One by one, notifications from a home security system app began bombarding Travis and Karly Konecny’s cell phones after dark in late August.
PING! Broken glass on one side of the house.
PING! Movement detected in the living room.
PING! More shattered glass on another side.
PING! More motion in the bedroom.
“We’re just like, oh man, someone’s in our house. This is scary,” Travis said.
The Konecnys, still more than 2,000 miles away at their offseason home in Calgary, Alberta, frantically started rattling off text messages to their neighborhood group chat, informing them that there might be some criminals at work on their posh thoroughfare in Haddonfield, New Jersey.
Travis and Alex Sanheim were among those in the group chat, as their house was located across the street. Although the newly married couple wasn’t back in the area yet either, they were able to look out front remotely from their doorbell cam.
They pulled it up.
Drifts of smoke through the darkness. Then, a flicker of light.
“The night it happened was not a fun phone call,” Sanheim said. “When I’ve got to call him and tell him what’s going on.”
There’s not much left of the inside of the Konecnys’ house after a fire sparked by some summer renovations tore through. “The whole house has to be gutted,” Konecny said.
The fortunate part was no one was home when it happened. At Karly’s suggestion, Konecny had also shipped all of his personal hockey memorabilia back to his place in Calgary last summer in order to construct a “man cave” in one of the lower rooms. He and his wife were also thankful that keepsakes from their three young children — their baby outfits when they left the hospital, for example — survived the fire thanks to durable metal boxes that protected what was inside.
But logistically, they knew there were some headaches on the horizon. Flyers training camp was beginning in only a few weeks and they had lost all of their and their children’s clothes and furniture in the blaze.
Konecny, to the surprise of no one who knows him, remained as unperturbed as is probably possible in such a situation.
“I mean, he’s a pretty easygoing guy,” Sanheim said, trying to hold back a chuckle. “I think even right when it happened, he was more just happy no one was there.”
Said Konecny: “I’m like, we’ll just get a new house, we’re good. I’ve got camp coming up, and kids are good.”
But then he thought some more.
“I only spend 50 percent of the time at home during (hockey season), and I’m also at the rink in the day. For my wife, that’s her home, that’s where she spends all her time,” Konecny said. “She makes the house for the kids. So, she definitely was hurt a lot more than I was through the whole process.”
Fortunately for the Konecnys, the Flyers organization was able to help find them a fully furnished rental home on short notice, close to their previous place. They’d have somewhere to go when they arrived back in the Philadelphia area.
That’s when the Sanheims, who returned to their home about a week before the Konecnys, sprung into action.
“He was able to find a rental property, and it allowed us to take care of a few things before he brought him and his family down,” Sanheim said. “It was more my wife. She was trying to do the best that she could to help them out and try and get them the essential stuff. One less headache that they had to worry about when they came down. Just little things that we thought we could help them out with, just to get them started.”
Said Konecny: “We got to our rental property and we had plates, silverware, snacks for the kids, toys for the kids, beds — they had gotten everything prepared for us to get in there, and it was a surprise.”
“It was unbelievable.”
The Konecnys and Sanheims lived across the street from each other for about two years before the fire. The players had already formed a tight bond in the eight years they’ve been teammates — Konecny, a Flyers first-round pick in 2015, broke into the NHL in 2016-17, while Sanheim, the club’s first-round pick in 2014, arrived a year later.
Their proximity to one another after becoming neighbors had its benefits.
“It was great,” Sanheim said. “We could travel together. The wives could travel to games together. Me and T.K. were driving every single day together. It’s something we enjoyed doing.”
And while they might not spend as much time together as they did previously, they’re still likely to be around one another for a very long time as part of the Flyers roster. Sanheim is signed through 2030-31 and has trade protection throughout the life of the deal (including a full no-trade clause through 2026-27), while Konecny’s eight-year extension, which begins next season, has a full no-move clause for the first six years.
Konecny’s deal is the more recent of the two, announced on July 25. Sanheim was a sounding board for him in the weeks and days leading up to it becoming final, but he was clearly hoping for a specific outcome, too.
“I was talking to him on a daily (basis) leading up to that day,” Sanheim said. “Obviously trying to convince him (of) my side, and wanting him to get signed, but also understanding that it’s a business side, as well.
“All along I always told him that he’d be here long term. I’m sure there was times he wasn’t sure what was going to happen, whether he was going to get the long-term deal or not. I felt very confident that he was meant to be a Flyer.”
No one has been better for the Flyers since the start of the season than Konecny and Sanheim. If a vote for team MVP were held today, it would be difficult to select who to list first and second.
“(Konecny) and Sanny have been our top players,” coach John Tortorella said last Monday.
