# 2020–21 Philadelphia Flyers season

The 2020–21 Philadelphia Flyers season was the 54th season for the National Hockey League franchise that was established on June 5, 1967. This was also the second season with head coach Alain Vigneault. On December 20, 2020, the league temporarily realigned into four divisions with no conferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing closure of the Canada–United States border. As a result of this realignment, the Flyers played this season in the East Division and played against only the other teams in their new division during the regular season.
On April 29, 2021, the Flyers were eliminated from playoff contention following a 5–3 loss to the New Jersey Devils.

## Standings
### Divisional standings

East Division :
| Pos | Team v t e | GP | W | L | OTL | RW | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| 1 | y – Pittsburgh Penguins | 56 | 37 | 16 | 3 | 29 | 196 | 156 | +40 | 77 |
| 2 | x – Washington Capitals | 56 | 36 | 15 | 5 | 29 | 191 | 163 | +28 | 77 |
| 3 | x – Boston Bruins | 56 | 33 | 16 | 7 | 25 | 168 | 136 | +32 | 73 |
| 4 | x – New York Islanders | 56 | 32 | 17 | 7 | 24 | 156 | 128 | +28 | 71 |
| 5 | e – New York Rangers | 56 | 27 | 23 | 6 | 24 | 177 | 157 | +20 | 60 |
| 6 | e – Philadelphia Flyers | 56 | 25 | 23 | 8 | 17 | 163 | 201 | −38 | 58 |
| 7 | e – New Jersey Devils | 56 | 19 | 30 | 7 | 15 | 145 | 194 | −49 | 45 |
| 8 | e – Buffalo Sabres | 56 | 15 | 34 | 7 | 11 | 138 | 199 | −61 | 37 |

