Flyers’ Morgan Frost’s improvement apparent as John Tortorella is trying to be ‘fair’ to him

Owen Tippett knew just a minute into Tuesday night’s game that Morgan Frost was poised for a standout performance.

“I think right from the first shift, he puts it through a guy and does a spin-a-rama,” Tippett recalled just minutes after the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2. “He’s confident right now.”

Is he ever.

Aside from Tippett’s empty net tally, Frost provided all of Philadelphia’s offense against the Habs. Goal No. 1 was mostly the product of a gorgeous pass from Kevin Hayes, sure. But the second was all Frost, as he took the puck end-to-end and eschewed his usual pass-first mentality to make a power move to the slot before ripping a wrister past the surprised Cayden Primeau, breaking a late third period 1-1 tie and giving the Flyers a lead they would not relinquish.

Morgan Frost gives the Flyers the late lead with his second of the game. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/C2Usx0kYSl

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 29, 2023

“I think sometimes my game is kind of like that. Maybe something happens that’s good early on, I kind of feed off it,” Frost said.

But Tuesday night wasn’t merely a one-off strong performance for Frost, borne of the momentum from an impressive early shift. Frost’s play has been trending upward for quite a while now.

Yes, Frost has had hot streaks before at the NHL level, and perhaps that’s all this is. But by the numbers, it sure looks like the 23-year-old is in the midst of a legitimate step forward.

Frost has seven points in his last five games. His 24 points over his last 36 games — since the start of 2023 — leads the Flyers. And it goes beyond points. Philadelphia controlled 74.44 percent of the expected goals at five-on-five on Tuesday with Frost on the ice; a team-high mark. And that wasn’t a one-game anomaly, either. During the month of March, Frost has posted a 59.44 percent xG share across 12 games, an undeniably stellar rate that trails only Tippett among Flyers forwards over that span.

And most importantly for Frost, he just might be making inroads at long last with his head coach.

“When we talk about him — and I guess it’s a conversation you guys have to have with me — he keeps on improving. That’s encouraging to me,” John Tortorella said after Tuesday’s win.

Yes, John, it’s a conversation that we have to have with you. But only because your public comments on Frost have been so consistently lukewarm all season.

Take the start of March, before the trade deadline, when Tortorella was asked about Frost after a practice — specifically, just how important the final month and a half would be in terms of his overall evaluation of Frost as a player. Torts hasn’t hesitated to pump the tires of young players like Tippett and Noah Cates when posed similar questions about them, proclaiming the two as clear parts of the long-term plan as he envisions it.

Frost? Let’s just say he didn’t get that same endorsement less than a month ago.

Not even close.

“Very. Very important,” Tortorella responded, acknowledging that Frost had improved over the course of the season. “I think a number of players have improved. But as an organization, you’re always trying to improve your team and develop your players. Great. But we have to make some calls on … are we headed in the right direction with this guy — even though they’ve improved — is it still the right guy as we move forward? Or do we need to look elsewhere in certain situations, to try to keep on climbing and improve? So it’s very important for those guys.”

That’s about as unsubtle as a call-out gets for a young player. And Frost didn’t miss it.

“Yeah. I know the situation I’m in,” he said on Tuesday.

So Frost is working not just to score points but also win over his still-skeptical coach.

“I’m just trying to do the right things,” Frost contended. “Whether it’s making more plays or (being) a little bit more reliable defensively, and I think even faceoffs too — my faceoffs have been pretty terrible all year — just really trying to hone in on that now and show that I can play a complete game.”

Justifiably, Tortorella’s comments regarding Frost were noticeably softened after this game — in no small part because of those “right things” that Frost referenced.

“The goals are the goals — that’s great,” Tortorella said. “We’re looking for that. But I think he’s improved right on through away from the puck, which is a very important part of his game. Just that — positioning, body positioning, battles. Just a 200-foot player.”

But Torts wasn’t ready to give him a full-fledged endorsement, as the public push/pull between player and coach continued.

“We know he has skill,” Tortorella said. “We need to keep on seeing the skill. 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.”

“Still not sure of.” Yep, Frost hasn’t quite earned his way onto Tortorella’s list of preferred future pieces.

One factor that could help him in that regard, however? He just might now have a big-time backer in charge of the Flyers’ front office.

