Philly Front Office

June 23 is usually the unofficial start to the Flyers offseason as it’s the day the team tends to make its more ridiculous pre-offseason moves. Think of it like Memorial Day before summer officially begins. Well, this year it came and went with nothing happening. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot coming up though. Let’s take a look at the schedule, the salary cap, the draft, and other business matters for the orange and black.

Calendar

• June 26-27 – NHL Draft. Round 1 starts at 7pm on ESPN, Round 2 starts at 11a the next day on NHL Network and ESPN+
• June 29 – Deadline to tender qualifying offers to Restricted Free Agents. Expect the Flyers to tender offers to Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale before trying to lock them up to long term deals
• June 29-July 3 – Development Camp in Voorhees
• July 1 – Free Agency Begins at Noon!!! Players in the last year of their current contracts who will be unrestricted free agents can begin signing extensions as well.
• September 11 – Training Camp begins. A 2 game exhibition pitting the Rangers rookies against the Flyers rookies will be held from Sept. 12-13.
• September 21 – Preseason begins. 4 dates have been set: 9/21 at Capitals, 9/22 at Bruins, 9/24 vs Bruins, and 9/26 vs Capitals.
• September 29 – Unofficial start to the regular season. Schedules for the new 84 game season have not been released, but this is reported to be Day 1.

Salary Cap

The NHL Salary cap is going up, landing at $104m for 2026-27. The Flyers, before any extensions can be inked, are sitting at around $32.5m in cap space. Rumored extensions for Dan Vladar, Zegras, and Drysdale could bring this down to around $15-$20m.

NHL Salary Cap Spike

Possible Extensions

The Rumor Mill has been claiming that extensions for the Big 3 of the Flyers are between just-a-matter-of-sitting-down-and-figuring-it-out to all-but-pen-to-paper. Either way, there does not seem to be much worry that the following three will be coming back:

• Dan Vladar – Vladar signed a 2 year deal last off season for a total of $6.7m. Well, he grossly outperformed that deal last year as the team MVP. At 29 years old, he is expected to land in the 5/$25m range
• Trevor Zegras – I speculated earlier in the year that Zegras would earn right around $10m per year on his new deal due to the rising salary cap. I’ll hedge a tiny bit and say anywhere between $9m and $10m per season after a great debut year for the Flyers.
• Jamie Drysdale – Drysdale was making $2.3m in his final year under his bridge contract and is due a raise. I have seen anywhere from $4m to just over $6m per season in a shorter term deal than the expected 7 years going to Zegras.

The Flyers have 22 total free agents, but for the most part this trio is who we care about.

What Would a Trevor Zegras Contract Extension Look Like?

Possible Trades

The Flyers have 6 players on very long term contracts right now. While their deals won’t look as bad with age, I don’t think any could be considered off limits even though Couturier’s remaining 4/$31m is completely untradeable.

• Owen Tippett – Tippett’s name has been in trade rumors for three reasons: he’s good, he has a good contract (6/$37.2m remaining), and the team has a ton of wing players. The idea would be to move Tippett for either an upgrade at Center or for a Top-4 Defenseman on a similar contract.
• Rasmus Ristolainen – Risto has been on the trade block for years, but is finally in the last season of his contract that pays him $5m. Trading him away now let’s the team save that money, get a high draft pick (they are asking for a first rounder), and not lose him for nothing.
• Darnell Nurse – I have to mention Donovan’s nephew because he requested a trade out of Edmonton and labeled Philadelphia as his top choice. The bad news is that he is signed to an 8/$74 contract that still has 4 years left at $9.25m per season. The good news is that because he is incredibly overpaid, he will not cost anything near that amount and will not fetch a big bounty in terms of picks. Just keep him on your radar and have an open mind about the money.

If the Flyers want to go Big Game Hunting, there are a few names out there like Elias Pettersson and his terrible contract or even Auston Matthews if Toronto wants to continue its house cleaning. Robert Thomas seemed like an ideal candidate, but it looks like St. Louis will not be moving him. The other name we have been hearing is Shane Wright of the Kraken. His true debut 2 years ago was underwhelming and things got worse last year. He is a serious talent though considering he was the 4th pick in the Draft back in 2022 (one pick ahead of Cutter Gauthier). The Flyers would be buying low on him in hopes of a rebound season, not unlike Trevor Zegras last year.

Flyers Big Game Hunting

Possible Signings

The Flyers will sadly have a lot of money to spend, but not a lot to spend it on. They simply picked the wrong year to have cap space. Darren Raddysh would have been a great move to improve the Power Play, but he is already off to Toronto. The only other big name out there is Alex Tuch, but he really isn’t ideal for the Flyers.

The Restricted Free Agent scene has some names on it that the Flyers could overbid for like Jason Robertson, Leo Carlsson, and Connor Bedard. Those would be blockbuster moves though with big penalties in terms of draft pick compensation. Considering they have cash to burn though, those names are not out of the question.

Then there is Claude Giroux who will likely be playing in his final season. While it will likely be with his hometown Senators, if he was going to play anywhere else for a final season, Philadelphia has to be at the top of the list.

Draft

The Flyers are picking at #21 this Friday which is much less fun that last year when we had the 6th pick and took Porter Martone then moved up to #12 for Jack Nesbitt. While the Flyers have some extra ammunition in later drafts, we are only scheduled to have 4 picks this year: the 21st pick in the 1st, 2nd, 6th, and 7th rounds. After Gavin McKenna goes first, the Flyers will likely target a defenseman later in the round.

Contracts: Spotrac

Photo: NHL.com