Former Flyers Aplenty in Stanley Cup Final

In the world of the Philadelphia Flyers, March 29, 2026 stands out for a different reason. That was the day that Porter Martone made his first appearance at Xfinity Mobile Arena, barely 24 hours removed from elimination in the Frozen Four with Michigan State. He had signed his entry-level deal earlier that day, before the Flyers went on to defeat the Dallas Stars, 2-1, in overtime to continue their comeback bid at a playoff appearance.

Martone’s signing was not a surprise. It was anticipated. The surprise of the day in the hockey world was happening almost 2,500 miles away. The Vegas Golden Knights were making a coaching change…with eight games remaining in the season. Bruce Cassidy, the Stanley Cup winning head coach from 2023, was out. John Tortorella was in.

It was a double-dose of shock. One, for the change to be made in the first place, so close to the end of the season. But also…John Tortorella? That late in the season? With no guarantee for the future?

The day that Tortorella took over, the Golden Knights were in third place in the Pacific Division, six points out of first place, and just four points ahead of the first team out of the playoffs. They had lost seven of their previous 10 games prior to the move.

Less than two months later, that team is off to the Stanley Cup Final, going 19-4-1 since…

Tortorella’s Unlikely Second Chance

The end wasn’t pretty in Philadelphia. It was March 27, 2025, when John Tortorella was fired from his fifth NHL stop in a career that has spanned over two decades.

The final straw was the 7-2 blowout loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on March 25, two days prior. The loss was bad enough, the Flyers’ sixth straight and 11th in 12 games. But it was what Tortorella said after that generated the most buzz.

“When you’re in this type of situation and you’re losing all the time, and there’s nothing at the end of the tunnel for you, there’s certainly going to be some frustration,” Tortorella said. “This falls on me. I’m not really interested in learning how to coach in this type of season, where we’re at right now. But I have to do a better job. So this falls on me, getting this team prepared to play the proper way until we get to the end.”

That comment, about not being interested in learning how to coach in that type of season, sped up the discussion that already seemed inevitable at the end of the season. Tortorella’s time was up in Philadelphia.

As he did in previous gaps in his coaching career, Tortorella went back to working as an analyst. At 67, he didn’t think there would be another opportunity to be on the bench as a head coach. He served as an assistant for Team USA at the Olympics, a team that won the gold medal. But coaching in the NHL, especially once the trade deadline passes, becomes an afterthought.

Until Vegas came calling. Tortorella took the job, a position for a team much more poised for his skill set. There is no development here. Vegas is a team in win-now mode. Tortorella is the perfect coach for it.

And ultimately, Tortorella has an opportunity that is unique to his skills. It’s been less than two months. They will play no more than seven more games to determine if they claim a second Stanley Cup in franchise history.

It’s been a two-month sprint for Vegas. Tortorella gave them the kick in the rear they needed. There was no training camp, no real turmoil in the midst of 19 wins in 24 games. No time for any drama among players, or for any of the players to truly have a fractured relationship with the polarizing head coach. And if Tortorella were to win, with this unlikely chance to get behind the bench again, would he ride off into the sunset with a second Stanley Cup 22 years after his first?

The Saga Between the Pipes

The circumstances of Carter Hart’s place in this Stanley Cup Final, both hockey-related and otherwise, cannot be ignored.

The hockey side of this starts as a Flyers’ draft pick in 2016, where there was almost immediate buzz about Hart’s projected path to the NHL and the belief that he could be both the future in goal for the Flyers and for Team Canada.

That all came to a halt during the 2023-24 season, when Hart took a leave of absence in the wake of the Hockey Canada scandal, and was officially charged with one count of sexual assault.

The Flyers were without Hart for the remainder of that season, and as proceedings progressed slowly in the court case, the Flyers were directed by the NHL to not tender a contract to the netminder as the case was ongoing. That led to Hart being an unrestricted free agent, subject to reinstatement after the trial was over.

By August of 2025, over a full season after Hart left the Flyers, he and the other four players in the trial were acquitted. That allowed each of them to sign freely among NHL teams. Hart opted for a fresh start instead of a return to the Flyers, and ultimately landed in Vegas, a team with much more talent and a ready-to-win roster in front of him.

For much of this first season back in the NHL, Hart has been out of sight and out of mind due to injury, playing in just 18 regular season games. But in the playoffs, Hart has looked every bit like the goalie everyone thought he could be, with a 2.22 GAA and .922 save percentage.

You can feel however you want about Hart’s participation in these playoffs and the NHL in general, in light of the charges that were ultimately acquitted and his involvement in the Hockey Canada trial and be fully justified for those thoughts. But by being acquitted, the verdict allows Hart to be back in the NHL and be making an impact.

It is certainly a sore subject that deserves the utmost sensitivity and understanding of all perspectives, and that shouldn’t be glossed over, no matter how successful Vegas is during the playoffs.

Just about seven weeks ago, the Carolina Hurricanes were in Philadelphia on April 13, 2026. They lost in a shootout, as the Flyers punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The loss didn’t mean anything to the Hurricanes, who were already locked into the top seed in the Eastern Conference. They won the next night…and have won 12 of the next 13 in the playoffs to reach the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since their lone Cup win in 2006.

