Owen Tippett Thriving Under John Tortorella

Unfortunately, he never was able to find any sort of consistency to stick in the Panthers lineup. As he drifted back and forth between the AHL and NHL, never really getting too much time in either place, he started to look less and less like a sure thing. So much so, the Panthers didn't hesitate to include him in a trade deadline deal with the Philadelphia Flyers for Claude Giroux in the Spring of 2022.

Upon his arrival in Philadelphia, while he was able to stick with their NHL club due to the sheer lack of talent and the ridiculous number of injuries that plagued their roster, he was still struggling to find any kind of consistency that made anyone think the trade would workout in the Flyers favor in the future.

His defense was "meh", and in 21 games with the Flyers he was only able to find the back of the net himself 4 times while helping his new teammates only 3 times for a total of 7 points.

The Flyers entered the 2022/23 season with a new head coach in John Tortorella and he seems to have helped Tippett's game a lot. While it is still only a very small sample size, in just 9 games under Tortorella, Tippett has already eclipsed both his Flyers goal and assist totals from last season. While his stats suggest he's actually worse this year defensively, it's worth remembering that he's also playing up higher in the lineup which means he's facing off against much tougher competition.

Despite the apparent struggles defensively for Tippett, he deserves to be playing where he is in the lineup. In the Flyers current seven game losing streak, Tippett has been one of the few bright spots. Dating back to the Flyers last win against St. Louis on November 8th, Tippet has recorded 7 points(4G, 3A.)

On Saturday against Montreal, the 23-year-old recorded his first multi-goal game of his young NHL career. What makes that stat even sweeter is that neither goal was what could be considered "flukey" or "dirty but good".

Tippett showed off his shot and used his confidence for both goals. The first came off a wicked shot he's started to display more and more during this season, and the second was a sneaky shot he was able to take directly off his own face-off win.

If he can start to become more consistent, with his shot, and his confidence seemingly building he could be a weapon for the Flyers to utilize throughout their lineup in the future. But there in lies the biggest question: Is this little run just a player on a "hot streak", or is this the start of a Tippett breakout season due to having a good coach who is helping him hone his skills both offensively and (to a lesser extent) defensively? We'll just have to wait and see.