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Travis Konecny, Philadelphia Flyers (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

Flyers’ Travis Konecny Extension Is Already Aging Horribly

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers
By Justin Giampietro | Last updated Oct 27, 2025 9:28 PM ET

On July 25, 2024, general manager Daniel Brière made the boldest move of his young tenure with the Philadelphia Flyers. Despite being in a rebuild, he gave forward Travis Konecny the biggest contract in franchise history: eight years, $70 million—potentially crippling long-term, even with a rising salary cap.

The issue was never who Konecny was at that moment in time. An all-situations, borderline point-per-game player for an $8.75 million cap hit is absolutely fair value. But the contract won’t expire until he’s 36 years old—well beyond the prime of any player. Plus, the Flyers are in the middle stages of a rebuild. His peak performance, in theory, will be spent on non-contending teams.

However, the worst-case scenario is unfolding in the present. Konecny hasn’t looked like an $8.75 million player for months, and it’s only Year 1 of the deal. It is already aging horribly.

Konecny Has Been on the Decline

It would be silly to overreact to the first eight games of Konecny’s payday (it was an extension, so it’s just kicking in now). One goal and four points is an ugly stat line for a player of the 28-year-old’s magnitude, especially in his supposed “prime,” but that could easily be attributed to poor puck luck.

Unfortunately, Konecny’s lack of production has been a theme for quite a while now. Let’s look at his totals from Jan. 29, 2025 (a day before Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost were traded), to the present.

The base numbers are a little concerning. Across 39 games, he has just four goals and 18 assists for 22 points. That’s an eight-goal, 46-point pace over a full season whilst playing north of 20 minutes each night.

To put that in perspective, among forwards with at least 500 minutes of ice time in this span, his point-scoring rate ranks in the 23^rd percentile. His goal-scoring rate is in the 3^rd percentile. In other words, that’s essentially fourth-line offensive production.

It gets worse. At 5-on-5 play, he has been outscored 50–34. While that can be partially blamed on an unsustainably low PDO (sum of save and shooting percentage; a luck-based metric), he hasn’t been capable of driving a line. When separated from Sean Couturier and Matvei Michkov, he’s been outscored 18–3 with an anemic 39.79% expected goal share.

My eye test backs this up. Konecny’s impact has felt pretty insignificant over the past few months. Once a true play-driver for the top line, he’s kind of just “there” now. He doesn’t make a lot of offensive plays, and the defense has never been a strength—he has the fourth-most goals allowed among forwards in their team’s last 39 games.

Is This Foreshadowing Konecny’s Future?

Before Konecny even signed his extension, I warned against an eight-year term. The reasoning was simple: Father Time comes for everyone. I compared him to Cam Atkinson, a member of the Flyers at the time, cautioning that their futures could be similar. Here is their point production by age, side by side.

Points per 60 scoring of Travis Konecny and Cam Atkinson by age (The Hockey Writers)

If you account for goal-scoring being higher nowadays than when Atkinson was Konecny’s age, you’re left with two fairly alike producers. Konecny hit his stride a lot quicker and has arguably had the better peak, but the gap isn’t substantial.

Atkinson signed a seven-year contract worth $5.875 million annually on Nov. 16, 2017, with the Columbus Blue Jackets—one that was later bought out. As you can tell from the data, and probably remember from his 2023–24 campaign in Philadelphia, he had a sub-NHL impact in his last seasons. He retired on Oct. 16, 2025, following a brief stint with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

By the time Atkinson reached his mid-30s, he was essentially a fourth-liner. Konecny, whose deal won’t expire until he’s 36, might have the same future. Picture his production right now—23^rd percentile in points per 60 minutes—except even worse. His floor could be disastrously low, and it may arrive around the time the Flyers hope to be contending for Stanley Cups. It’s one huge conflict of interest.

What do you think? Is Konecny simply in a 39-game funk, with the best yet to come? Or were concerns about his long-term viability valid, jeopardizing the Flyers’ future?

Stats courtesy of Natural Stat Trick