Tyson Foerster’s found his scoring touch, but that’s no longer all he provides the Flyers

Ahead of the 2020 NHL draft, forward prospect Tyson Foerster was consistently lauded for his laser beam of a shot.

In his first audition with the Flyers last season, almost three years after they selected him 23rd overall, Foerster showed that he could translate to the NHL level as an offensive play-driver with three goals and seven points in eight games.

Fast forward to 2023-24, and Foerster earned a full-time role out of Flyers camp. But while he’d made major improvements with his skating in the AHL last season, the scoring touch that had come to be expected from him was, at first, nowhere to be found. Foerster was held without a goal through the Flyers’ four preseason games and the first 15 games of the season.

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But while Morgan Frost, Bobby Brink, and Ryan Poehling alternated in the press box as healthy scratches, Foerster was a mainstay in the lineup. Apart from the season opener against the Columbus Blue Jackets, Foerster has played in every game this season, even as his scoring drought stretched on. Coach John Tortorella consistently praised Foerster’s play away from the puck and his ability to win battles, reiterating that the numbers on the score sheet would come.

They did. Foerster, who turns 22 next month, has six points and four goals in his last four games, including the game-tying goal that sparked a comeback win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday.

“He’s a goal scorer,” center Sean Couturier said postgame. “... There’s a lot of little things, that people maybe don’t notice, even if he’s not producing. But obviously he wants to score goals, and those kind of scorers, you know, once they get one, it just unblocks everything else.”

The dam broke on Nov. 26, when Foerster scored the game-winning shootout goal against the New York Islanders, beating Ilya Sorokin, who had stonewalled the Flyers all game. Foerster had a game-high six shots on Sorokin, and although the one that finally broke through didn’t count as a goal on the score sheet, it helped kick off his current three-game goal and four-game point streaks.

“They don’t ask how,” Foerster said. “It just feels good, obviously, to score in those games, and get those big goals. But we’re hot right now, and we’re winning games, and that’s really all that matters.”

Foerster had seemed snakebitten, but it was a matter of time before he finally found the back of the net. He ranks third on the team in five-on-five high-danger scoring chances (24), behind only Cam Atkinson and Owen Tippett (both 26), according to Natural Stat Trick.

“Every guy was telling him to stay with it. Keep doing what you’re doing. It’s going to start to go in,” defenseman Travis Sanheim said. “It’s a hard league to score in and it’s never easy, especially as a young guy, and sometimes it takes time.”

After scoring with a couple of tipped shots against New Jersey, Foerster showed off that famous shot on Monday, sending a rocket by Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic. This season, Foerster’s shot has been clocked at 94.86 mph by NHL Edge, which puts him in the 89th percentile of the league.

In a way, the stretch without scoring allowed Foerster to showcase the other strengths of his game, beyond just filling the net.

“It’s been so impressive as far as the other stuff, and that’s caught us off guard as a coaching staff,” Tortorella said. “We didn’t realize how equipped he was. A lot of people question his skating. I haven’t seen it for a second, his skating affect any part of being a National Hockey Leaguer, and this is why we kept him in there.”

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Tortorella said that when the Flyers would go through film, they would focus on the aspects of the game Foerster was doing well, like his strength on the puck, in hopes it would help him break out of the slump.

“When you have a young man that came up last year and scored some goals, and then really struggled scoring through the first quarter here, you lean on that stuff, and he gets to hang his hat on something, as far as that he is helping the team,” Tortorella said. “So I think deep down that’s all he wants to do, is help the team.”

And now that those goals have started to come, Foerster expects more to follow.

“Anytime you can score in this league, your confidence is going to rise,” he said.