Philadelphia Flyers' Young Tippett-Frost-Michkov Line Is on Fire – Hockey Writers – Philadelphia Flyers

At the start of their 2024-25 season, the Philadelphia Flyers tried any combination of forward lines to find something that would stick. For the most part, they fail in their efforts.

However, in the last nine games, the Flyers haven't moved much. That's because they finally got the mix right—there was no need to go around. The three who were in the lead were truly reminiscent of another, created ten years ago by a completely different franchise. How do these structures compare?

Is Tippett-Frost-Michkov the new line of Triplets?

One of the main goals of the Flyers this season was to get rookie Matvei Michkov acclimated to the NHL. So far, so good.

With 27 points in 28 games with 17:01 of average ice time, Michkov's 3.40 points per 60 minutes puts him in elite company. Among athletes 20 and under who have played in at least 20 games, only Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Connor McDavid, Evgeni Malkin, and Mathew Barzal have reached that mark. That number will fluctuate, but he's putting up some jaw-dropping numbers for now.

Two players in particular helped make the best of him: Owen Tippett and Morgan Frost. Head coach John Tortorella has been running the trio together for the past nine games, with good results. It is very similar to another memorable line led by a budding Russian star at the time.

A few months ago, I looked at the Tampa Bay Lightning's “Triplets Line”, built in 2014-15, as a possible match for Michkov. Young guys Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson, and Nikita Kucherov, despite being the second line, have been one of the most dangerous in the entire league.

Related: Do Flyers Need to Offer Matvei Michkov an Elite Center?

Kucherov, a linebacker, just needed the players he could bring together to become a deadly force. Palat and Johnson were arguably the best, coming off 50-plus point campaigns, but Kucherov opened something up for them. They weren't Ovechkin and Crosby, but that kind of talent wasn't needed to produce.

The trio was unstoppable behind Steven Stamkos' top line defense, allowing a one-two punch for Tampa Bay. The team reached the Stanley Cup Finals after having the NHL's third-worst record just two seasons ago. Soon after, Kucherov blossomed into one of the best players in the league.

The Tippett-Frost-Michkov line has a similar philosophy. Michkov is the rising star of Russia, while Tippett and Frost are the supporting cast. The Flyers need to find a top rookie center at some point in his career, for sure, but what they have now has been a great deal. Their numbers compared to the Triplets Line are below:

Despite the uncontrollably high finish rate on the Flyers' side, you can see some similarities here. Better yet, the Tippett-Frost-Michkov combination was tried earlier in the 2024-25 campaign with poor results—those old shifts actually which is harmful numbers here. They've been going recently, and it's been great to watch them on the ice. There is a level of chemistry that has helped all three play their best hockey all season.

To answer the question posed by this article, there is a bit of a twist here. Getting the best results for Michkov (and his partners for that matter) has been possible with this newly discovered gold mine. No higher institution was needed.

Flyers Can Ride This Line to the Playoffs

At 14-12-4, the Flyers find themselves in a playoff spot after losing their first 13 games of the season. Considering their good momentum and the sharp play of the Tippett-Frost-Michkov line, the postseason is a real possibility.

In their promising season, the Flyers were far from lucky. One of the biggest luck-based measures in the NHL is PDO, which is the sum of shooting percentage and save percentage. Philadelphia is 14th in the metric as of Nov. 7, yet has a league-best 6 percent during that span.

The Orange and Black only need their goaltending to be passable, evidenced by their team's .893 save percentage in that 17-game sample. The second line can provide explosiveness, while the first line of Joel Farabee, Sean Couturier, and Travis Konecny ​​can eat loads of minutes and simultaneously win (66.67 GF%, 53.34 xGF%).

With the defense at its healthiest all season and playing at a high level, the Flyers are in a good spot. They still have holes, of course, but few teams have had a better stretch than they have in the last few weeks. The second line is the most important in making the playoffs a reality.

The Flyers haven't played postseason hockey at the Wells Fargo Center since 2018. Their small but effective second line may be able to change that, however. Much like the Triplets Line of 2014-15, it could be what puts the Orange and Black over that playoff hump.

Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick (unless otherwise noted)