{"id":140478,"date":"2026-03-17T09:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T09:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/140478\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T09:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T09:04:10","slug":"keith-jones-joined-97-5-the-fanatic-to-talk-about-the-flyers-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/140478\/","title":{"rendered":"Keith Jones joined 97.5 ‘The Fanatic’ to talk about the Flyers’ future"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been almost three full years since the Flyers began their \u201cNew Era of Orange<\/a>\u201d and hired Danny Bri\u00e8re<\/a> as general manager and Keith Jones<\/a> as president of hockey operations.<\/p>\n

A lot has happened since. The Flyers drafted Matvei Michkov<\/a>, made several trades, and had a coaching change from John Tortorella<\/a> to Rick Tocchet<\/a>. One thing that hasn\u2019t changed is the Flyers\u2019 last postseason appearance, as the team seems poised to miss out on the playoffs for the sixth consecutive year. <\/p>\n

But are things trending in the right direction?<\/p>\n

Jones believes so, as the Flyers president joined 97.5 The Fanatic\u2019s Kincade & Salciunas<\/a> radio show on Monday to discuss the team\u2019s rebuild and why he remains excited about the Flyers\u2019 future. Here are five important questions he answered:<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: The Flyers\u2019 power play is last in the NHL again. Here are three suggestions for how they can fix it.<\/a><\/p>\n

1. Is the rebuild still on schedule?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we all would love to rush it and make it happen quicker, but it\u2019s just not the way it is in the environment that we\u2019re in today,\u201d Jones said. \u201cOne of the things I\u2019m really happy about is we are alleviating a lot of the cap pressure that we had in the past. So a lot of the deals that we had to work out of, including the Kevin Hayes deal, the Ryan Ellis deal, Cam Atkinson\u2019s deal, all of that money is starting to come off the books. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other part of it was to add younger talents and accumulate draft picks, and start to put those picks into play, allowing the players enough time to fully develop, not to rush them, but to watch them grow, and hope that our assessments on where they\u2019ll end up in the future align and they end up being big parts of the franchise as we move forward. So those things are all in a very good place, and I\u2019m really excited about the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. How would you evaluate Rick Tocchet\u2019s first season?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Rick has done a really good [job] trying to implement his philosophy, his defensive style of coaching, and trying to bring it to an entirely new team, with a new group of players, and with a group of players that, in some cases, are very young. I do think there\u2019s challenges that come with that. But overall, I think he\u2019s done a really good job,\u201d Jones said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI look at where we\u2019re at and without a major hiccup for about a six-week period, we\u2019re talking about a team that, with where we\u2019re at in our growth isn\u2019t quite there, yet would have been sitting in a much higher place in the standings above some really good hockey teams. So I think he\u2019s done a really good job of grinding out wins. But obviously, there\u2019s going to be bumps along the way in that process also. So I\u2019m quite pleased with Rick.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Do you believe Matvei Michkov can get back on track after his sophomore slump?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not just confident, I\u2019m excited. I think this year has been obviously very up and down<\/a>, but I can\u2019t wait for the future, because I know [Michkov\u2019s] talent, I know the player, I know the growth that has taken place this year,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew it wasn\u2019t going to be a straight line, but when I watch him now, and his attention to detail and the way that he has improved his defensive play, and on top of that, now he\u2019s starting to get his jump back and starting to make the plays that we know he\u2019s capable of playing. I think it only goes up from here. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo yes, the sophomore slump is real. But more importantly, during this slump, there\u2019s been some valuable things that have been added to his game. So I think the future is extremely bright. I\u2019m as excited about him today as I was after last season, and prior to that, after we drafted him. I\u2019m really looking forward to seeing what happens next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

4. How important is it to have veterans be part of this?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important to have some pieces to insulate some of the younger guys, because some of the new guys have come in and made a very good showing to start,\u201d Jones said. \u201cBut as we know, it\u2019s never a straight line. There are going to be wobbles that take place. \u2026 But when you have guys around them that have done that before and are continuing to be productive players, most importantly, that\u2019s a great way for the kids to learn.<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Resetting the Flyers\u2019 future: Which prospects beyond Porter Martone and draft picks are on the way?<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s also [got to be a] willingness to accept your role changing, where you may have been a prime power-play player at one point in your career, you may have to adjust and become a more defensive player. \u2026 So you know, a player like Sean Couturier<\/a> comes to mind in that regard, and Sean\u2019s willingness to do whatever it takes to help the team is really important as we move forward with these kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

5. Is patience wearing thin?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all can\u2019t wait for the building to be packed again and to play playoff games<\/a>, but we\u2019re also realistic on the timeline to do that,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIt\u2019s getting closer, there\u2019s no doubt about that, but we\u2019re not there yet, so we\u2019ll continue to look at every creative way to make the team better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of improvements that have happened, that we\u2019re looking at, that we have in the near future, in players like Porter Martone<\/a> and the return of Tyson Foerster<\/a>, those things are going to be very important for us. Specifically, they provide us with boosts in areas that we need for the future of our team.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, the power play is not where we want it to be, but we have specific thoughts on players that are going to help continue to get that in a much better spot, and I\u2019m excited about where those players fit in. Jack Berglund is another player that\u2019s going to be one of those net-front guys that can provide screens, set intelligent picks, and help players around him find ways to score on the power play. Those type of things excite me, and sometimes I feel a little bit impatient with those things, but I also recognize that we believe those guys are going to really help in that regard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Q&A: Danny Bri\u00e8re on Trevor Zegras\u2019 future, Jett Luchanko, and the idea of being stuck in hockey purgatory<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been almost three full years since the Flyers began their \u201cNew Era of Orange\u201d and hired Danny…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64380,69,71,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-140478","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-keith-jones-president-radio-the-fanatic-michkov-tocchet-rebuild","9":"tag-philadelphia","10":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","11":"tag-philadelphia-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}