Jamie Drysdale emerges as a bright spot as the Flyers’ season spirals away

Jamie Drysdale had no idea.

Chatting after the Flyers wrapped up their morning skate on Tuesday, the blueliner revealed that he hadn’t known Sunday’s game was No. 200 of his NHL career until well afterward. It’s not a surprise that he thought he wouldn’t hit that mark this season.

Skating in his fifth NHL campaign, Drysdale has played 81 games only once, in 2021-22. That was the only time in which he’d played more than 34 until this season. The defenseman, who turns 23 next month, has had a career marred by injuries, including an upper-body injury that kept him out for a month this season.

But after a rocky start, Drysdale is playing some of the best hockey of his pro career. If he didn’t know about the milestone, does he know that he also reached a career high with his goal on Tuesday?

In 54 games this season, he has found the back of the net five times. It surpasses the four he notched in those 81 games in 2021-22. It also gave him goals in consecutive games for the first time in his NHL career.

“Yeah, I’m feeling pretty confident in my game,” Drysdale said Tuesday after a 5-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators. “In saying that, the team, we’ve got to win. And, obviously, I can still be a lot better. Made a bunch of mistakes defensively and caused a couple of chances against.”

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After starting well when the schedule picked back up following the 4 Nations Face-Off, the Flyers have lost five straight. But in the nine games since Feb. 22, Drysdale has three goals, four points, and a plus-minus of plus-2. For the season, he is minus-20.

“He’s skating really well. Can tell he feels it in the offense, closing out plays, doing some really good things,” coach John Tortorella said Tuesday. “Gets rewarded.”

Drysdale’s offensive game has been amplified lately. He looks more confident, not just with the puck, but with his decision-making. In the months before the break, he often got stuck in no-man’s land as he hesitated to make a decision, almost fearing to make the wrong move.

But in the past few weeks, he has not been afraid to make a play, especially alongside Nick Seeler. They’ve formed a formidable duo, with the defensive-minded Seeler doing his job when Drysdale moves up the ice.

According to Natural Stat Trick, in the last nine games when the duo is on the ice, the Flyers have a Corsi for percentage of 41.20%, but the team has scored more goals (seven) than it has allowed (four). It is the highest goals for percentage among Flyers pairings with at least 80 minutes together at five-on-five — and the only one above 50%.

Three of those seven goals belong to Drysdale, who has appeared more fully committed to the rover style Tortorella has wanted him to play recently.

“He’s also skating forward more,” Tortorella said in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where Drysdale scored in the win over the Jets. “He’s gapping; he’s surfing. It’s something that he really had no clue in how to do that early on. I think he understands that. I think he understands that has to be the strength of his game. So game by game, there’s ups and downs with it, but I think he’s improving, and that’s what we’re looking for.”

“He’s skating really well. Can tell he feels it in the offense, closing out plays, doing some really good things."

The blueliner has always been a strong skater — it’s what opened scouts’ eyes when he was lighting things up for Erie of the Ontario Hockey League before he was drafted sixth overall by the Anaheim Ducks in 2020 — and now, with more confidence, that game is coming alive.

“He’s been, obviously, playing really well,” Seeler said of his partner, who is nine years his junior. “I think his confidence has been a lot better, and you can just see it in his skating ability. And he’s getting up the ice, and I think his first instinct is usually the right one. You can see he’s acting on that now. So it’s fun to see and I think we’re playing really well together.”

The pairing has helped solidify Drysdale’s game. There is a stark difference when he is with Seeler, with whom he has played for almost 600 minutes at five-on-five the past two seasons, than with other partners.

“I think my game complements it just naturally, right?” Seeler said. “He’s more of an offensive defenseman. He’s going to get up the ice, and I think as long as he knows where I am going to be ... I’m more of a stay-at-home defenseman, so he could read off that. I think it’s meshing well.”

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Speaking before a game against the Jets in Winnipeg, Tortorella said he would have preferred the defenseman had spent more time in the American Hockey League to grow and develop his skills; he played only 14 games for the San Diego Gulls while with the Ducks organization. That didn’t happen, so he has had to do it all in the NHL.

But as the Flyers coach has said, while Drysdale was maybe thinking too much, they just want him to go play. That’s what he’s doing now. And while the team is struggling, maybe the best storyline out of the 2024-25 season is the emergence of Jamie Drysdale.

As he said to NBCSP on Tuesday when asked about taking advantage of the opportunities afforded players now: “Kind of think myself and a lot of other people are probably saying about time, to be honest with you.”