Friday Forecheck: TK Showing the Way

A two-time NHL All-Star and now a member of Team Canada for the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off, Flyers winger Travis Konecny is having an excellent 2024-25 season without receiving much hype outside of Philadelphia. Entering the NHL games of January 17, Konecny and Winnipeg Jets center Mark Scheifele are tied for 10th leaguewide in points with 53 apiece in 46 games played.

For tiebreaking purposes, the NHL prioritizes goals above assists. So Scheifele (27 goals, 26 assists) is officially 10th in the Art Ross Trophy race and Konecny (20g, 33a) is 11th despite their identical overall points and points-per-game (1.15). From a practical standpoint, however, their offensive impact on their respective clubs are of equal importance.

Although Konecny has -- and likely always will -- be judged first and foremost based on his offensive production, the player himself is focused on team-oriented achievements more than his own stats. Likewise, the alternate captain has filtered out any outside pressure created by the eight-year contract that will kick in for the 2025-26 season.

'Everyone here, especially the guys who've been here for a while, we all know how hard it is to get into the playoffs. That's the one thing we're all pushing for," Konecny said on the January 15 edition of Flyers Daily.

"When I came back for camp, I was thinking, 'Now there's that price tag over your head.' Now people are putting dollars to your performance. It was short-lived. It was during camp. Then I kind of forgot about it and just went [on the ice] and had fun."

Konecny, who will turn 28 on March 11, has matured in many ways on the ice since debuting in the NHL at age 19 during the 2016-17 season. While Konecny is still a chirper who gets under opponents' skin, he stays more focused nowadays on winning the game. Likewise, he's added dimensions to his game -- such as penalty killing -- to his arsenal over the years.

Konecny has evolved into a team leader. Beyond scoring, he's also one of the first players to come to the defense of a teammate.

Most recently, when the Flyers took exception to a rough hit on defenseman Travis Sanheim by Columbus forward Mathieu Olivier, Konecny went at the rugged Olivier as play moved down the ice. Likewise, a few nights earlier, Konecny made an on-ice statement on behalf of the entire team when he challenged rookie Anaheim Ducks left winger Cutter Gauthier.

Konecny keeps things loose in the locker room. His best buddy on the team, Sanheim, is also Konecny's most frequent sparring partner to trade good-natured barbs. Following the game against the Ducks, Konecny kept peeking in the door to holler at Morgan Frost to hurry up with his postgame media availability.

While dealing with the media himself, Konecny is fairly laconic. Every once in a while, though, his sense of mischief shows up. It's usually in the form of mock griping about having to heap praise on Sanheim or another teammate who is within earshot. Then he turns serious for a moment and discusses what his teammate brings to the club. Konecny, in fact, prefers to talk about a teammate or the club in general to answering questions about himself.

ICYMI: Sanheim Never Stops Working on His Game

Sanheim was Flyers Daily host Jason Myrtetus's guest on the January 14 edition of the team's official every-day podcast. The player spoke in depth about how he has taken an ongoing look at every single facet of his on-ice game and off-ice routine to try to be the best possible version of himself he can be.

For a full rundown of Sanheim's comments and to watch the full interview, click here.

Sanheim's self-assessment reminded me of a famous quote from legendary Flyers head coach Fred Shero: "A lot of players like to practice only the things they're good at. If he's a good stickhandler, he likes to stickhandle at practice. If he's a good shooter, he likes to shoot dozens of pucks. But I want players to work more on things they aren't as good at. That's how they improve."

Fellow Manitoba native Shero passed away seven years before Travis Sanheim was even born. However, the current Flyers defenseman's willingness to self-critique every aspect of his game and preparations is a latter-day example of what the legendary head coach encouraged from his players.

If the voting for the Barry Ashbee Trophy were conducted at mid-season rather than near the end of the season, Sanheim would likely be a nearly unanimous pick to win the award for the third time in his career. Rasmus Ristolainen might be the closest challenger. Notably, both Sanheim (Team Canada) and Ristolainen (Team Finland) have been selected to participate in the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Frost Trending toward another Second-Half Surge

Flyers center Morgan Frost has had a noticeable pattern in his career so far in the National Hockey League. He has a tendency to get off to slow starts and then pick considerably over the latter one-half to two-thirds of the season.

The same pattern seems to be emerging for the now 25-year-old during the 2024-25 season to date.

Over the team's last 25 games, roughly dating back to when Frost returned to the lineup, Frost is tied with frequent linemate Owen Tippett for second on the team in scoring with 18 points apiece. Frost has 10 goals and eight assists while Tippett has nine goals and nine helpers. Only Konecny (28 points, 1.12 points per game) has outpaced Frost or Tippett (0.72).

Narrowing the sample size to the last 13 games, Frost (7g-4a,11 points, 0.85 points per game) and fellow center Noah Cates (6g-5a, 11 points, 0.85 points per game) are tied for second on the team in scoring. Once again, Konecny (4g-12a, 16 points, 1.23 points per game) leads the club offensively within the selected sample size as well as over the season as a whole.

"The guys says I can only play in the second half," Frost said semi-jokingly after th game in Anaheim.

Two seasons ago, over the latter two-thirds of the season (final 55 games), Frost led the Flyers in overall points (40) and assists (24) while ranking third in goals (16).

However, despite a solid training camp and leading the team in preseason scoring, he ended up as a healthy scratch 11 times over the team's first 38 games of the regular season. Thereafter, over the latter 44 games of the season -- a shade over half the season, Frost led the team in assists (22) and his 30 points trailed only Konecny (33) and Tippett (31) for the club lead.

This season has followed the same sort of pattern, including a November stretch of four games as a healthy scratch and one game (with Sean Couturier as a late scratch due to a minor injury) in which Frost was confined to just 9:30 of ice time. He also saw somewhat limited ice time in his first game back in the lineup (versus Chicago) but has since been restored to his regular ice time over the last 25 games.

Frost places the responsibility for his slow start squarely on his own shoulders. He also is not fully satisfied with where his game currently is, despite his five-game point streak and offensive surge.

"I came in with high expectations, and I was disappointed with how I played," Frost said. "Right now, I think it's coming around. But I think I still need to improve some of the details."

For example, Frost said he wants to bear down on winning faceoffs, especially on the first draw during power plays. He also wants to clean up certain details defensively. Head coach John Tortorella has said that he notices Frost's efforts to get to the right spots defensively but said that the player needs to improve some of his split-second decisions with the puck in the defensive zone.

From an offensive standpoint, the Flyers have reunited Frost with Tippett going back to the third period of the home 4-1 loss to Dallas. The line has contributed at least one goal in each game played since then.

"I love playing with Tipp and TK. It's fun coming to the rink and playing with those guys. I just try to get them the puck and let them do their thing. When they have the puck, I try to just keep my stick on the ice and see what happens. The pucks have been bounced my way lately," Frost said.

Tortorella cited a different reason than puck luck for Frost's surge in goal scoring over the last seven weeks: the player has put in a lot of work to go to the net more frequently. He's also practiced deflections in the slot on a regular basis in practice.

Frost, in fact, has scored most of his recent goals from near the net. An exception was a banked-in shot from below the goal line during the team's post-holiday road trip.

Couturier on the brink of a milestone

Flyers captain Sean Couturier bagged a goal and an assist in Thursday's 5-3 road win over the Islanders. He now has 199 goals in his regular season NHL career.

On Saturday afternoon, Couturier will go for the 200-goal milestone when the Flyers visit the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center. Game time is 12:30 p.m. EST.