Offseason Spotlight: Travis Sanheim

Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim is coming off his second Barry Ashbee Trophy as the team's top blueliner. In 2023-24, he put a down year from the previous campaign behind him to have arguably the best overall season of his NHL career to date.

As with most players, Sanheim's strong campaign started by reporting to training camp in the best shape of his life. He added muscle last summer and aced the exceptionally grueling training camp that head coach John Tortorella believes is essential to having a productive season to follow.

Recalled Flyers general manager Danny Briere, "Fitness-wise, he was one of the best conditioned players to show up and the way he performed in preseason, it got us really excited."

When the 2023-24 season rolled around, Sanheim achieved new single-season bests in offensive production with 10 goals, 34 assists and 44 points. He led all Flyers players with an average 23:48 of ice time per game. In fact, through the first two months of the season, only Washington Capitals defenseman John Carlson (26:01) averaged more time on ice per game than Sanheim (25:55) among all NHL position players.

Sanheim has played both left and right defense over the course of his NHL career but mostly played the left side of his pairings in recent years. That is, until 2023-24. Sanheim played the right side nearly exclusively last season, which enabled Cam York to play on the left (where the 2019 first-round pick is far more comfortable).

Another major area of note this past year: the coach-player relationship and mutual trust level between Sanheim and head coach John Tortorella improved immensely. By Tortorella's own admission, the two had a difficult first season at times in 2022-23. After some open and frank discussions, the two developed a stronger understanding about what each needed from the other.

"I wanted a higher standard. It wasn’t like Sanny was bucking it or anything, he was trying to get there. But it was a bit of a struggle," Tortorella said early last October.

For his part, Sanheim added, "It wasn't that he didn't like me or we didn't get along, but we had to get to know each other."

Last summer, Sanheim put aside trade rumors as he entered the first season of a multi-year extension. He strengthened his communications with the head coach and he poured all of his focus into getting ready for the season.

The results were gratifying, although the way the season ended for the team was a disappointment for everyone.

"We love that group and we didn't want this to end. Each day that we came to the rink, we loved it, we enjoyed it. I think that's a good thing and something that we can take moving forward," Sanheim said.

Looking back at the events of last season during Exit Day, Sanheim said that he felt there'd been good progress overall. This was especially true in terms of the advancement of his pairing with York.

"Me and Yorkie fully wanted that. We wanted to be carrying a load. We wanted to be a big part of it. It's obviously disappointing how it ended. But, for the most part, I'm pretty happy with how me and Yorkie played even down the stretch," Sanheim said.

Now 28 years old (he'll turn 29 on March 29, 2025), Saheim will reach the 500-game milestone in his NHL playing career early in the 2024-25 campaign. He's currently at 497 games played. It's already been 10 year since the Flyers drafted the Elkhorn, Manitoba, native with the 17th overall pick of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft in Philadelphia.

"Looking back, it's pretty cool that I got drafted right here in Philly by the team I was going to play for," Sanheim recalled last year as a guest on the Flyers Daily podcast. "Not a lot of players get to experience that, so it's definitely something I've always remembered and it's something my family is grateful for."

Much has changed for Sanheim over the last decade.

On the ice, he's developed from a teenager making the transition from being a junior defenseman for the WHL's Calgary Hitmen to a quiet veteran leader on the Flyers' NHL blueline. Within the dressing room group, he's grown close to a generation of teammates with whom he came up in the Flyers system and aims to be lifelong friends, wherever their respective hockey journeys take them. This is especially true of Travis Konecny, with whom Sanheim is inseparable. In his off-ice life, Sanheim recently got married in Manitoba to his longtime girlfriend Alex.

Now that he's coming off a career-best season and has seven years remaining on his contract, Sanheim has a reasonably high degree of job security in the foreseeable future. Rather than focusing on erasing the bitter taste of a down season, he can focus on bettering his 2023-24 accomplishments.

Sanheim is in the prime of his NHL career. For the Flyers rebuilding drive to take the next step toward re-establishing the team as a viable playoff team, Sanheim must be one of the prime contributors.