For Carolina, the former Flyer connections are more plentiful, but perhaps not as prominent as on Vegas’ roster.

A Defenseman Finds His Role

For a long time, Shayne Gostisbehere was viewed as one of the future fixtures of the Flyers’ blue line, part of the young core that features current top-pair defenseman Travis Sanheim. But as the years progressed, Gostisbehere’s role in Philadelphia was hard to define.

He took the NHL by storm in his rookie season with 46 points in 64 games and finished as the runner-up in Calder Trophy voting. After a sophomore slump with seven goals and 39 points, he dominated again in his third season in 2017-18 with 13 goals and 65 points in 78 games.

But the seasons that followed saw a steady decline in offense and a lack of defensive ability that forced the Flyers into a series of difficult decisions. They left him exposed to expansion for both Vegas and Seattle, and Gostisbehere was not selected. They placed him on waivers and he went unclaimed.

Finally, it came to a head in the 2021 offseason, with GM Chuck Fletcher moving Gostisbehere and two draft picks to Arizona in a cap dump.

Gostisbehere almost immediately found his offensive game again and found his place in an NHL lineup. He had 51 points in his first season in Arizona. He was traded the next year at the deadline to Carolina for the playoff push. After a one-season stop in Detroit, Gostisbehere landed back in Carolina and has put together two very solid seasons in a specific role that works with the Hurricanes’ system.

It’s been a long five years since that trade out of Philadelphia, but Gostisbehere has found his home in Carolina, and now has a chance at the ultimate prize.

A Blue Line Trade That Paid Off

Sean Walker was essentially a throw-in piece in the Ivan Provorov trade, a three-team deal that was one of the first actions of GM Danny Briere.

The move paid immediate dividends. The Flyers got off to a great start that season, and Walker was a key part of that with six goals and 22 points in 63 games, while being steady defensively.

But when the Flyers were at a crossroads at the trade deadline, not fully secure in their playoff position, they opted to move Walker for a 2025 first-round pick from Colorado.

The move may have hurt the Flyers in the immediate, but could pay off down the line. The pick was later traded as the Flyers moved up to 12th overall in the 2025 NHL Draft and selected Jack Nesbitt. Walker finished out the season with Colorado before signing in Carolina prior to the 2024-25 season.

Time will tell if that proves to work, but Walker helped net the Flyers an extra lottery ticket in the draft for three-quarters of a season that revitalized his NHL career.

A Veteran Gets a Favor

On a mostly quiet trade deadline day for the Flyers, one of the lone moves was a favor to a longtime veteran who wasn’t playing much for the Orange and Black.

The Flyers traded Nicolas Deslauriers to Carolina, with the clean opportunity for Deslauriers to be on a playoff roster. That was before the Flyers’ unlikely run to the playoffs, and Deslauriers has been nothing more than a depth piece for the Hurricanes, but he has a chance to hoist the Stanley Cup when all is said and done.

The Ex-Flyer Making Carolina History

A lot has happened for Rod Brind’Amour in the 26 years since he was traded by the Flyers to the Carolina Hurricanes. And while Brind’Amour has plenty of accolades from his nine seasons in Philadelphia, he is a Carolina legend.

Brind’Amour played the final 10 seasons of his NHL career in Carolina, including the 2006 Stanley Cup winning season as captain of the team. The Flyers didn’t do bad in their own right in the trade, landing future captain Keith Primeau.

Brind’Amour played through the 2009-10 season, finishing his 20-year career with 1,484 games, 452 goals, 1,184 points, two Selke Trophy wins, and a Stanley Cup. Just one offseason later, Brind’Amour was behind the bench in Carolina as an assistant coach.

He remained an assistant coach for seven seasons before taking over as head coach, a position he has held for eight seasons now.

That remarkable career in Carolina – 10 years as a player, and now 15 as a coach, has produced a truly incredible statistic. Carolina has 100 playoff victories in franchise history. Brind’Amour has either been a player or head coach for 98 of those wins.

His playing style never changed, no matter where he went. And as a coach, Brind’Amour’s motivating tactics and player mindset have worked wonders. In a sports world where change seems to happen so quickly, Brind’Amour’s career has been the opposite, a true example of longevity at its finest.

Local Connections

Beyond the group of former Flyers on both the Carolina roster and behind the bench, there are additional local connections to consider.

One is right at the top. General manager Eric Tulsky, a native of Philadelphia and a former blogger with Broad Street Hockey, rose through the ranks in becoming a top NHL executive, taking over officially as GM for Carolina in June 2024.

It’s not a team that Tulsky entirely built from the GM chair, but his role as vice president of hockey management and strategy starting in 2018, and assistant GM starting in 2021, provide plenty of years of influence on this roster’s construction.

There is one other player on the Carolina roster that has local ties as well. Eric Robinson, a native of Bellmawr, NJ, had spent seven seasons in Columbus before being traded to Buffalo in the 2023-24 season.

After a disappointing year where he had just three goals and 10 points in 47 games between Columbus and Buffalo, Robinson signed with Carolina ahead of the 2024-25 season and immediately found his place. In his bottom-six role, Robinson has 26 goals and 50 points in 149 games in Carolina.

Kevin Durso is Flyers insider for 97.3 ESPN. Follow him on social media @Kevin_Durso.