What I'm hearing as the Philadelphia Flyers continue their playoff push

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He preferred that captain Sean Couturier do it instead. “After the game the other night, I wanted him to talk,” Tocchet said. “It’s his team. Things like that — he’s really helped me as being an extension of the coaching staff.” Nick Seeler touched on that moment after the Flyers’ 5-1 win over New Jersey on Tuesday night. “Obviously, we know how important Coots is to this group,” Seeler said. “Captain of our team, great leader. He says something when he needs to, right? Guys listen. He’s been vocal this last few weeks, and he knows the importance of these games.” The Flyers consider Couturier and his veteran leadership even more vital to the group now, considering how young they are in their top nine. After they added 19-year-old Porter Martone, the average age of the Flyers’ forward group on their top three lines is 24.9 years old. The only player who has hit 30 is Christian Dvorak, whose birthday was two months ago. What’s particularly impressed management lately is how Couturier, who went through a dreadful 31-game goal drought earlier, has bought into his new role on the fourth line. Tocchet moved him to that line on March 7 after the trade deadline, and Couturier’s ice time has dropped from 17:09 minuets per game to an even 15 minutes ahead of Thursday’s game with the Red Wings. Couturier has four goals and 25 hits (fifth on the team) since getting dropped down the lineup, and has simply been more noticeable. Also giving that line a boost has been Luke Glendening, who has one goal and three assists in 13 games and is fourth on the Flyers in hits with 27 since he arrived. A team source acknowledged that Glendening — who had zero goals and just four assists in 52 games at the time the Flyers claimed him off of waivers from the Devils on March 6 — has exceeded expectations. Glendening being a right-handed faceoff guy was what primarily motivated the Flyers to add him, but he’s developed chemistry with Couturier, has shown to be an adept penalty-killer, and has 50 games of playoff experience, including as part of the Dallas Stars in 2022-23 when they advanced to the Western Conference final. “Every day in this league is a blessing,” Glendening said in Los Angeles on March 19, “and as you get older, you realize that more and more.” How did the Flyers get Martone signed less than 24 hours after Michigan State was eliminated in the NCAA Tournament? Much of the credit should be given to assistant general manager Barry Hanrahan, who, according to a team source, was instrumental in staying on top of the legal paperwork, including immigration, well ahead of Martone’s final college game. Hanrahan and Martone’s agent, Paul Capizzano, had everything lined up to be able to move quickly. The actual contract was the easy part, according to a Flyers team source, as it was fairly simple in terms of compensation based on where Martone was drafted. The Flyers were also appreciative of Michigan State allowing the Flyers to have open lines of communication with Martone throughout his season there. While the message from the club to Martone was always to focus on his college season and going after a national championship, they did stay in regular contact, as Martone mentioned in his introductory press conference. No doubt that’s helped Martone have an impact right away, with four points (one goal, three assists) and 22 shots in his first five games. When the Flyers acquired David Jiricek from the Minnesota Wild in exchange for Bobby Brink, the plan was to get him some NHL games before the end of the season. But the Flyers’ sudden surge into playoff contention has changed that. At the moment, they don’t believe it would be fair or Jiricek to get thrown into the fire. It just doesn’t make sense from a player or a team standpoint. This may also be the final opportunity Jiricek gets to play in the AHL. He’s going to have a good chance to make the Flyers out of training camp next season simply because he’s not waiver-exempt. Playing out the season with the Phantoms could still end up benefiting him in the long run. It’s certainly not going to hurt him. The Flyers officially signed prospect Jack Berglund to a three-year, entry-level contract on Thursday that begins next season. He’ll still join the Phantoms for now as they try to secure an spot in the AHL playoffs. Berglund, a second-round pick in 2024 who the team believes has developed nicely, will take part in Flyers training camp in the fall. He may even have a shot to make the Flyers out of camp, depending on what they do in the offseason at the center position. But if the Flyers prefer to reassign Berglund to the Phantoms, he could return to his Swedish League team instead, as he still has one season remaining on his deal there. Matvei Michkov’s improvement coming out of the Olympic break has been encouraging to the team. After posting two assists against the Devils on Tuesday, he has 12 points (one goal, 11 assists) in his last 12 games. The Flyers have never questioned Michkov’s desire to want to become one of the league’s best players. That he worked over the Olympic break to improve his conditioning to have a strong finish to the regular season has been particularly heartening to management. Michkov simply could have looked at 2025-26 as a down season, while turning his focus toward next season. He didn’t do that. The Flyers are hopeful that Michkov is able to see what just a few weeks of off-ice conditioning can do for his game. The play Michkov made on Tyson Foerster’s first goal against the Devils on Tuesday, for example — chasing down a loose puck along the wall, and pushing it ahead to spring Foerster and Owen Tippett on a two-on-one, for example — isn’t a play that Michkov would have been able to make two months ago. Finally, other teams around the league are taking notice of Tippett’s recent play. One source from a team the Flyers played recently told me that they had an entire pregame presentation planned on how to slow down the winger, who now leads the Flyers with 28 goals, including nine in his last 17 games. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Kevin Kurz is a staff writer for The Athletic NHL based in Philadelphia. He previously covered the New York Islanders and the San Jose Sharks for 10+ years and worked in the Philadelphia Flyers organization. Follow Kevin on Twitter @KKurzNHL