The Flyers’ defense hasn’t seen much overhaul. Here’s how their blue line and goalies stack up.

Second of two parts on how the Flyers could line up at the start of the season.

There is still a lot of road before the season starts, and more than 130,000 minutes on the clock for Flyers general manager Danny Brière to make changes. But, for now, things are primarily set.

Defensively, there hasn’t been an overhaul, and one is not expected. Where things stand with Ronnie Attard and Adam Ginning remains the biggest question mark.

Here’s a look at how the Flyers’ blue line and goalies will stack up at the start of the season on Oct. 11 against the Vancouver Canucks.

» READ MORE: Never too early to sort out the Flyers’ lines: Here’s how they could stack up at season’s start

According to Natural Stat Trick, York and Sanheim played more than 1,000 minutes together last season in five-on-five situations — the eighth most among defensive pairings. What that doesn’t tell you is how hard those minutes were. On any given night they were facing the opposition’s top talent, which explains why the analytics don’t look great.

Yes, they were outscored, and yes, they gave up the fourth-most shot attempts (1,054) at five-on-five, and got scored on more than their five-man unit scored, but again, they were facing the cream of the crop.

It is impressive how well the pair works together as two left-handed blueliners. Sanheim said on locker cleanout day he spent last summer working on playing the left side only to be told a few days before training camp he would be back on the right. Regardless of where he was, he was out to prove a point.

Sanheim thought the right side was a good fit for him and it certainly helped York. Coach John Tortorella, who had questioned if he was an NHL player at the start of the season, was calling the Californian “one of our better defenders” by February.

“I’m obviously not sure what the case is moving forward, but I love playing with him,” Sanheim said. “I hope that we can continue to play together. I thought we both took strides this season and I think we’re both going to come back looking to take another step as well next season.”

Drysdale and Seeler sustained injuries at the end of February and the beginning of March, respectively, and returned around the same point of the season. The pairing played 104 minutes, 28 seconds together, according to Natural Stat Trick, and, while it was tough to watch at times, they did show flashes of what the pairing could be if they played together more consistently.

Having a hard-nosed, defensive defenseman like Seeler should only help give Drysdale the time and space he needs to be … Jamie Drysdale. The young defenseman is known for his skating and offensive game. He did struggle at times in the Flyers zone — remember, the former Anaheim Ducks defenseman did switch from man-to-man to a zone defense — but Seeler’s game is centered around strong defensive zone coverage. Plus, he lives and loves to eat pucks.

» READ MORE: Jett Luchanko, Hunter McDonald, and Noah Powell stand out in Flyers development camp

Once they build familiarity, Seeler’s defensive game can only help amplify Drysdale’s. He can cover and direct his partner in the Flyers zone while also staying back and letting the offensive-minded Drysdale carry play up the ice and create offense and rushes with his deft skating.

Drysdale is expected to be ready for training camp after Brière confirmed to The Inquirer at the NHL Scouting Combine that the 22-year-old did have surgery to fix an undisclosed issue. At that time, he had not yet resumed skating but was spotted at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees during development camp.

Zamula, who re-signed as a restricted free agent Sunday, is still growing into his game. He had an up-and-down year but showed positive signs after signing as an undrafted kid from the Western Hockey League’s Calgary Hitmen. Playing alongside a veteran, like Marc Staal or Erik Johnson, helped him on and off the ice. He started to show quickness and pace in his game and got more confident and comfortable as the season progressed.

Zamula played a little under 200 minutes with Ristolainen at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick, so there is familiarity. Only four pairings played more than 150 minutes together at five-on-five for the Flyers last season — Sean Walker, who was traded right before the trade deadline, and Seeler, York and Sanheim, and Zamula with either Ristolainen or Johnson. The Zamula and Ristolainen duo had the second-best Corsi For Percentage of the four pairs at 50.63%; Seeler and Walker were No. 1 (53.46).

