcoming season.
With Egor Zamula signing a new two-year deal this summer, he'll probably be looking at playing with a rotating cast of characters during the season.
Lineup Two: Big Brothers And Little Brothers
York - Sanheim
Drysdale - Seeler
Zamula - Johnson
The Flyers extended Erik Johnson's contract in July, signing him to a one-year deal, which was a move that GM Danny Briere had hinted at earlier in the year when describing the need for a veteran presence on the blue line.
It sounds like there's a mutual understanding that Johnson won't get the big minutes this season—his role will be more mentoring and leadership-focused—but with Ristolainen's health still up in the air, it's not outlandish to think that Johnson could suit up for Opening Night to keep the theme of "young player paired with a more experienced player" going.
Lineup Three: Two Young Guns
York - Sanheim
Drysdale - Seeler
Zamula - Ginning
The signing of Adam Ginning to a two-year, two-way/one-way contract implies that the Flyers are looking to give him a bigger role in the defense moving forward. It fits in perfectly with the younger direction the organization is moving in, and it would certainly be valuable for Ginning to start getting more consistent NHL minutes after yo-yoing between the Flyers and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms last season.
Only time will tell how much the Flyers actually end up using Ginning (Ronnie Attard, who also shuttled between the NHL and AHL last season, will almost certainly be a candidate as well), but the team has showed faith in him with his most recent deal, so it will be interesting to see when and how they choose to utilize him for the upcoming campaign.
