This article will be part four of a series of posts looking at how the New York Islanders stack up against each Metropolitan Division team next season (done in no particular order). Today’s post: how the Islanders measure against the Philadelphia Flyers.
FORWARDS
Philadelphia’s offense is in a similar spot age-wise to New York’s, with a good portion of their forward group around in their late 20s/early 30s. The Flyers do have three players who can all be expected to produce 70+ points in Sean Couturier, Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek. They also added Kevin Hayes (though that contract isn’t great), while James van Riemsdyk consistently scores between 55-60 points and Travis Konecny is a candidate to pass the 50-point mark for the first time. Nolan Patrick and Oskar Lindblom are likely going to continue to develop and Scott Laughton is coming off the most productive season of his career. The Flyers have a good base of veterans in Couturier, Giroux, Hayes, van Riemsdyk and Voracek and in fact, it’s a better base of veterans than the Islanders have in Josh Bailey, Anders Lee, Jordan Eberle and Brock Nelson, among others. The Flyers’ mix of veterans and younger players who are being phased in makes for a pretty well-rounded offense heading into next season.
EDGE- PHILADELPHIA
DEFENSE
Travis Sanheim was solid in his first full NHL season but Shayne Gostisbehere had a down year offensively and Ivan Provorov, who’s typically been very strong defensively, struggled as well last year. The Flyers did add Matt Niskanen and Justin Braun, while Robert Hagg is just 24 years old. This makes for an interesting judgement against the Islanders defense core. If Gostisbehere and Provorov return to form while Sanheim continues to improve, that’s a pretty good top-three that likely comes out ahead of Nick Leddy, Devon Toews, Ryan Pulock. That said, if we’re going off what we saw last year the Islanders take the edge, plus Devon Toews and Ryan Pulock are each only going to continue to round out their game next season. The depth of Justin Braun, Robert Hagg and Matt Niskanen rivals Johnny Boychuk, Scott Mayfield and Adam Pelech and may be a bit stronger. If Gostisbehere and Provorov bounce back, the Flyers take this. If not, the edge goes to New York.
EDGE- TIE
GOALTENDING
Carter Hart is the future of goaltending not only for the Philadelphia Flyers but for the NHL. That said, he’s not the “elite” goalie yet that he’s projected to be in a few years and though a .917 save percentage is good, it’s not unstoppable. This isn’t supposed to be a cop-out but with only 31 games to go off of with Carter Hart and a wildly inconsistent Semyon Varlamov who could range anywhere from providing backup-level goaltending to being one of the league’s top starters, this goaltending battle is quite unpredictable and up in the air right now.
EDGE- TIE
The Flyers did go 25-22-4 from the time Carter Hart was brought up, making them more of a competitive team last season. There’s no doubt the Flyers have better, more well-rounded offense. There are question marks defensively as to which Gostisbehere and Provorov will show up though which could have a big impact on where Philadelphia’s season goes. With Carter Hart, he’s a great prospect but we still just have a small sample size to go off of when predicting exactly how he’s going to perform in his sophomore year. Plus with Brian Elliott, the Flyers have a usable but not great backup. If the Flyers perform based on how they should on paper, they’re the better team. Again though this is a team that, based on their team on paper last year, could have also made the playoffs. Especially with their additions, the Flyers have an advantage but as we know, better on paper simply means better on paper.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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