» READ MORE: Flyers re-sign defenseman Egor Zamula to a two-year deal

Ristolainen actually had a 66.67% Corsi For with Sanheim and a 61.54% with York. It was under 60 minutes apiece but could that lead to a split of the top pair? Only time will tell. Until then, he should pair nicely with Zamula. The grizzled Finn has some offensive pop but is reliable and strong in his end and could counter some of the mistakes the young defenseman will undoubtedly make as his game grows.

But this pairing is also the least solidified of the six. Ristolainen has not played since mid-February and underwent surgery to repair a ruptured triceps tendon in April. He is expected to be ready for training camp. Even if healthy, he may swap in and out with Johnson, who inked a one-year deal on July 1, and either Ristolainen or Zamula could sit for guys like Emil Andrae, Ginning, or Attard. The trio will push in camp and could snag a spot. And, the Flyers are high on the small (5-foot-9) but gifted Andrae, who made the big club out of training camp last season and skated in four games.

The Flyers did the right thing and cut ties with Carter Hart, who is facing charges related to a sexual assault in London, Ontario, in 2018 with the Canadian World Juniors team. Hart has not played with the Flyers since late January when he took a leave of absence but by that point, it was becoming clear that Sam Ersson was stepping up.

The net is now Ersson’s for 2024-25. Expected to play around 20 games last season, the Swede made 51 appearances and 49 starts. The overall numbers don’t look great — and he’ll be the first to tell you his start to the season was less than ideal — but at one point he was one of the hottest goalies in the NHL.

“This year it felt like it was some ups and downs,” he said after cleaning out his locker. “I think I had some tough stretches and I also felt like I had a long stretch where I think it played well consistently over a period of time. I think that is the keyword I’m trying to push is consistency. I feel like that is the key for me. To be [an] impactful player in this league is, have your low as high as possible and try to stay consistent throughout the year and throughout all the challenges that the season provides.”

Ersson slumped down the stretch but was back on his game for the final three contests. He said he could “hold my head a little bit higher” with his ending, which included a 4-1 win against the Presidents’ Trophy-winning New York Rangers and shutting out the New Jersey Devils.

Ivan Fedotov finally joined the squad in late March and after re-signing in late April will push Ersson for the starting job. The 6-foot-7 Russian goalie appeared in three games and started one, but had trouble finding his game. It is a different game in the NHL, with smaller rinks, elevated speed, and sharper angles; plus Fedotov was off the ice for a month prior to donning orange.

There is also Alexei Kolosov waiting in the wings who has the tools to potentially push both Ersson and Fedotov out of the top spot. In 47 regular-season games last season with Dinamo Minsk of the KHL, he had a 2.39 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage. Those numbers improved in the playoffs when his GAA dropped to 2.21 and his save percentage rose to .925. A high-end talent, he played two games for Lehigh Valley after coming over in April.

» READ MORE: Carson Bjarnason has a ‘quiet confidence about him’ in his second Flyers development camp

Rumors are circulating that Kolosov will not return to North America in the fall, but he is under contract with the Flyers. Speaking to The Inquirer in Buffalo, Brière tried to squash the rumors.

“As far as we know, there’s nothing there. He did tell us that it was an adjustment at the end of the year. He was up-front and honest with us and told us it was tough coming over by himself and that there were no other Russian-speaking players when he was there,” he said. “His agent called us when that report came out and he said he feels terrible and he didn’t speak to any reporter. Sometimes it’s just, he might have said that to a friend of his and reported it to a reporter or whatever.

“As far as we understand, it’s fine. He’s still going to report, he’s going to try out for the Flyers. He’s going to play in Philadelphia or Lehigh Valley next year. That’s our understanding. We have big hopes with him for the future, so we certainly want him here in North America playing in the Flyers organization.”

Rumbles did arise at the draft, however, and Kolosov did not participate at development camp, although Brière said on July 1 that it was mainly because of “logistics.”