Is it time to have the conversation about how much the Flyers are lacking in true elite prospects in their system. Besides Porter Martone, who else are you excited about?
This segment originally aired on January 22nd, 2026 as part of “Hitting the Skids – Snow The Goalie Ep. 288”
Full Episode: https://youtube.com/live/sJ8u7k3IzOY
đź‘• SNOW THE GOALIE MERCH: https://shop.snowthegoalie.com/
Follow the show
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SnowTheGoalie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SnowTheGoalie/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/snowthegoalie/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@snowthegoalie
Subscribe on your favorite podcast app
https://tinyurl.com/STGApplePodcasts
https://tinyurl.com/STGSpotify
Follow the guys on Twitter
https://www.twitter.com/@AntSanPhilly
https://www.twitter.com/@JoyOnBroad
https://www.twitter.com/@ctherien6
#Flyers #LetsGoFlyers #philadelphiaflyers #NHL
29 Comments
This team has lots of prospects with hope. Martone leads list.
What they do have are too many wingers.
They have no way of acquiring a 1C or 1D. This is just propaganda from the organization
I argue this team is better set up for success.
All that team had was a 1st line plus Simmonds even konecny was not producing in early year.
It's snowing so I broke my rule. I watched this and yes, Russ is still both lacking in knowledge and is still unwatchable.
The Flyers have 2 of the top 15 NHL prospects drafted into this league since Danny B. was named GM.
Jett Luchanko is still 19. He made the NHL right after his 18th birthday. He is a sure NHLer ….which line totally depends if he meshes w Michkov. If he does, watch out.
Great NHL teams control the middle w smart, strong center play. The Flyers have a stable of drafted young centers in the pipeline. If half hit, the team is so much better.
Did I mention how unwatchable Russ is?
There is no hope. Its the same shit over and over.
Same mistakes, same organizational philosophy of grit and character over talent and skill.
And keep hiring bone headed coaches instead of younger, progressive minded ones.
did anyone see the Colorado TV announcer who trashed the Flyers fans in attendance and the city and the Flyers organization late in the game with the Flyers winning 7-3 and the Flyers fans chanting let's go Flyers. The announcer should be fired
We are definately in a better place today than we were 7 years ago. The difference: management. As I said before, the linger that Dave, Valerie, and puppet Chuck stayed in charge, the longer it would take to clean up their mess after they were all finally gone. We are still cleaning up their mess.
What is Anthony smoking. This team has 3 good young players on the poster and 2 in the pipeline. All this losing with very little to show for it.
Until these kids are playing in the NHL, no one has any idea if what the flyers are doing is right.
Anthony you are allowed dude to criticize teams. You always make excuses for the Phillies and Flyers. Come on
unfortunately, the Flyers have missed in the draft on their chances to grab elite talent. Two come to mind — Makar and Werenski. Disagree that the roster isn't better overall than 7 years ago — they have very good forwards through at least 3 lines which should expand to four good lines next year when Martone arrives. Bump also in the wings. Their D-core is very solid with Sannheim, Drysdale and York — all very good and hopefully Andrae gets better and they have multiple prospects that could emerge in a year or two in Bonk, Murchison maybe even Kyrou. We are probably not going to be bad enough to grab elite talent in the draft, but Danny had a huge offseason last year, so maybe he can find some very good talent again in this coming off-season and work a trade or two. If you look at the Panthers most of their team were not their own draft picks, including Tkachuk, Marchand, Reinhart, Bennett, Forsling, Marchand etc. They did have the good fortune of picking Barkov second overall in 2013. Four years later we had the second overall pick and selected Nolan Patrick. That miss still haunts the franchise. But Briere is trying to make the team a competitive playoff team.
I think he's missed on a few draft picks (time will tell) and he needs to do better, but he's also made some good moves — very much a mixed performance but we will succeed or fail based on what he does going forward.
More recycled content. Of course they are lacking talent in the pipeline. They have two prospects in the athletics’ top 95 prospects. They’ve stunk for years and that’s it. They have no number one or two center or a top pair defenseman. They stink.
Tanking rarely works. It all depends on how/who you draft and how you develop, all while signing and trading for the right players.
Even if you “tank” there’s no guarantee at a top pick in the draft with the draft lottery, if you don’t get it then you just prolonged the rebuild and are absolutely fucked.
They have a lot of prospects either hope.
