Through the first 20 games of the 2024-25 season, winger Travis Konecny and defenseman Travis Sanheim have demonstrably been the team's two best players. The best of friends off the ice, Sanheim and Konecny are each currently playing some of the best hockey of their respective careers.
Sanheim, 28, enjoyed a strong first quarter of last season, too. This season, however, he's elevated his overall game -- offensively as well as defensively.
Sanheim has been jumping to the play offensively with supreme confidence, even sometimes leading the rush.
Ranginess has always been one of Sanheim's main attributes --- a 6-foot-4 defenseman with exceptionally quick feet is hard to find -- but he's turned those natural gifts into a weapon with far greater consistency. He logs monstrous ice time, ranking in the top four leaguewide with an average 25:33 per game. Recently, he's even exceeded 30 minutes of ice time in a few matches.
Per NHL Edge's tracking data, in Monday's home game against Colorado, Sanheim skated the equivalent of 4.69 miles on the ice during his 31:07 of ice time. That's the most of any NHL player in a single game this season.
Once a vocal skeptic of the player's game during their first season together (2022-23), Flyers head coach John Tortorella has become of his Sanheim's most ardent advocates over the last two years.
"The way I looked at 'Sanny' when I first saw him, he was a good skating boy. He skated well. To me, there was nothing else to his game," Tortorella said during his media availability on Wednesday.
"I don't think he defended hard, I just didn't see a whole lot other than his skating ability, which stands out."
Today, the head coach's outlook on the player is the polar opposite to his early impressions.
He's just been so impressive. He's taken off. He's got a level of confidence that is just outstanding,' Tortorella said.
The biggest share of the credit goes to the player himself. Sanheim has had outstanding offseasons the last two summers from a conditioning standpoint, which has carried over into a Barry Ashbee Trophy last season as the Flyers top defenseman in 2023-24 and then into an even better start to the current campaign.
Significant credit is also due to Flyers assistant coach Brad Shaw, who works side-by-side with the defense corps and penalty kill on a daily basis. Over the years, the cerebral Shaw has earned a reputation for being a coach who helps blueliners on their paths to getting the most from their abilities.
Shaw, however, deflects the praise to the player himself. He noted how Sanheim took Tortorella's critiques and cajoling to heart and turned it to motivation to elevate his play.
"Took it personal, I guess, is the best way to say it," Shaw said. "Came back with a purpose last year, added pounds, and had a conviction to his game. Had a way more follow me sort of attitude, 'I'll show you guys what's necessary' on the ice."
Although the Flyers season so far has been a bit disappointing for the team collectively, Sanheim's play has been a big positive. He's defending well. He's playing with sky high confidence in the offensive zone, too. Sanheim has been doing all of this with a rotating cast of blueline partners because of all the recent injuries within the defense corps.
From an offensive production standpoint, Sanheim is pacing for the best season of his career. Through 20 games, he's posted five goals, seven assists, 12 points and a plus-two rating. Last season, he had his first double-digit goal season in the NHL (10) but Sanheim could far exceed that mark if he keeps up the way he's played so far.
Back during the height of his junior hockey days with the Western Hockey League's Calgary Hitmen, Sanheim was statistically one of the top offensive defensemen across the entire CHL (WHL, Ontario Hockey League, Quebec Maritimes Hockey League). A decade later, he's adapted that potential into making a marked offensive impact in the National Hockey League.
An NHL All-Star Game participant last season and the team's leading scorer in each of the two previous seasons, the 27-year-old Konecny leads the Flyers offensively once again. He's doing so at a career-best pace (11 goals, 12 assists, 23 points through 20 games).
Always playing on the emotional edge and pushing the envelope between assertiveness and risk-taking, Konecny has learned how to better select his spots. He's played with a wide variety of different linemates this season and it's not a coincidence that most of the Flyers top lines in given games have involved Konecny as part of the trio. He's been making his linemates better players.
"He wants to make a difference. He wants the puck and he's willing to lay it on the line. That's something that has stood out from the get-go," Tortorella said of Konecny on September 20 after a feisty training camp scrimmage.
"I said it last year: There's times where I have to look away because he drives me crazy with some of the stuff he does. But that's also something that makes him successful. It would be a mistake to over-coach him."
A special night for the Grans family
November 18, 2024, will be a day that Helge Grans will remember for the rest of his life. With parents Morgan and Maria in the stands, the 6-foot-4 defenseman made his NHL debut as the Flyers hosted Colorado at Wells Fargo Center.
Grans played well, too, and got rewarded with more ice time than was initially planned heading into the game. In 16:11 of ice time, the right-handed shooting defenseman showed good mobility and puck skills. He was involved in a couple of goal-scoring opportunities, finished at plus-two and also recorded his first NHL assist.
"I felt good," Grans said. "We play kind of similar [with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms] and I just focused on playing that way."
The timing of Grans' NHL debut coincided with his parents' pre-planned visit to the United States from their home in Ljungby, Sweden. As luck would have it, Helge's emergency recall from the Phantoms due to the Flyers' injury issues on the blueline came while his family was visiting.
Grans couldn't help but scan the stands to locate his parents' seats after he stepped out on the ice for his first NHL regular season game.
"I looked for them, but I didn't see them," the 22-year-old said after the Colorado game.
Level-headed by nature, Grans took perspective after his debut that it was a big personal milestone but was just one hockey game in a quest to eventually earn his way into a regular NHL role. Wednesday's game against Carolina did not go as smoothly in Grans' 15:52 of ice time but that, too, was an opportunity to test himself against one of the top teams in the world's top professional hockey league.
A busy week ahead
The Flyers are 1-2-0 thus far during their current five-game homestand. They did not play badly overall during their losses to Colorado and Carolina but neither performance saw the team sustain the level of three-period execution that it takes to knock off top opposition on the level of the Avalanche or Hurricanes.
After Saturday's matinee against Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks, the Flyers will very busy on Thanksgiving week. There will be little time to practice, which is why the Flyers held practices this past Sunday and Tuesday as well as Friday's session at the FTC in Voorhees.
On either end of U.S. Thanksgiving, the Flyers face a gauntlet of four games in six nights: Monday at home against the Vegas Golden Knights, Wednesday in Music City against the Nashville Predators, the annual Black Friday home matinee against the New York Rangers, and Saturday evening on the road against coach Drew Bannister's St. Louis Blues.
