PHILADELPHIA \u2014 The Philadelphia Flyers\u2019 five-season playoff drought is over. The Flyers beat the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 in a shootout on Monday at Xfinity Mobile Arena to clinch third place in the Metropolitan Division and set up a first-round playoff matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how they got back into the playoffs for the first time since 2020.<\/p>\n
1. Offseason additions play key roles<\/p>\n
After mostly subtracting from the roster during his first two seasons in charge, general manager Daniel Briere pivoted in the summer of 2025. His three primary additions \u2014 goalie Dan Vladar, forward Trevor Zegras and center Christian Dvorak \u2014 each had the best season of their respective careers. Vladar assumed the role of No. 1 goalie and was the team\u2019s clear-cut MVP. Zegras has set a new career high in goals (26) and points (67), while Dvorak, who signed a five-year contract extension in January, has provided solid two-way play while adding a career-high 51 points, giving the Flyers some desperately needed help down the middle.<\/p>\n
2. Olympic break did them well<\/p>\n
There wasn\u2019t much reason to believe the Flyers could make a playoff push coming out of the Olympic break. They went just 3-8-3 in the 14 games before the shutdown, and after losing their first game after the break in Washington, they sat in 14th place in the 16-team Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n
But they quickly turned things around after that. Monday\u2019s win over Carolina was their 17th in the last 24 games (17-6-1). Sparked by some system changes from coach Rick Tocchet, the Flyers reestablished the defensive identity that they were showcasing earlier in the season, and the offense improved just enough to help them get on a roll.<\/p>\n
3. Young players take steps forward<\/p>\n
The Flyers remain one of the youngest teams in the league. A handful of them found a new level.<\/p>\n
Jamie Drysdale\u2019s defensive play, in particular, improved dramatically. Noah Cates has established a new career high in points (47). Owen Tippett found another gear after the trade deadline, leading the Flyers\u2019 attack on many nights. While Matvei Michkov\u2019s first half was disappointing, he\u2019s been among the Flyers\u2019 top scorers coming out of the Olympic break, looking more like the Michkov of a year ago. Tyson Foerster, despite having his season interrupted by a shoulder injury on Dec. 1 that kept him out for four months, may already be one of the best two-way wingers in the league. Denver Barkey and Alex Bump, who began the season with the AHL Lehigh Valley Phantoms, have both showed promise while finding a way to get on the scoresheet, too.<\/p>\n
4. Martone a late, welcome addition<\/p>\n
It\u2019s quite possible the Flyers wouldn\u2019t have been able to clinch a playoff spot without the 19-year-old Porter Martone, who joined the Flyers on March 31 and has immediately become one of their most dangerous scoring threats, with three goals and five assists in his first eight games. Martone has given the Flyers something they desperately needed \u2014 size, at 6-foot-3 and 214 pounds \u2014 and a shoot-first mentality, with an ability to bully his way to the front of the net both at five-on-five and on the power play. It\u2019s not too early to suggest that Martone, the No. 6 pick in the 2025 draft, is a star in the making.<\/p>\n
5. Veterans still producing<\/p>\n
There are only three Flyers remaining from their most recent playoff appearance: Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim and Sean Couturier. All of them are still vital pieces.<\/p>\n
Sanheim remains one of the league leaders in ice time, and may be playing the best hockey of his career since the Olympic break. Konecny is on track to lead the Flyers in scoring for the fifth straight season. Couturier \u2014 who was struggling mightily before the break \u2014 has lately keyed a fourth line that has given the team a huge boost, while also killing penalties and winning draws.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 The Philadelphia Flyers\u2019 five-season playoff drought is over. The Flyers beat the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4843,69,4845,71,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-165245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-philadelphia","10":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","11":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","12":"tag-philadelphia-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165245","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=165245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}