The stats reflect that. Konecny leads the Flyers with 13 goals and 30 points in 25 games, tying him for 14th in the league heading into Sunday night. Since Nov. 5, only Connor McDavid has more than Konecny’s 20 points, while his 17 even-strength points leads the league over that span. Konecny could be on his way to averaging a point per game for the first time in his career.
Sanheim’s 15 points (5 goals, 10 assists) places him third on the team in scoring and includes nine points (2 goals, 7 assists) in his last nine games. He’s a plus-2 on a team that’s been outscored by 14 at even strength, and his 25:30 average ice time is fifth in the NHL. When the Flyers were recently down several defensemen due to injury — including Sanheim’s regular partner, Cam York — Tortorella leaned heavily on Sanheim, skating him more than 30 minutes in a game three times in a five-game span.
Both have taken their games to new levels under Tortorella, now in his third season at the helm.
Konecny not only has evolved into the Flyers’ best goal scorer and offensive threat but also one of their best penalty killers, keying that outstanding part of their team game for the last two seasons.
“He makes plays that, breaking down the tape, he’s all over the scoring sheet,” Tortorella said last week. “A team that struggles for offense, he is constantly all over it. I just think he’s such a good player.”
Sanheim, of course, experienced some tough moments with Tortorella, who viewed him as not much more than a strong skater and was prepared to move on from the defenseman when he was nearly traded to St. Louis in the 2023 offseason. Instead, Sanheim seemed to take that personally, and in the past season-plus has established himself as a legitimate top-pair defenseman who can play in any situation.
Sanheim’s one-goal, one-assist performance in a 5-2 win over Buffalo on Nov. 16 in which he skated nearly 28 minutes left Tortorella gushing.
“He’s just been so impressive,” Tortorella said. “He’s taken off. He’s got a level of confidence that is just outstanding.”
He added: “I hope Hockey Canada is watching, because if that guy isn’t on that (Four Nations) team … ”
About that.
The rosters for the 4 Nations Face-Off, which will take place in February, will be announced Wednesday evening on a TNT broadcast. Two players who weren’t on many, if any, projected preseason rosters are now in the mix. Notably, Team Canada general manager Doug Armstrong and director of player personnel Kyle Dubas have recently been spotted at Flyers home games.
Sanheim probably has the better chance of the two, but a strong case can be made for Konecny, even with the abundance of quality Canadian forwards.
Both admitted that making that team wasn’t something they figured was likely two months ago.
“I came into the season with the mindset of just (helping) my team the best I could, knowing on that list I was probably too far down,” Konecny said. “At this point, I’m still thinking the same way. If it happens, it happens, but I’m focusing on our team. … Obviously, to represent your country at any point in time is cool.”
Said Sanheim: “If you had asked me at the start of the year, I wouldn’t have thought about it. Obviously with how I’ve started the year, I guess it’s been brought to my attention a little bit more. In saying that, part of the reason why I’ve been playing so good is just going out and playing my game and not worrying about too much and trying to help this hockey team win games. … If I end up getting the chance to do it, it would be a very cool experience.”
Making the roster together, of course, would make it even more meaningful.
“To be able to share that with the friendship that we have would be the cherry on top,” Sanheim said. “In saying that, if he gets the chance to do it and I don’t, I’m going to be super excited for him and proud of him. I hope he does get the opportunity.”
Regardless of what Hockey Canada decides, though, Konecny and Sanheim are firmly in place in Philadelphia as two of the organizational building blocks.
General manager Daniel Briere and president of hockey operations Keith Jones have spoken about how careful they have to be when making decisions on which players they select to be around for the ongoing rebuild, both as on-ice contributors and off-ice examples for the many young players on the team already and yet to come. Considering how Konecny and Sanheim have played since securing their respective bags, the front office has to be thrilled to this point. Konecny, 27, is already an alternate captain, and it seems inevitable that Sanheim, 28, will get a letter eventually, too.
The players are exhilarated about what’s to come, particularly because they get to help lead the team side by side.
“There’s a reason we both signed long-term,” Sanheim said. “We want to be here, we want to be with each other, we like the organization, the city. We both have similar mindsets in the way that we approach the game and want to be better every day, want to take the next steps. Those are all great attributes for a leader. Just trying to let our play lead the way, and show these young guys what it takes and what we’re looking for.”
Said Konecny: “There’s definitely been times when I’ve thought about how fortunate I am to be in the situation being locked up in Philly. My family loves it here. It’s so great for my wife and my children. And on the hockey side of it, we have the best fans in the NHL. It’s a sports city that you want to be a part of.
“And,” Konecny added, “I get to experience all these things at the same time with my best friend.”
(Top photos: Kyle Ross / Imagn Images and Len Redkoles / NHLI via Getty Images)
