Hope springs eternal in the summer for NHL fans who haven’t watched their team play since early April.
Could 2024-25 be the season that non-playoff teams from 2023-24 make the postseason?
In a four-part series, we examine the non-playoff teams from last season and whether they have improved enough to give their fans hope they’ll play beyond early April.
We’ve put the 16 teams in four tiers — the “Long National Nightmare” division,” “Groundhog Day” division,” “Scratch-off” division” and our bottom tier, the “Puh-leeze” division.
Here’s an assessment of teams in the second tier from the top, the “Groundhog Day Division.”
In this division, it feels a bit like the classic Bill Murray movie, “Groundhog Day.” How could this possibly be happening again? How much longer could this possibly last? What’s the secret to ending this purgatory? For these teams, the playoffs are a possibility.
8. Philadelphia Flyers | 38-33-11, 87 points, 21st
The biggest Flyers decision involved buying out the final season of struggling winger Cam Atkinson’s contract.
Otherwise, Philadelphia brought one of the best players outside of North America stateside, Matvei Michkov, a Russian forward. Arguably the best player not playing in the NHL last season, he was released by his KHL club, allowing him to arrive in Philadelphia much earlier than anticipated. The Flyers selected Michkov seventh overall at the 2023 NHL Draft.
For the Flyers, who have missed the playoffs in four consecutive seasons, Michkov is the only blue-chip prospect they have to show for multiple years of futility.
The Flyers have weak depth at center and questions in goal, which are issues that could prevent them from returning to the postseason for the first time since the 2019-20 season.
