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Defenseman Travis Sanheim has arguably been the Flyers' best player through their first three games. Emilee Chinn / Getty Images
VOORHEES, N.J. — When he arrived at the Philadelphia Flyers’ training facility on Tuesday morning, Travis Sanheim was presented with a non-negotiable, one-or-the-other choice by coach Rick Tocchet.
Take the day off. Or Wednesday. His decision, but he had to pick one.
It wasn’t a punishment, of course. Sanheim has arguably been the Flyers’ best player through their first three games. The 29-year-old has three points (one goal, two assists), a plus-3 rating, and a positive expected goals-share (51.7, according to Natural Stat Trick), all while playing against the top lines on some of the NHL’s elite teams. Headed into Thursday’s meeting with the Winnipeg Jets, the 1-1-1 Flyers have split a pair of games with the Florida Panthers while losing in overtime to the Carolina Hurricanes.
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Instead, Tocchet’s directive was about one of those overused terms in hockey parlance: maintenance. Sanheim has skated an average of 27 minutes and 15 seconds through those three games — the second-highest sum in the league behind only Columbus’ Zach Werenski headed into Wednesday night’s action.
“Been playing a lot of minutes,” said Sanheim, who chose to take Tuesday off while practicing Wednesday, “so (Tocchet) wanted to give me more of a rest.”
So did Sanheim immediately get back into his four-door SUV on Tuesday, while his teammates went through approximately an hour-long skate?
Not so much.
“I was the last one here,” he said. “I got a good workout in. Sauna. Some treatment. The other night cut my leg with my skate, so got that cleaned up. Just kind of hung around and made use of the extra time.”
Sounds like someone who doesn’t expect to have a lighter load at any point in the near future.
The Flyers’ blue line has depth issues. Cam York has been out since the end of training camp with a lower-body injury. Rasmus Ristolainen (triceps surgery) remains unavailable for at least another few weeks. Noah Juulsen, Adam Ginning and Egor Zamula have all been serviceable at best, and, in Zamula’s case, shoddy.
All signs are pointing toward York making his season debut on Thursday. That is welcome news. York may have been the Flyers’ best player throughout training camp — or at least the guy who looked primed to take the next step in his career more than anyone else on the Flyers’ young roster. They need him back.
But even if York slots in alongside Sanheim, as expected, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Sanheim’s ice time will drop all that much. He’ll still be skating against the top lines, killing penalties, and, judging from Wednesday’s practice, still running one of the power play units, too.
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This isn’t new territory. Sanheim earned his way into the good graces of former coach John Tortorella, too, who learned to lean on the defenseman to be his rock on the blue line. The result was steady development from Sanheim and his surprising addition to Team Canada’s roster for the 4 Nations Face-Off last season.
The problem, though, is that late in each of the past two seasons, Sanheim has worn down. That’s something he recognizes and would like to avoid this season. In that vein, Sanheim understands Tocchet’s decision to keep him off the ice from time to time, especially after he has a string of games with inflated minutes.
“I understand there’s going to be some extra rest days that are probably going to be needed,” Sanheim said. “Just making use of that time, getting in the gym. I’m trying to keep up with my workouts, because we saw last year some of the drop off that happened towards the latter half of the season. … Last year was more maintaining, and this year I’m trying to continue some of those power and strength workouts that hopefully will help me later in the season.”
Said Tocchet: “He works out, he does the right things off the ice. That’s why he can play 30 minutes. … He is a guy who can handle it, but we’ve got to develop some guys here to get more minutes off them.”
That’s where the depth comes into focus.
The Flyers returned defenseman Emil Andrae to the AHL on Wednesday, as first reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer, despite his good showing against the Panthers on Monday in his season debut. That means the third defense pair on Thursday against the Jets will almost certainly be Ginning and Juulsen.
Tocchet explained his reasoning behind that decision before the news of the Andrae reassignment dropped. Essentially, the Jets had the NHL’s best power play last season (28.9 percent), so Tocchet needs the depth defensemen to kill penalties, which have been a problem for the Flyers so far this season, as they’ve taken five minors in each of their three games. The undersized Andrae doesn’t do that yet.
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“You’re playing the top power play last year in Winnipeg. So, you’ve got to make sure you have good penalty killers out there,” Tocchet said. “Saying that, I thought Andrae did a really nice job. If he doesn’t play (Thursday) or whatever happens, it wasn’t because of his play, it’s more personnel decisions, (like) a PK thing.”
Something else Tocchet has said in the past is that he prefers his defense pairs to be left-handers on the left side and right-handers on the right, if possible. Juulsen is both a right-handed shot and a penalty killer, averaging 2:43 a game short-handed.
Juulsen had a difficult and unimpressive camp, having not played since February due to surgery for a sports hernia. But he believes he’s settling in lately.
“My first couple (games) in training camp weren’t great,” Juulsen said. “I think I’ve built from there.”
As a guy who played for Tocchet in Vancouver for two seasons before signing a one-year deal with the Flyers over the summer, Juulsen said: “There’s a lot of systems and whatnot that I’m used to. I’m sure that benefited my play a little bit, just knowing what’s going on.”
Ginning, meanwhile, played a career high 20 minutes and 33 seconds on Monday against the Panthers — including 2:40 on the penalty kill.
“I thought he’s defended pretty well for us,” Tocchet said. “He’s been in the right spots. There’s things he’s got to get better at, and be a little more aggressive and harder with plays, but for the most part, we’re putting him in the fire. He’s accepted the challenge from our coaching staff. We need him.”
How much Tocchet relies on that third pair will be something to keep an eye on in the Jets game and moving forward.
If they’re effective, perhaps it will give the coach a chance to ease Sanheim’s burden. If not, Sanheim is eager to embrace what could be an ongoing challenge.
“Jumping right in and have those minutes, it makes it a lot easier to get into the season and get right into a rhythm,” Sanheim said. “I’ve felt good so far.”
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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
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