It’s now or never for Morgan Frost with John Tortorella and the Flyers ... for real this time

Stop me if you’ve heard this before ... This is the year it clicks for Morgan Frost.

The Flyers organization and media members alike have tipped the 2017 first-rounder for a breakout for the better part of four years now. But with Frost now 25 years old and in the final year of a two-year, $4.2 million bridge deal, it really is now or never for the skilled but enigmatic center.

After yo-yoing between John Tortorella’s doghouse and stretches as the Flyers’ most dynamic offensive player the past two seasons, Frost has one more chance to make it work and prove to his bosses he deserves to be part of the long-term solution in Philadelphia. Here’s a look at where Frost stands with the organization as the Flyers embark on a pivotal season for the team and him individually.

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It’s been almost two years since Tortorella described Frost’s play as “up and down like a toilet seat.” The center rebounded from that jab — and an early-season benching — and went on to play 81 of 82 games in 2022-23, punctuated by 32 points over his final 45 contests (0.71 ppg).

“We know he has skill,” Tortorella said in March 2023. “We need to keep on seeing the skill. But for a coach to put a player on the ice that he’s still not sure of, that other stuff has to be sound. And I think he’s really improved there.”

Frost looked to have turned a corner with his coach, but the flashpoints were only just beginning.

Last season, just two games into the year, Tortorella benched Frost, his team’s second-line center and fourth-leading scorer the year before, for six games, beginning with the home opener. Frost said he understood the short leash but planned to stay “positive” and work to get back into the lineup. Meanwhile, Tortorella said, “I’m not going to debate it publicly. I’m not going to fill your papers. Frosty just needs to play better.”

Frost ultimately sat 10 of the team’s first 20 games, a stretch in which the Flyers hardly set the world on fire with a 10-9-1 record. The rhetoric from Tortorella was that other guys were playing better and that Frost still needed to improve his play away from the puck. But some of the benchings made Frost seem a bit of a scapegoat for the team’s larger issues. Others were downright puzzling, like Tortorella sitting Frost amid a four-game winning streak in November in which the center had two goals, four points, and 11 individual chances created.

Tortorella benched Frost for the 11th and final time on Jan. 4, leading Frost to call a meeting with his head coach.

“I was thrilled that he came in and wanted to talk, and [he] gave me some of his thoughts and not agreeing,” Tortorella said after the sit-down. “That’s a huge step for me with Frosty. It’s so important that players do that. ... It creates a little bit of a path for him and I as we try to go through this.”

The meeting did wonders for Frost, who responded immediately with a goal and an assist against Calgary in the following game. He had eight goals and 22 assists over the final 44 games (0.68 points per game) compared to five goals and 11 points over the first 28 (0.39 ppg). But Frost went cold along with the rest of the Flyers and registered just two assists over the final 11 games as the team collapsed and missed the playoffs. Maybe the most damning reflection of Frost’s standing at the end of the season was his playing just 8 minutes, 2 seconds — and zero shifts in the third period — of a must-win Game 82 in which a solitary goal could have catapulted the Flyers into the playoffs.

Will Frost be the player who consistently produced from January to March — sometimes spectacularly so — or the one who disappeared over the final 11 games when his team needed him? Those last few months almost are a microcosm of Frost’s tenure thus far in Philadelphia.

The Flyers fan base remains divided on whether Frost has been, at least partially, the victim of circumstances and too short a leash from Tortorella or just not good enough to be a second-line NHL center.

The answer probably is somewhere in the middle, as Frost at times has gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to ice time, while he also has not produced for extended stretches when in a top-six role. While he’s far from a perfect player, Frost’s defensive game quietly took a major step last season.

He led Flyers centers and was fourth on the team in Evolving Hockey’s even-strength defensive goals above replacement metric (3.3), while he also had a Corsi For Percentage of 51.5% at five-on-five, marking the first time the Flyers controlled the shot attempts with him on the ice over a full season. Tortorella has said Frost needs to do more than just score, and while it wasn’t necessarily flashy, he did that to an extent in 2023-24.

Improved defense and possession metrics are important, but Frost’s future with the organization will be determined by how he produces offensively this year. Frost has posted back-to-back 40-point seasons (46 two seasons ago, 41 last year), but the Flyers need him to be pushing 60 points if he is going to be a top-two guy down the middle. Can he do it? That remains to be seen. But there are reasons for optimism.

