The Philadelphia Flyers historically have had no issue sitting in the penalty box. Their reputation in the ’70s during their Cup wins was that the sin bin was just an extension of their own bench. Regardless of the infraction, they did more of their fair share of sitting for two, five, or ten minutes depending on the infraction.
Heading into the Nashville game Thursday night, the Flyers find themselves sixth overall on the penalty kill at 87 per cent. Philadelphia would’ve found themselves bit higher in the rankings, but giving up two shorties to the Canadiens on Tuesday night only brought that percentage down. They are also ninth regarding net penalty kill (again at 87 per cent). The Flyers have killed 40 of 46 power play opportunities against them. Only Montreal (twice), Florida (twice), Seattle (once), and Winnipeg (once) have been successful. Philadelphia also has two short-handed goals this year: one against the Islanders and one in the home opener versus Florida.
Although the personnel is essentially the same foundation or core with just a few additions over the summer, the Flyers in 2024-25 ended up in the middle of the pack at fifteenth (79.4 per cent) and seventeenth in terms of net penalty kill (81 per cent). They gave up 45 goals on 201 opportunities while scoring 10 short-handed goals. A lot of those goals could be laid quite easily at the feet of Sam Ersson, Ivan Fedotov, and Aleksei Kolosov as they weren’t very good last year. Simply put, the Flyers seemed to be at a disadvantage right from the start. But there are a few factors why the Flyers are looking better 13 games into this season down a man then they were all of last season.
So let’s do a deeper look into what some of those differences might be, and whether or not the numbers can be as strong or as high in March and April as they currently are now.
The personnel
The Flyers had some overhaul in their penalty-killing personnel from last season to this season. Some of the penalty-killers from last year — particularly the forward component — are no longer here. And the usage among those forwards is quite different. Perhaps the most damning statistic between last season and this season so far regarding usage is how Rick Tocchet has used Sean Couturier. So far this season Couturier has 26:52 ice time when it comes to being on the penalty kill. That might not seem like a big deal. After all, you’re talking about a former Selke Trophy winner and a center who remains one of the better two-way defensive centers in the league. However, last season, for whatever inexplicable reason aside from the disdain Tortorella had for him, Couturier was on the penalty kill for just 38:24. So with 69 games remaining in the season, Couturier has now played 69.96 per cent of what he played down a man all of last season. That borders on sheer lunacy.
But let’s look at how so far the personnel was used last year versus this year. Again, obviously the numbers will be larger for 2024-25 as it’s an entire season, and a much bigger sample size. It gives an indication or glimpse into how Tocchet is using his penalty killers and what roles those players have. So here are the top 10 ice times between last year and this year. Obviously, some of the names will be different but it gives you a better idea at what Tocchet is doing.
| 2025-26 Flyers PK personnel | 2025-26 PK ice time | 2024-25 Flyers PK personnel | 2024-25 PK ice time | |
| Travis Sanheim | 49:00 | Travis Sanheim | 191:07 | |
| Nick Seeler | 35:25 | Cam York | 128:16 | |
| Cam York | 34:04 | Nick Seeler | 122:34 | |
| Noah Cates | 29:15 | Noah Cates | 121:19 | |
| Christian Dvorak | 28:43 | Rasmus Ristolainen | 118:13 | |
| Noah Juulsen | 28:13 | Travis Konecny | 99:52 | |
| Sean Couturier | 26:52 | Ryan Poehling | 98:52 | |
| Tyson Foerster | 22:19 | Scott Laughton | 98:01 | |
| Travis Konecny | 19:21 | Garnet Hathaway | 92:37 | |
| Garnet Hathaway | 18:52 | Tyson Foerster | 75:25 |
As you can see, some of the changes are obvious. Gone from last year are Ryan Poehling and Scott Laughton while Rasmus Ristolainen is injured. Also, this year sees Seeler with a slight edge in ice time but, of course, York was injured to start the season. So it’s quite clear barring injuries the top three penalty killers this year are probably going to be the same three this coming season. What is also evident is the Flyers are probably going to rely much more on Dvorak, Cates, and Couturier this season in terms of being three of the four forwards over the two penalty killing units. As for Travis Konecny, his days of being a threat on the penalty kill are probably in the rearview mirror given his usage. He currently sits ninth on the team this season in penalty kill ice time versus being sixth last season.
Of course, if you use this 13-game sample size for the rest of the season, you will see these players used a hell of a lot. The Flyers have 184 penalty minutes thus far, which is more than double what Minnesota (91) has as well as the Oilers (76). In layman’s terms, one could look at that stat and state they have spent three of their first 13 games in the penalty box, which is way too much! So it’s evident the Flyers have to start being much more disciplined in their play. The penalty kill has been great in part because they are getting the reps during games. But believing that five or six minor penalties a game isn’t going to hurt you is nonsense. It’s just a matter of time before that needless workload starts catching up with a team. And hurting them.
They are getting better, albeit slowly. Since the Ottawa loss on Oct. 23, the Flyers haven’t had more than four penalty kills in any one of the six subsequent games. Opponents have had four power play opportunities in each of two different games, once with three attempts and the remaining three with a pair in each game. Lowering that amount should lighten the load and improve the penalty kill in the long haul.
Now that we know who Rick Tocchet and his coaching staff have been relying on to get the job done. Let’s take a look at what they’ve been able to do as a unit in terms of effectively killing penalties.