## Schedule and results
### Regular season

The regular season schedule was published on December 23, 2020.
2020–21 regular season :
January: 7–2–1 (home: 5–1–0; road: 2–1–1)
GameDateVisitorScoreHomeOTDecisionAttendanceRecordPointsRecap
1January 13Pittsburgh3–6PhiladelphiaHart01–0–02Recap
2January 15Pittsburgh2–5PhiladelphiaHart02–0–04Recap
3January 18Buffalo6–1PhiladelphiaHart02–1–04Recap
4January 19Buffalo0–3PhiladelphiaElliott03–1–06Recap
5January 21Philadelphia4–5BostonSOHart03–1–17Recap
6January 23Philadelphia1–6BostonHart03–2–17Recap
7January 26Philadelphia5–3New JerseyElliott04–2–19Recap
8January 28Philadelphia3–1New JerseyHart05–2–111Recap
9January 30NY Islanders2–3PhiladelphiaOTHart06–2–113Recap
10January 31NY Islanders3–4PhiladelphiaOTElliott07–2–115Recap :
February: 4–2–2 (home: 1–1–2; road: 3–1–0)
GameDateVisitorScoreHomeOTDecisionAttendanceRecordPointsRecap
11February 3Boston4–3PhiladelphiaOTHart07–2–216Recap
12February 5Boston2–1PhiladelphiaElliott07–3–216Recap
13February 7Philadelphia7–4WashingtonHart08–3–218Recap
—February 9Philadelphia–WashingtonPostponed due to COVID-19. Rescheduled for April 13.
—February 11New Jersey–PhiladelphiaPostponed due to COVID-19. Rescheduled for April 25.
—February 13New Jersey–PhiladelphiaPostponed due to COVID-19. Rescheduled for May 10.
—February 14Philadelphia–NY RangersPostponed due to COVID-19. Rescheduled for April 22.
14February 18NY Rangers3–2PhiladelphiaSOHart08–3–319Recap
15February 21Philadelphia3–7BostonHart0 (outdoors)8–4–319Recap
16February 24NY Rangers3–4PhiladelphiaElliott09–4–321Recap
17February 27Philadelphia3–0BuffaloElliott010–4–323Recap
18February 28Philadelphia3–0BuffaloHart011–4–325Recap :
March: 6–10–1 (home: 2–5–1; road: 4–5–0)
GameDateVisitorScoreHomeOTDecisionAttendanceRecordPointsRecap
19March 2Philadelphia2–5PittsburghHart2,80011–5–325Recap
20March 4Philadelphia4–3PittsburghElliott2,80012–5–327Recap
21March 6Philadelphia3–4PittsburghElliott2,80012–6–327Recap
22March 7Washington3–1PhiladelphiaHart3,02312–7–327Recap
23March 9Buffalo4–5PhiladelphiaSOElliott2,83813–7–329Recap
24March 11Washington5–3PhiladelphiaElliott2,80713–8–329Recap
25March 13Washington5–4PhiladelphiaHart3,08313–9–329Recap
26March 15Philadelphia5–4NY RangersOTHart1,63914–9–331Recap
27March 17Philadelphia0–9NY RangersElliott1,72314–10–331Recap
28March 18Philadelphia4–3NY IslandersHart1,40015–10–333Recap
29March 20Philadelphia1–6NY IslandersHart1,40015–11–333Recap
30March 22NY Islanders2–1PhiladelphiaOTElliott2,82015–11–434Recap
31March 23New Jersey4–3PhiladelphiaHart2,88215–12–434Recap
32March 25NY Rangers8–3PhiladelphiaHart2,85415–13–434Recap
33March 27NY Rangers1–2PhiladelphiaElliott3,06916–13–436Recap
34March 29Philadelphia4–3BuffaloOTElliott017–13–438Recap
35March 31Philadelphia1–6BuffaloElliott017–14–438Recap :
April: 5–7–3 (home: 2–3–1; road: 3–4–2)
GameDateVisitorScoreHomeOTDecisionAttendanceRecordPointsRecap
36April 3Philadelphia2–3NY IslandersSOHart1,40017–14–539Recap
37April 5Philadelphia3–2BostonOTElliott2,19118–14–541Recap
38April 6Boston4–2PhiladelphiaHart2,63818–15–541Recap
39April 8Philadelphia2–3NY IslandersSOHart1,40018–15–642Recap
40April 10Boston2–3PhiladelphiaElliott3,02519–15–644Recap
41April 11Buffalo5–3PhiladelphiaHart3,25019–16–644Recap
42April 13Philadelphia1–6WashingtonElliott019–17–644Recap
43April 15Philadelphia2–1PittsburghSOHart4,67220–17–646Recap
44April 17Washington6–3PhiladelphiaLyon3,43020–18–646Recap
45April 18NY Islanders1–0PhiladelphiaOTElliott3,60320–18–747Recap
46April 22Philadelphia3–2NY RangersElliott1,80021–18–749Recap
47April 23Philadelphia1–4NY RangersLyon1,80021–19–749Recap
48April 25New Jersey3–4PhiladelphiaSOElliott3,65122–19–751Recap
49April 27Philadelphia4–6New JerseyElliott3,60022–20–751Recap
50April 29Philadelphia3–5New JerseyLyon3,60022–21–751Recap :
May: 3–2–1 (home: 2–2–0; road: 1–0–1)
GameDateVisitorScoreHomeOTDecisionAttendanceRecordPointsRecap
51May 1New Jersey4–1PhiladelphiaElliott2,68322–22–751Recap
52May 3Pittsburgh2–7PhiladelphiaLyon2,54223–22–753Recap
53May 4Pittsburgh7–3PhiladelphiaElliott2,96123–23–753Recap
54May 7Philadelphia4–2WashingtonElliott2,13324–23–755Recap
55May 8Philadelphia1–2WashingtonOTLyon2,13324–23–856Recap
56May 10New Jersey2–4PhiladelphiaElliott3,88225–23–858Recap :
Legend:
  Win (2 points)
  Loss (0 points)
  Overtime/shootout loss (1 point)
  Postponement :