First, Frost has done it in 30-to-40-game spurts the last two seasons. His puck handling and creativity are high-end even by NHL standards, and his number of 20-plus mph speed bursts ranked in the 86th percentile in the league, according to NHL Edge. Add his above-average passing vision, and Frost has quite a toolbox with which to work. How many players could have pulled off the through-the-legs goals he scored against Anaheim in 2023 or Boston last season? Or the perfectly weighted saucer pass to send Joel Farabee away for his goal against San Jose on March 12? And maybe most audacious of all, what about the no-look, through-the-legs touch pass for Sean Walker’s breakaway marker against Dallas?

But beyond the flashes, consistency has eluded Frost. There are too many nights when he is invisible or looks disinterested. The center has been open about how important confidence is for him, while a lack of trust from his head coach and a hyperfocus on being responsible defensively probably have curtailed his offensive ability some, as well. Frost also needs to pose more of a shooting threat, as the pass-first center ranked just ninth on the Flyers in shots last season with 135.

To the Flyers’ credit, they are trying to put Frost in a position to succeed. The playmaker will start the season flanked by two shooters with 30-goal potential in Owen Tippett and Tyson Foerster. Frost and Tippett have also shown strong chemistry in the past, as the duo, alongside Travis Konecny, created a team-best 3.78 expected goals per 60 minutes together last season, according to Money Puck. Frost, Tippett, and Bobby Brink ranked fourth among Flyers line combinations in that same metric (3.18 expected goals per 60).

As general manager Danny Brière hinted at last month, Frost coming in right before camp last season as his contract situation dragged out probably did not help him when it came to getting off to a strong start.

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There’s also a strong likelihood that Frost will get some chances alongside Matvei Michkov throughout the season. In the preseason opener against Washington, Frost, Michkov, and Tippett combined for six points, with Frost netting two goals and an assist and combining on several slick give-and-goes with the Russian rookie. Tortorella reunited Frost and Michkov, this time putting them with Konecny, against Boston on Oct. 1 and it quickly resulted in a Konecny goal that started with a Frost-Michkov passing play at the blue line. Frost probably is the closest thing Michkov has to an equal in terms of creativity on the Flyers roster, and it would be interesting to see a larger sample size of those two offensive minds bouncing off one another. Given how often coaches juggle lines, we’re sure to see the duo together at some point.

The Flyers’ last-ranked power play also should be better — there’s almost nowhere but up from 12.2% — with the addition of players like Michkov and defenseman Jamie Drysdale. Frost, who led the team with 11 power-play points last season, was featured on the first unit alongside Michkov, Drysdale, Konecny, and Tippett during training camp. For comparison, Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov led the NHL with 53 points on the power play. With more creators and shooters, it’s plausible that the Flyers’ power play takes a jump and Frost picks up an extra handful of points with the man advantage.

Then there is the motivation factor. Frost loves it in Philadelphia and has gotten close with many teammates, including Farabee, another Flyer with a lot to prove. He knows this is his last chance to convince the brass he’s a long-term part of the puzzle, and with a big year, he can earn himself a nice pay raise before potentially hitting restricted free agency.

While Tortorella has always had his doubts about Frost, Brière seems to still believe that the center can click in Philadelphia, potentially because he sees some of the same attributes in Frost that made him successful as a player.

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“He had some dips here and there, but, overall, it was a pretty good season for Morgan,” Brière said at his press conference before training camp. “That’s another guy that we expect to take another step. In the middle part there, you look at the wingers that he’s going to have the chance to work with throughout the season. You know our centermen should be pretty excited.”

It’s time for the Flyers to let Frost go and give him some rope to make plays — mistakes included — to see what he can do. Because when Frost is playing with confidence and some swagger, he can produce some special results. With better wingers around him in Tippett and potentially Konecny and Michkov at points this season, there’s no more time for excuses for Frost. While a lot of the preseason talk has centered on Michkov and fellow rookie Jett Luchanko, Frost taking the next step Brière mentioned and growing into a top-two center would be as important as any development in terms of the Flyers pushing for a playoff spot.