Top 10 Flyers games to circle ahead of their 2024-25 season

The NHL released the 2024-25 schedule on Tuesday, and there are a lot of things for Flyers fans to be excited about as the new season approaches.

Here are the top 10 games to circle on the next season’s calendar.

» READ MORE: Flyers’ 2024-25 schedule: Matvei Michkov’s potential debut, Cutter Gauthier in Philadelphia and more

The Flyers will start the season on a West Coast road trip, with their first four games scheduled for 10 p.m. (Philadelphia time) puck drops. Top prospect Matvei Michkov’s long-awaited South Philly regular-season debut likely will come during the Oct. 19 home opener against the Vancouver Canucks — and will be at a much more reasonable hour, slated for a 7 p.m. start.

When a 16-year-old Michkov suited up for the Russian national team, he broke the record for the youngest player to ever do so. The mark had previously been held by Alexander Ovechkin, who was 17 when he made his debut. The two Russians are scheduled to face off for the first time when the Capitals visit the Wells Fargo Center on Oct. 22.

It also will mark the Flyers’ first game against Washington since the Capitals helped eliminate the Flyers from playoff contention in the last game of the regular season.

Ovechkin sits 41 goals behind Wayne Gretzky for most all-time in the NHL. The 38-year-old’s production has dipped quite a bit, but across the final 31 games of last season, he was scoring on a 52-goal pace. So the Flyers’ home game against Washington on March 20 is another date to circle with potentially historic implications.

Macklin Celebrini, the first overall pick of the 2024 draft, likely will hit the ice at the Wells Fargo Center with the Sharks on Nov. 11. Celebrini has not yet signed with San Jose and could return to Boston University for another year, but if he ends up in the NHL for the 2024-25 season, he likely would be Michkov’s top Calder Trophy competition for best rookie.

Even if Celebrini does return to BU this year, San Jose will still have plenty of young talent on its roster, such as 2023 fourth overall pick Will Smith, whose name will doubtlessly inspire many Fresh Prince puns during his first game in Philadelphia.

Nov. 23 will could mark the first showdown between Michkov and Connor Bedard, two of the top talents from the 2023 draft. Bedard, the No. 1 overall pick, won the Calder Trophy last season.

Black Friday shopping is out, and Black Friday hockey-watching is in. The Flyers will host their Metropolitan Division rival Rangers for a matinee with a 1 p.m. puck drop. What better way to decompress after Thanksgiving than by watching a hockey fight or two?

The Rangers also are fresh off a Presidents’ Trophy campaign as the top regular-season team in the NHL, though they fell to the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference finals.

The Florida Panthers, and former Flyer Sergei Bobrovsky, are fresh off the franchise’s first Stanley Cup victory. The defending champs will visit South Philadelphia on Dec. 5 and Jan. 13.

The Utah Hockey Club relocated from Arizona in April and will play its first-ever game against the Flyers on Dec. 8. The Flyers will visit the Delta Center in Salt Lake City for the first time on Feb. 4.

Many Flyers fans have been waiting for this game since January, when top prospect Cutter Gauthier was dealt to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for defenseman Jamie Drysdale and a draft pick. Gauthier, whom the Flyers selected fifth overall in 2022, had told the team he was unwilling to sign here.

Overnight, Gauthier became a villain in Philadelphia. He signed with Anaheim after finishing his season at Boston College and surely is in for a frosty reception from Flyers faithful when he hits the ice at the Wells Fargo Center a year after the trade.

Connor McDavid is scheduled to be in Philadelphia once this regular season. The three-time Hart Trophy winner will visit the Wells Fargo Center for a 1 p.m. puck drop on Feb. 22. McDavid won the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP in June, becoming the sixth player in NHL history to do so as a member of the losing team in the Stanley Cup Final.

It has been more than two years since Claude Giroux was traded to Ottawa. But it’s always nice to see old friends, and local Giroux fans should take note of March 11 as the next date the Flyers’ former captain — who is in the final year of his contract with the Senators — will be in town.