## Player statistics
### Skaters

Regular season :
| Player | GP | G | A | Pts | +/− | PIM |
| James van Riemsdyk | 56 | 17 | 26 | 43 | 2 | 14 |
| Claude Giroux | 54 | 16 | 27 | 43 | −4 | 12 |
| Jakub Voracek | 53 | 9 | 34 | 43 | −12 | 18 |
| Sean Couturier | 45 | 18 | 23 | 41 | −4 | 8 |
| Joel Farabee | 55 | 20 | 18 | 38 | 0 | 28 |
| Travis Konecny | 50 | 11 | 23 | 34 | −5 | 26 |
| Kevin Hayes | 55 | 12 | 19 | 31 | −2 | 22 |
| Ivan Provorov | 56 | 7 | 19 | 26 | 4 | 28 |
| Scott Laughton | 53 | 9 | 11 | 20 | 13 | 39 |
| Shayne Gostisbehere | 41 | 9 | 11 | 20 | −2 | 6 |
| Travis Sanheim | 55 | 3 | 12 | 15 | −22 | 23 |
| Oskar Lindblom | 50 | 8 | 6 | 14 | −9 | 9 |
| Nicolas Aube-Kubel | 50 | 3 | 9 | 12 | −3 | 44 |
| Philippe Myers | 44 | 1 | 10 | 11 | −10 | 22 |
| Erik Gustafsson‡ | 24 | 1 | 9 | 10 | −2 | 0 |
| Nolan Patrick | 52 | 4 | 5 | 9 | −30 | 20 |
| Michael Raffl‡ | 34 | 3 | 5 | 8 | −5 | 26 |
| Wade Allison | 14 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 4 |
| Justin Braun | 53 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 18 |
| Robert Hagg | 34 | 2 | 3 | 5 | −3 | 18 |
| Nate Prosser | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −7 | 0 |
| Samuel Morin | 20 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −7 | 37 |
| Connor Bunnaman | 18 | 0 | 1 | 1 | −6 | 2 |
| Jackson Cates | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | −3 | 0 |
| Andy Andreoff | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −6 | 9 |
| Mark Friedman‡ | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −2 | 4 |
| David Kase | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Carsen Twarynski | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −3 | 2 |
| Tanner Laczynski | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Morgan Frost | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Maxim Sushko | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −1 | 0 |
| Egor Zamula | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Cam York | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −1 | 0 |

### Goaltenders

Regular season :
| Player | GP | GS | TOI | W | L | OT | GA | GAA | SA | SV% | SO | G | A | PIM |
| Brian Elliott | 30 | 26 | 1,607:43 | 15 | 9 | 2 | 82 | 3.06 | 738 | .889 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Carter Hart | 27 | 25 | 1,456:19 | 9 | 11 | 5 | 89 | 3.67 | 721 | .877 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Alex Lyon | 6 | 5 | 324:09 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 18 | 3.33 | 169 | .893 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
$^†$Denotes player spent time with another team before joining the Flyers. Stats reflect time with the Flyers only. $^‡$Denotes player was traded mid-season. Stats reflect time with the Flyers only. Bold/italics denotes franchise record.

## Awards and records
### Awards

| Type | Award/honor | Recipient |
| League (annual) | Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy | Oskar Lindblom |
| League (in-season) | NHL East Star of the Month | James van Riemsdyk (January) |
| League (in-season) | NHL Second Star of the Week | Travis Konecny (January 18) |
| Team | Barry Ashbee Trophy | Ivan Provorov |
| Team | Bobby Clarke Trophy | Sean Couturier |
| Team | Gene Hart Memorial Award | Sean Couturier |
| Team | Pelle Lindbergh Memorial Trophy | Joel Farabee |
| Team | Toyota Cup | Claude Giroux |
| Team | Yanick Dupre Memorial Class Guy Award | James van Riemsdyk |

### Records

Among the team records set during the 2020–21 season was the Flyers giving up seven goals during the second period against the New York Rangers on March 17.

### Milestones

| Milestone | Player | Date |
| First game | Maxim Sushko | February 18, 2021 |
| First game | Tanner Laczynski | April 3, 2021 |
| First game | Wade Allison | April 15, 2021 |
| First game | Jackson Cates | April 23, 2021 |
| First game | Egor Zamula | April 27, 2021 |
| First game | Cam York | May 7, 2021 |

## Transactions

The Flyers were involved in the following transactions during the 2020–21 season.

