Travis Konecny Represents Philadelphia in the 2020 NHL All-Star Game

When Philadelphia extended 22-year old winger Travis Konecny to a six-year extension, the hope was that he’d continue to blossom and match his new $5.5M AAV. In just four months, it’s already a massive steal for the Flyers.

Konecny will play in his first NHL All-Star game this year in St. Louis. He leads the Flyers with 17 goals, and has 43 points in 47 games. Watching the games, “TK” seems like the most electric player on the ice every time he’s out there. He’s shooting a career high 15.6%. He’s growing as a player at a rapid pace, and his ceiling may be even higher. The Flyers can afford the higher cap hits on expensive free agents when their best two players– Konecny and Sean Couturier– combine to make about $10M.

Cap hit aside, Konecny has been the Flyers’ best pure offensive producer. When he’s not scoring goals, he’s threading some pretty passes to James van Riemsdyk against Pittsburgh, or blowing past Jack Johnson after a loose puck and getting a shot off. His possession metrics are all pretty outstanding. What’s not to love?

Travis Konecny is back on the board. 🍎

📺: https://t.co/0Z8qzOtxWh @NHLonNBCSports pic.twitter.com/UbZ9pWTqvL

— NHL (@NHL) January 22, 2020

It was a waiting game with TK’s negotiations, and they didn’t come to an agreement until September 16th. Those most comparable to Konecny in age and production included Jakub Vrana of the Washington Capitals and his cousin, Bo Horvat, of the Vancouver Canucks. The numbers between these three are incredibly similar; all three players sit between 40-43 points, about 15-20 minutes of ice time, and they’re all shooting near the 13-15% range. While Vrana does the most with limited ice time on a great Washington team, Konecny’s advanced statistics in Corsi and Fenwick are far better.

He’s most certainly driving his own play, and it helps to play with Corsica legend, Sean Couturier, as much as he did in the first half of the season. However, with the forward depth suffering some major blows throughout the season, they’ve since been split up for much of recent time. A new look line– JvR, Claude Giroux, TK– has been running rampant in offensive zones the past few games, and for the first time in his career, it’s not the captain carrying the load.

In his last 21 games, Konecny has 19 points with nine goals. Such production warrants a bigger deal AAV-wise than just $5.5M per season, and he’s only 22. There’s been a lot of Brad Marchand comparables in recent memory the way they both seem to get under their opponent’s skin before scoring, but could the ceiling truly be that high? The good news: Konecny didn’t miss the puck in the shootout on January 13th, when he scored the winner moments before Marchand’s infamous whiff.

Catch TK at the All-Star Game the night of January 25th.