People think “elite talent” is just about points. Elite talent is players elite in their own different ways. Michkov has point producing potential, Martone elite power fwd potential, TF elite defensive forward with a good shot, Tippett elite shot and speed, Sanheim got named to team Canada and is a top pair D on Philly – elite in his own sense. Some casuals just don’t understand the definition of talent.
Ant always seem to be spot on.
Jake Vv never did squat in the playoffs.
That draft in June was supposed to be a franchise changing draft and it wasn’t. Ross is correct.
Don't let Anthony bully you Russ, you're 100% correct.
Tanking is not a good plan. Look at the 76ers. They tanked to get top picks Markele Fultz Ben Simons and Jalhi Okafor who are were terrible players. They move up to get players that suck.
I am excited about Martone, but he doesn't play center. Where is the 1C coming from?? Russ is spot on! The Flyers have drafted poorly imo and have not been willing to get into the top 5 to get that elite talent. No 1C, no 1D … and clearly Breire is not willing to give up the farm to get these players. We keep being stuck in the middle. Sneaking into the playoffs to watch Sanheim play even worse than he does now is not exciting to me.
Elias Pettersson is soft, I want no part of him.
If you don’t develop players you draft outside of the obvious high picks in the first round, find some diamonds in the rough, a team will always be chasing free agents which is a crapshoot as well as expensive. The Flyers don’t have enough depth to take chances on players like Jett. That is when you take a Helenius or Buium who are better probabilities to develop into top end players for your lineup.
Thank You for putting things in a realistic perspective Russ. When a pick feels like a stretch, and their numbers thereafter and play feels like a stretch, you PROBABLY have a stretch. Its ok to question the picks. Its not OK to say "he's only 19, what do you know!?!" Well, I'm a fan looking at the current data, previous consensus, and future projections and making an educated guess rhat I'm completely entitled to.
One more Martone level prospect on the D and I feel better. Zvragin feels legit at G
Other teams somehow draft 1c and 1d in the back of the 1st round and in the 2nd round.
Russ is so embarrassing most negative human ever prob doesnt even know how to skate
Even anthony constantly gets annoyed by Russ dumb commentary
The rebuild is ok, but it’s not complete yet. They don’t have enough players. They need to play young players and let them learn.
Tanking doesn’t work by itself- look at their tenant partners the Sixers. They tanked without culture and had talented but immature stars in Embiid and Simmons. No vets to teach them then right way to play, and zero accountability. Embiid took too long to mature before injury/age took over. And do I need to say more than Atlanta Game 7.
Astonished the fans & media do not hold Flyers responsibly for their years and years of poor drafts. They go nowhere until this gets fixed. Sure Tocchet can squeeze few playoffs appearances but Chuck Fletcher lead front office could have done that. Brent Flahr has been in charge of draft for 7 years and barely any questions on why this team look incapable of drafting star players. Its not just a weak front office and scouting….its weak fanbase that allows it to continue.
Holy shit there is so much stupidity in this video and in this comment section. Voracek was great but he had one 80+ point season and then signed a big contract and never lived up to it again. No one and I mean fuckin nobody seven years ago said sanheim was going to turn out anything like he is today, so don't try to lie about it. He was a turnover machine. To think we are in the same position as seven years ago. Holy shit what are you smoking and can I have some? Fuck! Build the team create the depth of the organization and then fill the holes. You don't get one or two star players and then create a team around them. Teams rarely succeed like that ie. The Edmonton oilers. Tank tank tank tank how many number one picks? The best player in hockey? And they still haven't been able to get it done. Because they have struggled to create organizational depth because they spent 15 years sucking and then wasting mcdavids youth. Stop being stupid. Fuck
They banked on free agency and everyone signed. Russ is always dead on
You also have to have assets that people want. The other reason the Flyers didn't get Quinn Hughes is Minnesota had Zeev Buium and the Flyers had Jett Luchanko. When you draft guys for fit rather than BPA, you have less assets the league generally agrees are valuable. When you are reaching for kinds of centers or guys you think play "Flyers hockey," they are less transferable. You can't obtain elite players in the rare event they become available.
Briere's stated reason for passing on Buium was already having guys like Drysdale and Andrae who are a certain size. You miss out on picking the best player when you box yourself in. It's why in every sport, teams draft for overall value rather than creating requirements that box you into choosing inferior talent with lower ceilings. It's even more absurd in the NHL when prospects take 2-3 years to get close to making the NHL roster.
By the time, they make it, your roster make-up could be wildly different.