Frost and interim GM Daniel Briere have long been close. The stylistic similarities in their respective games — both were and are undersized, offensively oriented centers with flashy, playmaking skills — made the partnership logical, and they chatted regularly as Briere integrated himself back into the organization as a consultant and front-office adviser. Frost even wears Briere’s No. 48, which first was randomly assigned to him but he chose to keep in large part because of his respect for Briere and that Briere himself encouraged it.

It’s not that former GM Chuck Fletcher didn’t like Frost. But Frost’s relationship with Briere is stronger and more personal. Frost said as much on Tuesday, even while dismissing the idea that it would play a role in Briere’s decision regarding Frost’s future with the club.

“I don’t think (it’s) really based on that,” Frost contended. “I mean, obviously I kind of talked to Danny a lot before. But it is a business, and now that he’s in that position, I think friendships — or whatever you want to call them, relationships — kind of go out the window a little bit.”

Consider me skeptical.

For starters, take Tortorella’s comments on Frost last Friday, just two weeks after Briere took over as interim GM. It’s not just that they were kinder to Frost than Torts’ norm. It’s the way he positioned them — that Tortorella was trying to account for the opinions of others in the organization when it came to Frost, and that he was making a conscious effort to be more patient with him.

“Judging from what everybody’s told me, it’s night and day, what he’s doing right now from where he was two years ago,” Tortorella said. “That makes me want to keep watching and see if he can (keep going). Because he has improved. I think he’s improved from the start of this year to now. Everybody’s told me from the year before, it’s crazy how different (he is). So I’m just gonna keep on watching and see where we’re at the end of the year.”

Sure, “everyone” doesn’t necessarily mean “Danny Briere” specifically. But the timing of Tortorella’s newfound patience sure does seem to line up nicely.

“I want to be fair with him,” he continued. “I don’t want to overthink it either, if I can put it that way. I need to be fair to him. He drove me crazy early in the year with some of his habits and he’s corrected those. I just want more time. I just want a clearer picture as we play these next 10, 11 games.”

It’s no secret that Tortorella has been tough on Frost this season. He hasn’t granted him the consistent public praise that he’s delivered the way of players like Tippett, Cates and Cam York. It’s not unjustified, either — he hasn’t flashed the ability to take over games regularly like Tippett has, the wise-beyond-his-years defensive trustworthiness of Cates, or the stellar underlying metrics of York. Frost, in Tortorella’s mind, was sold to him as a skill player first, and he just wasn’t seeing that high-end skill enough to get him excited about the player.

But it’s fair to note that despite the fact that Frost was drafted in the hopes that he might develop into a top-of-the-lineup scorer, that’s not his only plausible destination in an NHL lineup. Teams need cheap and productive third-line centers too, after all. If Frost can pick up his scoring just a bit in the coming years from its current 43-point pace, improve to be a bit above 50 percent in faceoff success (45 percent on the season but 61.8 percent in his last five games), and stay around a break-even even-strength play-driver, couldn’t he serve as a useful middle-six center even if he never becomes consistently dominant like Tortorella wishes he could be?

“That’s basically what I’m saying, being fair to him,” Tortorella said last Friday. “I don’t want to grind him and turn him into a perfect player and say yeah, this is the guy we need here. Or we want here. I need to be fair, because there are a lot of players that I’m really interested in being here, (who) are inconsistent also. That’s (when) I’ve got to watch myself.”

So things are trending in the right direction for Frost in Philadelphia. His on-ice confidence is rising. His scoring numbers are up, and have been for the better part of three months. And now, he has a potential advocate as a GM, pushing his skeptical head coach to give him a longer look and leash than he might have been granted otherwise.

“I want to be here next year, I want to be here for the long run,” Frost affirmed. “So every game is important to me.”

A big game like Tuesday helps in that regard. But as Frost readily acknowledged, it’s going to take more than that to win over his doubters — with Tortorella still front and center among them.

“I’ve kind of formed some opinions already,” Tortorella said Tuesday, before acknowledging that nine games remain for impressions to change, against both playoff contenders like Dallas and the Islanders and less relevant clubs like St. Louis and Chicago.

“We’ll play the games, and then we’ll have our discussions.”

(Photo: Eric Hartline / USA Today)