Blink, and you’ll miss training camp under the NHL and NHL Players Association’s new collective bargaining agreement. The Philadelphia Flyers, along with teams across the league, took the ice for the first time just last Thursday. A week from Wednesday, the Flyers will start their 2026-27 campaign on the second day of regular season play.
After a few days of drills and scrimmaging, the Flyers will face an opponent for the first time Monday night in their preseason opener against the Washington Capitals. Before that, general manager Daniel Brière and head coach Rick Tocchet met with the media for the first time since the summer, taking a final look back at last season and discussing some of the big stories of training camp.
Managing Expectations
After saying in the summer the Flyers might take a step back, one of the first things Brière did in his press conference Tuesday morning was make it clear his team can build on last season’s playoff run. They just have to work for it.
“The part that keeps me up at night is having some of your players feel complacent, feel like they’ve made it. And let’s face it, we’re still a young team,” Brière said. “We’ve had guys that had success last year. You saw what happened with Matvei [Michkov] — had a lot of success the first year, it’s tougher the second year.
“We have guys like Porter Martone who came in late and had a lot of success, helped us get in the playoffs, performed very well, helped us win a round. You have guys like [Alex] Bump and [Denver] Barkey who had success in the second half of the year, those are the things that keep me up at night, worried that coming back, they’ll think it’s a little easier than they realize.”
He also emphasized that it isn’t just the young players who need to avoid complacency. Every member of the Flyers’ roster is still chasing their first championship. Only newcomer Noel Acciari has ever reached the Stanley Cup Final. The Flyers still have a big gap to close.
“The goal is to make the playoffs,” Brière affirmed. “The most important part for me, you’re not gonna like my answer, is that our young guys take another step. And if they do, I think we’ll be very competitive. I think last year, going into the season, we were just hoping to be competitive. We were just hoping to be in the mix, in or out of the playoffs, was gonna be a good season. I see us as more than we were last year and a better team than we were last year.”
Tocchet said as much in his first press conference of the season on Thursday. Teams will look at the Flyers differently after they reached the second round of the playoffs in the spring. That means they can’t expect the same things will continue to work for them. But that experience should help the team adjust to that extra attention.
“There’s situations last year, we did a helluva job on comebacks, you can’t rely on that,” Tocchet said. “So there’s some experience on how to lock a game down, how to push the pace when you’re up a couple goals, things like that. That’s why I said making those playoff games for some of these guys is huge. You can just tell even in training camp how far ahead some of those young guys are.”
Setting the Roster
The Flyers’ personnel is almost completely set, with only two or three roster spots still undecided. But deciding who plays with who will be more challenging this year than before with the shorter camp.
“You gotta find chemistry right off the bat,” Tocchet stated on Thursday. “There’s only 60 minutes a game. You gotta get certain people ice time.
That’ll sort itself out with play. I know everyone likes first, second, talks about lines. I don’t look at it that way. We have a lot of depth and I think that’s a positive when you play teams where you’re using the bench and guys are fresh out there. But saying that, there’s gonna be some guys we’re looking to get some more minutes, too.”
The Flyers have plenty of depth at wing, but there’s also a lot to figure out at center. Trevor Zegras and Denver Barkey were primarily used at wing last season, but both finished at center, with Zegras an especially strong bet to stick there. Philadelphia’s other pivots offer positional flexibility, including Noah Cates, a natural winger who’s mostly played center in the NHL but, like Zegras and Barkey, has struggled in the faceoff dot.
“It might go into the season,” Tocchet said when asked about the timeline for deciding his centers. “There might be some guys playing center for five games. We’ve gotta try it that way. We’re lucky because the Cates’ and the [Christian Dvorak’s], and [Sean Couturier] are veteran guys, smart guys, but then [Zegras], he looks good out there at center.
I don’t look at it like I’ve got 13 days to make a decision. It’s a longer rope for me. But we’re gonna have to give some guys opportunities at center for sure.”
As for Brière, he’s still more focused on supplementing the team. The Leo Carlsson offer sheet caused a lot of things, but it’s also a league-wide indicator the Flyers are willing to make a big move — if they can find the right dance partner.
“We’re not going to be reckless about it. It was so tough to get there, to have that freedom, that we want to try to get the right guy and spend our money properly.
“If something comes up that makes sense, yes, we definitely won’t be afraid to swing again.”
Michkov’s Statement
No one has made a better impression so far in training camp than Michkov. From popping on the ice to conducting his first press conference in English, everything seems primed for the 21-year-old to get back on track in year three.
“I think mentally it was a good thing for him to see, ‘Hey, I took care of myself, look at the impact I was able to have’, and I think he went with that mentality into the offseason, with instead of 10 days to do it, having three or four months, and that’s kind of what you see in how he looks at the moment, and he just walks around with a different swagger than he had probably two years ago,” Brière said about the work Michkov put in during February’s Olympic break and the ensuing production surge.
“He looks quick out there,” Tocchet complimented, later adding specific praise for his skating technique. “He and [Barkey] were buzzing around there. They’re doing the concepts that we talked about. He did look very quick out there. He wants to really work on his shot this summer, spent a lot of time working on his shot. Pushing the pace on the laps, I love that.”
Other Notes
One of the newcomers to the Flyers this year is David Jiříček. Brière acquired him for Bobby Brink at last season’s trade deadline. While Brière named Oliver Bonk, Ty Murchison, and Hunter McDonald as candidates for the open spot on the team’s third pair, it seems like the 2022 sixth overall pick has the upper hand.
“We hope David is ready to go. He’s gonna have a great opportunity here to showcase what he can do. At this point, it’s up to him,” Brière said. “But he’s not the only one that’s gonna be pushing for spots.”
One player who both Brière and Tocchet were asked about was Tyson Foerster. Injuries prevented him from maximizing his potential last season, but after scoring at a 37-goal pace and signing an eight-year extension, it’s clear the league is taking notice.
“When you talk to other teams, reach out about certain players, one of the first names that always comes up, going the other way, teams want Tyson,” Brière revealed. “So it tells you a lot on that front.”
The Flyers’ season ended with an unforgettable moment for the franchise as they were saluted with a standing ovation after being eliminated by the Carolina Hurricanes. Rather than fully move on, Tocchet hopes that the staying power of that experience will fuel the team to greater heights moving forward.
“Now listen, the fans giving a standing ovation after we’re getting swept, that makes them hungry. I wouldn’t be complacent,” Tocchet said. “Just look at that. The fans just gave you after the second round, applauded you guys. I’m not sure you want to come back and loaf around. That might help, just that gesture the fans did for the players.”
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