### Trades

| Date | Details | Details |
| October 7, 2020 (2020-10-07) | To Tampa Bay Lightning4th-round pick in 2020 (116th overall) 5th-round pick in 2020 (147th overall) | To Philadelphia FlyersDET 4th-round pick in 2020 (94th overall) |
| October 7, 2020 (2020-10-07) | To Nashville PredatorsMTL 7th-round pick in 2020 (202nd overall) 7th-round pick in 2020 (209th overall) | To Philadelphia Flyers5th-round pick in 2020 (135th overall) |
| April 12, 2021 (2021-04-12) | To Montreal CanadiensErik Gustafsson | To Philadelphia FlyersSTL 7th-round pick in 2022 |
| April 12, 2021 (2021-04-12) | To Washington CapitalsMichael Raffl | To Philadelphia FlyersVGK 5th-round pick in 2021 |

### Players acquired

| Date | Player | Former team | Term | Via |
| October 10, 2020 (2020-10-10) | Derrick Pouliot | St. Louis Blues | 1-year | Free agency |
| October 12, 2020 (2020-10-12) | Erik Gustafsson | Calgary Flames | 1-year | Free agency |
| March 24, 2021 (2021-03-24) | Max Willman | Lehigh Valley Phantoms (AHL) | 2-year | Free agency |
| April 13, 2021 (2021-04-13) | Jackson Cates | University of Minnesota-Duluth (NCHC) | 2-year | Free agency |

### Players lost

| Date | Player | New team | Term | Via |
| October 9, 2020 (2020-10-09) | Derek Grant | Anaheim Ducks | 3-year | Free agency |
| October 9, 2020 (2020-10-09) | Nathan Noel | | | Contract expiration |
| October 9, 2020 (2020-10-09) | Tyler Pitlick | Arizona Coyotes | 2-year | Free agency |
| October 10, 2020 (2020-10-10) | Nate Thompson | Winnipeg Jets | 1-year | Free agency |
| October 10, 2020 (2020-10-10) | Andy Welinski | Anaheim Ducks | 1-year | Free agency |
| November 2, 2020 (2020-11-02) | Kurtis Gabriel | San Jose Sharks | 1-year | Free agency |
| January 5, 2021 (2021-01-05) | Reece Willcox | Florida Everblades (ECHL) | 1-year | Free agency |
| February 24, 2021 (2021-02-24) | Mark Friedman | Pittsburgh Penguins | | Waivers |
| May 25, 2021 (2021-05-25) | David Kase | HC Sparta Praha (ELH) | 2-year | Free agency |

### Signings

| Date | Player | Term | Contract type |
| October 12, 2020 (2020-10-12) | Zayde Wisdom | 3-year | Entry-level |
| October 14, 2020 (2020-10-14) | Tyson Foerster | 3-year | Entry-level |
| October 16, 2020 (2020-10-16) | Nolan Patrick | 1-year | Re-signing |
| December 8, 2020 (2020-12-08) | Philippe Myers | 3-year | Extension |
| December 18, 2020 (2020-12-18) | Mason Millman | 3-year | Entry-level |
| March 31, 2021 (2021-03-31) | Cam York | 3-year | Entry-level |
| April 12, 2021 (2021-04-12) | Scott Laughton | 5-year | Extension |
| May 5, 2021 (2021-05-05) | Elliot Desnoyers | 3-year | Entry-level |
| May 5, 2021 (2021-05-05) | Olle Lycksell | 2-year | Entry-level |
| June 3, 2021 (2021-06-03) | Samuel Ersson | 3-year | Entry-level |
| June 8, 2021 (2021-06-08) | Felix Sandstrom | 1-year | Extension |
| June 14, 2021 (2021-06-14) | German Rubtsov | 1-year | Extension |
| June 14, 2021 (2021-06-14) | Linus Sandin | 1-year | Extension |

## Draft picks

Below are the Philadelphia Flyers' selections at the 2020 NHL entry draft, which was originally scheduled for June 26–27, 2020 at the Bell Center in Montreal, Quebec, but was postponed on March 25, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was held October 6–7, 2020 virtually via Video conference call from the NHL Network studio in Secaucus, New Jersey.
| Round | Pick | Player | Position | Nationality | Team (league) |
| 1 | 23 | Tyson Foerster | RW | Canada | Barrie Colts (OHL) |
| 2 | 54 | Emil Andrae | D | Sweden | HV71 J20 (J20 SuperElit) |
| 4 | 94 | Zayde Wisdom | RW | Canada | Kingston Frontenacs (OHL) |
| 5 | 135 | Elliot Desnoyers | LW | Canada | Halifax Mooseheads (QMJHL) |
| 6 | 178 | Connor McClennon | RW | Canada | Winnipeg Ice (WHL) |