2 Upgrades Philadelphia Flyers Need In The New Year

The Philadelphia Flyers have surprised everyone by being eight games over .500 and holding down second in a strong division. They are a very hard working team despite not having the most skill in the NHL, but it is paying off. At a certain point we have to start thinking that they can seriously make the playoffs and be a problem for teams, so they could add. This is what they could do to help themselves.

Top-4 LD

The Flyers have taken Marc Staal out of the lineup a lot this season, but replaced him with Nick Seeler. In reality, both of these two are third pairing defensemen at best at this point in their careers. Egor Zamula has shown promise, but on a playoff team, someone with that little experience shouldn't be forced into such a high leverage position just yet. The team is going to need a little help on the back-end, and it seems like that should be a left defenseman who can log minutes and defend properly.

3rd Line Center

As I mentioned, the Flyers don't have a stacked lineup by any means, and while Scott Laughton is working on the fourth line, Ryan Poehling has assumed the third line center role. I don't necessarily like that long-term. While I do expect Laughton to move back up eventually, it would be beneficial to the lineup if he didn't have to. The Flyers don't have to break the bank by any means to upgrade, and should do so for a potential playoff run. Even though the organization thought they were in a rebuild, the team had other plans. They have to be rewarded for that.