NHL Today: The Flyers Scuffle Into Olympic Break

This week, the men began play at the Olympics; Auston Matthews has again been named captain of Team USA; and Czechia will be without Boston centre Pavel Zacha (UBI) at the Olympics. Other Fantasy hockey stories we’re tracking include…

Travis Sanheim Again Reps Canada

After bottoming out in 2021-22, the Philadelphia Flyers have slowly been building themselves back up. Last season didn’t go very well thanks to awful goaltending and a horrific power play which has plagued them for many seasons, but Philadelphia has bounced back this season (notwithstanding an ugly January slump), however, it remains on the outside of the playoff picture as it seeks its first postseason appearance since 2019-20.

There’s been some good (Trevor Zegras’ revitalization since being set free from Anaheim; Denver Barkey’s emergence; the development of Jamie Drysdale; Dan Vladar’s surprisingly superb play), some bad (Sean Couturier looking very old and ineffective; a season-ending injury to Tyson Foerster; Matvei Michkov’s sophomore slump and the drama surrounding him and new coach Rick Tocchet) and some ugly (the backup goaltending; the continually abysmal power play; the inability to win in overtime).

Defenseman Travis Sanheim got undressed in OT by Ottawa’s Tim Stutzle in the Flyers’ last game before the Olympic break, but he remains a tower of power on the Philadelphia blueline, recognized by his inclusion on perennial Gold medal candidate Team Canada. Sanheim didn’t dress for Canada’s opener, but will likely suit up on Friday after an injury to Josh Morrisey. (As an aside, Sanheim could use some brushing up on his knowledge of Olympic sports — see video below.)

It’s been over seven years since we wondered whether he had taken over as the Flyers’ top defenseman, and for the most part, he’s been at or near the top of that list since, winning the Barry Ashbee Trophy as the team’s outstanding defenseman three of the last four seasons.

Sanheim was quiet offensively heading into the break, managing just three assists over the last nine games, but he’s still on pace to top last season’s numbers even if his Corsi is down for a second straight season.

The eight-year extension he signed in 2023 – which actually looked like a potential albatross for a spell – has turned out to be a stellar move by the Flyers considering how he’s morphed into a major minute muncher, leading the team in ice time three straight seasons. However, from a Fantasy perspective, Sanheim remains just outside the top 50 among blueliners.

He’s always been a strong puck mover, but has never quite reached that next level offensively of developing into a consistent 50-point threat.

Singing the Blues

In 2022-23, the St. Louis Blues finished under .500 for the first time since 2007-08. They recovered over the next two seasons (returning to the playoffs in 2024-25), but this season the wheels have fallen off.

Really, not much has gone right, from the offense to the defense, to special teams and goaltending, the Blues have scuffled. St. Louis had dropped eight of nine heading into the Olympic break and are now sitting in the cellar of the Central Division with just one team owning fewer points.

Small wonder the Blues have the second highest odds behind only Vancouver to finish with the NHL’s worst record this season (+800 as per FanDuel).

One of the biggest reasons for St. Louis’ decline has been the struggles of goaltender Jordan Binnington (who is also a part of Team Canada, so clearly goaltending could be that unit’s Achilles’ heel again). Mired in a career-worst season, he gave up four goals or more in each of his last three games, and despite an ugly 3.75 GAA and embarrassing .854 save percentage in January, that was actually was a step up from his December showing. Yikes.

All told, through 30 starts (and a couple of relief outings), Binnington has a 3.65 GAA and .864 save percentage with one shutout. His previous worst effort came in 2022-23 (3.31, .894).

The Blues are likely counting down the months left in the six-year extension they gave Binnington back in 2021, right?

His decline as a Fantasy asset has been dramatic. Two seasons ago, he recorded almost 795 Fantasy points, and dipped to under 604 in 2024-25. This season, Binnington has just over 170. He’s not even a top 40 goalie anymore.

Binnington ranks in the bottom half of virtually every goalie metric; for instance, his .744 high danger save percentage is well below league average (.810).

We can only hope for Team Canada’s sake that (a) he steps up as he did in the Four Nations Cup; or (b) it doesn’t need to rely on him against any of the stronger countries. Update: while we wrote this article prior to Canada’s opening game against Czechia, Binnington got the start and all he did was compile a 26-save shutout. Um, yeah… about that…

Waiver Wire Pick of the Week

Pierre-Luc Dubois, LW, Washington Capitals (ESPN: 23.2 per cent; CBS: 27 per cent): Dubois shook off an injury early in the 2023-24 season and has generally been pretty durable in recent seasons, but he suffered an abdomen injury early on this campaign and missed 47 games. Well, he’s back now and all he did was pot a goal and an assist in his first contest upon returning to action. Dubois was off to a slow start before getting hurt, but don’t forget he’s coming off a career-high 66-pont effort last season. We love the fact that he clearly was not limited in first game back, skating 17:35. It’s not often you can get a 60-point scorer off the wire at this stage of the season, so grab him while your league mates are watching Olympic hockey.

RotoRob Tune of the Day

Drummer Nick Jago, the third and final founding member of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, was a native of Devon, England. He studied fine art at Winchester School of Art before relocating to California to reunite with his parents. In 2005, the band released its third album, Howl, and the third single from this effort was “Weight of the World,” but a limited number of copies were printed, so the song was not chart eligible.