The Philadelphia Flyers have played 16 games so far (8-5-3) record in the 2025-26 NHL season. That's not enough to draw big-picture conclusions. However, there are four early trends to watch.
1. Through a combination of greatly improved team defense execution and generally strong goaltending, the team has dramatically cut high-danger chances and goals by the opposition.
2. The Flyers' penalty kill has been stellar. The power play has been inconsistent but, overall, has moved from the bottom of the league to the middle of the pack.
3. Several off-season additions have fit right in and have made the Flyers a deeper team.
4. The team has a lot of room to improve offensively, especially at 5-on-5.
Let's break down each area by going inside the numbers: both the bottom-line ranking and the underlying numbers.
Team defense and goaltending
One year ago, through the games of Nov. 17, 2024, the Flyers had a 3.59 team goals against average to rank 28th in the league. This season, through 16 games, the team ranks 3rd with a 2.56 goals against average.
Dan Vladar (2.15 goals against average, .919 save percentage in a league with plummeting save percentages) receives -- and deserves -- a lot of the credit. Don't stop there, however.
The skaters in front of him have given their goalie a fair opportunity to make saves. The team has greatly cut down on opposing back-door goals and they are screening their own goalie much less often. Vladar faces a much higher than average percentage of clear-sighted shots from low-to-medium danger areas. However, when he's been tested with tough saves, the netminder has often stepped up and delivered.
Breaking the numbers down a bit more in-depth shows both the "what" and the "how" the Flyers have improved.
- The Flyers entered Wednesday's game against the two-time defending Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers as the NHL's number one team for fewest expected goals against at 5-on-5.
- Against Edmonton, all the Flyers did was hold the deadly Leon Draisaitl without so much as a single shot attempt, let alone a shot on goal or a point. Connor McDavid had one shot on goal (latter third period, requiring a tough save from Vladar) and one assist.
- Technically, the way the Flyers' 1-2-2 neutral zone forecheck and the way the team has been killing developing plays either at the neutral zone (top one-third of the league) or the blue line has stood out positively. Philly has allowed the second fewest opposition carry-ins for entries. Only the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers have allowed fewer per game.
- There is team-wide buy-in to the box + 1 in the defensive zone. This forces opponents to the perimeter. As long as all five skaters on the ice maintain their assignments -- it has to be all five or the system breaks down -- the goalie's job becomes more doable. This, too, plays directly into the team's top defensive ranking for fewest expected goals by opponents.
- Another way to describe it: layered defense through the neutral zone and within the D zone. There are other components involved, too: maintaining good gaps, players tracking back defensively, better executed 5-on-5 line changes, and more. Here, too, the underlying data shows large-scale improvement.
- Here's another crucial underlying factor, which starts in offensive or neutral zone: The Flyers rank in the NHL's top five in the fewest opposing odd-man rushes allowed.
- Last, but certainly not least, we come back to Vladar. His overall save percentage and even his save percentage on opposition expected goals (.896) stand well above the league averages this season.
The fancy word for this is "symbiosis". The late, great Bernie Parent said it better and in an easier-to-understand way. He said of his Broad Street Bullies teammates, "The boys helped me out a lot. Of course, I helped them out even more!"
Bernie would chuckle warmly and wink. He was joking but he was also speaking the truth: defense and goaltending go hand-in-hand. Ultimately, they'll either lift up one another or drag each other down. So far this season, the Flyers have both aspects working together quite well.
Special teams: Outstanding PK, Improving PP
The Flyers' penalty kill has been stellar for the most part this season, minus the second period of the team's shootout win in Montreal.
Overall, through 16 games, the penalty kill ranks second in the NHL at 88.7 percent success. The Flyers are still looking for their first shorthanded goal of the 2025-26 season.
So far this season, the Flyers' power play has moved from the bottom of the NHL ranking to the middle of the pack (20.4 percent, ranked 15th).
New additions clicking
The Flyers' offseason moves didn't grab much attention around the NHL. However, the team's main new additions have fit in very well so far, both on and off the ice.
We've already discussed Vladar's on-ice performance. Off the ice, he's become an immediately well-like figure within the dressing room. The Vladar-Ersson tandem has worked very well as a partnership: no unspoken tension over who plays a given game, no sulking if one guy does well and the other feels rusty. It's a very mutually supportive duo, and they interact well with all of their teammates, too.
Trevor Zegras leads the Flyers in scoring so far. He's also been a hit with his coaches for his desire to be taught and among his teammates for his gregarious and fun-loving personality off the ice. He's also shown a lot competitive drive on the ice. Some of it shows up in stats, but he's also been strong in the intangibles.
Without any fanfare, Noah Juulsen has helped the Flyers withstand the absence of Rasmus Ristolainen on the third defensive pair. He's had three different defense partners -- Emil Andrae most recently, Egor Zamula and Adam Ginning before that -- and has quietly brought a steady presence to the right side of his pairing.
4. The offense needs to improve
The Flyers are working to install a bit more coaching into the offensive side of the game: small-area work, set plays, etc. That is still very much a work in progress.
The biggest things Philly wants -- and needs --- to do more consistently is to recover its offense off the rush, get more pucks and traffic to the net with consistency, make sure more of its open shot opportunities get on net, and improve the forechecking consistency beyond the trio of Tyson Foerster, Noah Cates and Bobby Brink. The team needs more puck possession.
These needs are reflected in the numbers: The Flyers generate the NHL's fewest shots on goal per game. Meanwhile, last year at this time, the club ranked 23rd in goals per game (2.72). That figure has dropped to 30th (2.56).
Looking a bit deeper at the underlying numbers, the Flyers were actually a very good offensive team off the rush the past few years (it was grinding/deflection/ rebound goals that was the main struggle beyond the Cates line). This season, they've sacrificed a bit off the rush, ranking 30th in expected goals in that situation. However, they've improved gradually in some of the other aspects.
Bottom line: The Flyers need to at least get themselves into the 3+ goal per game vicinity. They're last in 5-on-5 goals scored, so that needs to be the first area addressed offensively even as the power play has trended positively.