What is working for the Flyers
Here are a few more stats that show you what the Flyers have done so far this season on the penalty kill. Note the stats are based on instances where Philadelphia was down a man. Obviously, sometimes they have been down two men, but generally the four-on-five model is often the rule, not the exception. Here then is what the Flyers have done this year versus last year on the penalty kill.
| 2025-26 Flyers penalty kill (4-on-5) | 2024-25 Flyers penalty kill (4-on-5) | |
| Games | 82 | 13 |
| Time On Ice | 314:07 | 76:42 |
| Expected goals against (xGA) | 9.25 | 38.04 |
| High danger chances against (HDCA) | 21 | 112 |
| High danger shots against | 15 | 73 |
| High danger goals against | 0 | 21 |
A few stats might jump out at you, namely the expected goals against this year versus last year, essentially down over 75 per cent from last season so far. That is definitely going to help a penalty kill. As well, the Flyers have yet to concede a high danger goal against this year, another remarkable stat given they lead the league in penalties. Finally, if one was to use this current amount of penalty minutes and extrapolate it over 82 games, they would be close to having between 475 to 500 minutes short-handed in a season. It would be almost impossible to expect a currently great penalty kill to keep chugging along at this success rate under that weighty workload. Something would be bound to break. But so far things have been going quite well for Philadelphia down a man or two.
Another important aspect of this is that the goaltending has obviously looked much better. Not Vezina worthy but it has improved both on the stat line and in the eye test. The Flyers, whether it’s Ersson, Vladar or even Kolosov, have been getting saves when they need them far more often than most of last season. Let’s do a little comparison breaking down what the trio of Ersson, Kolosov and Ivan Fedotov did last year while Philadelphia was on the penalty kill versus this current season.
| 2024-25 Flyers goaltending stats during PK | Time on ice | Shots against | Saves | Save percentage | Goals saved above average | Expected goals against (xGA) | Rebound attempts against |
| Sam Ersson | 209:01 | 166 | 144 | .867 | 2.86 | 28.25 | 39 |
| Ivan Fedotov | 86:40 | 51 | 39 | .765 | -4.36 | 9.61 | 15 |
| Aleksei Kolosov | 57:40 | 56 | 47 | .839 | -0.61 | 8.50 | 9 |
| 2025-26 Flyers goaltending stats during PK | Time on ice | Shots Against | Saves | Save percentage | Goals saved above average | Expected goals against (xGA) | Rebound attempts against |
| Dan Vladar | 52:43 | 39 | 34 | .872 | 0.57 | 5.63 | 7 |
| Sam Ersson | 20:24 | 22 | 21 | .955 | 2.14 | 3.18 | 3 |
| Aleksei Kolosov | 5:37 | 4 | 4 | 1.00 | 0.57 | 0.72 | 0 |
Two things stand out between both 2024-25 and 2025-26. The save percentage is quite better. Vladar’s save percentage of .872 is only something Kolosov and Fedotov could’ve dreamed of last season. And Vladar’s percentage is the lowest of the trio so far 13 games in. As well, the expected goals against is drastically lower than anything shown in 2024-25. And they so far have been keeping the rebounds to a minimum, which brings up the next aspect that is often keeping the opponent’s power play from scoring.
Tocchet’s units are solid down low
Tocchet spoke earlier this year of wanting to keep the shot blocking mentality in the club, but not making it the hill he died on. Unlike Tortorella, who probably would’ve urged Flyers centers to block the puck from hitting the ice during faceoffs if it was allowed, Tocchet has managed to keep things rather tidy in the danger areas. Let’s take a look at how this has differed from 2024-25 into this season. The graphs below show how the Flyers performed in 2024-25. The purple areas show where the Flyers were above the league average in preventing shots while the orange areas, well, not so much.
As shown above, the Flyers didn’t really keep the front of the net from being a shooting gallery. The dark orange in the slot and high danger areas show where the opposition got a lot of their quality scoring chances. In fact, the three purple areas could be seen as where the Flyers penalty killing units blocked the most shots, whether from the point or one-timers from either side of the goal. But if those shots weren’t blocked, or if the opposition found their way into the sweet spots, it wasn’t good for Philadelphia. It also shows that the opponent’s bumper was rarely prevented from generating chances. Not a great look. The horrible goaltending didn’t help, but this approach to penalty-killing doesn’t tend to be very effective.
Now let’s see below what the 2025-26 Flyers have been doing using the same standard.
As you can see, there’s a hell of a lot of dark purple in front of the net and to either side of it, meaning the Flyers four-man box is doing the job of keeping the bumper from being a danger. As well, it also shows that whatever ideas the other team might have of getting dirty or greasy goals in the front of the net is simply not happening. The Flyers are keeping the box tight and being extremely effective in allowing the goaltender to make the first save.
Of course, there will be deflections and shots will bounce off skates into the net. But for the most part the foursome is keeping the opposition away from Vladar, Ersson and Kolosov. Philadelphia will let the other team take shots from the sides and the points. And they seem to be clearing those lanes so the goalie will see it and stop it. But good luck trying to get off a great attempt in the slot or in front of the net. They are not allowing it. The credit obviously goes to the trio of Sanheim, York and Seeler. But everyone is doing their job when asked. It’s a credit to Tocchet they have managed to get this part of their special teams off and running so quickly, particularly given the amount of penalties they’ve had to kill.
Is it sustainable?
The Flyers play their fourteenth game against the host Predators tonight. So far they have been healthy for the most part on the back end. And aside from an injury to Foerster, they’ve been able to avoid serious, long-term problems regarding personnel. If they manage to stay healthy, and the goaltenders are able to be close to as good as they currently are, then the Flyers will probably be far better in 2025-26 than they were in 2024-25 killing off minors or majors. It’s a credit to Tocchet they have figured out this so quickly.
Hopefully they keep going in that direction. There will be nights they give up two or three, that’s part of the ups and downs of a season. It’s incredibly crucial they reduce the opportunities, especially with a condensed schedule. You can’t be killing eight to 10 penalties over a back-to-back and expect to come away with four points often. For a 13-game sample size, they’ve been quite solid.