NHL Free Agency
Flyers Free Agency Tracker: Cap Space, Big Needs, Rumors, & More
It’s July 1st, which means NHL Free Agency will officially begin at 12:00 p.m.
The Philadelphia Flyers still have a lot of work to do ahead of the 2025/26 season if they want to compete. Free agency is the perfect time to do so.
The majority of the big names have already been resigned. Florida, miraculously, found a way to retain all three of their key free agents. They were able to extend Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, and now Brad Marchand.
The Red Wings re-signed Patrick Kane to kick off free agency for them. Columbus extended Ivan Provorov to a long-term deal as well.
Oh, yeah, and the Mitch Marner saga is over. Marner will officially be joining the Vegas Golden Knights after a sign-and-trade, sending Nic Roy to Toronto. He signed an eight-year deal worth $12 million annually with Vegas. A great deal for Vegas. Make sure to check out Hannah Kirkell’s coverage of the Marner saga over at Vegas Hockey Now.
The point: the market making it to free agency is thin. That does not mean the Flyers won’t do what they can to improve the team. So, let’s start with the basics.
Flyers Current Cap Space
*Will update this during the day along side the Flyers moves*
The Flyers currently have $15,141,905 in cap space for the 2025/26 season, per PuckPedia.
$43,600,000 is tied up in the forward group, which still needs at least one more player. $25,203,333 is tied up in defensemen, with six under contract, not including Cam York’s possible new deal. The rest, $4,725,000, is for the goaltending.
Obviously, the Flyers can make moves to create more space as free agency evolves.
Projected Lineup
Using the current rostered players, here is the projected Flyers lineup
F
Matvei Michkov – Trevor Zegras – Travis Konecny
Tyson Foerster – Sean Couturier – Owen Tippett
X – Noah Cates – Bobby Brink
Nic Deslaurier – Rodrigo Abols – Garnet Hathaway
D
Cam York (assuming he resigns as expected) – Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler – Jamie Drydale
Emil Andre – Egor Zamula
(Ristolainen IR)
G
Ersson
Fedotov
Flyers’ Big Needs Heading into Free Agency
We discussed this yesterday, so no need to deeply dive into this today. So, in short, here are the Flyers’ big needs.
- Goaltending must be addressed. The tandem of Sam Ersson and Fedotov or Kolsov will not get you to the playoffs. Ersson needs a true tandem partner.
- A left-shot defender would be an ideal addition. The Flyers should not be comfortable with Egor Zamula and Emil Andrae as their bottom pair LHD options. That should be a big area of improvement.
- Getting a fourth-line center should be a priority as well. I understand that in-house options, such as Karsen Dorwart, Rodrigo Abols, and even Jacob Gaucher, will make it interesting. However, if the Flyers truly want to compete, that is an area where they should focus on improvement.
- Now, if the Flyers really want to spice things up, it looks like they have an open spot for a top-nine winger. Sure, that could be snagged by someone like Alex Bump after training camp, but if they want to make things interesting, that could be one last spot to improve this offseason.
Unsigned Flyers To Hit Free Agency
The Flyers got out ahead of things and re-signed Noah Cates and Tyson Foerster before they could hit the open market. The Flyers have no pending UFAs.
Yesterday was the deadline for the Flyers to extend qualifying offers to players, giving them RFA rights, or letting them hit unrestricted free agency.
Well, only Cam York was extended a QO. He remains unsigned heading into free agency.
As for Jakob Pelletier, the other Flyers’ pending RFA, he did not receive a QO, meaning he is an unrestricted free agent.
Zayde Wisdom and Elliot Desnoyers also were not extended QOs.
York is the name to watch for the Flyers.
Flyers Free Agency Rumors
*Live Updates during the day*
Now for the juicy stuff: rumors and speculation.
Elliote Friedman on Sportsnet mentioned that the Flyers are believed to have interest in Corey Perry, just does not know the likelihood of it happening. That one makes no sense to me, just thought it was worth sharing.
The goalie market is thinning again. Thatcher Demko’s extension (3x$8.5M) has just gone official, and Dave Pagnotta is reporting it’s more likely than not that Jake Allen remains in New Jersey.
Yesterday, Kevin Kurz of The Athletic reported that the Flyers and Cam York were “Not too far” from getting an extension done. Kurz says he does not get the impression that the Flyers are worried about losing him to an offer sheet.
UPDATES
Flyers Busy to Open Free Agency; Agree on Two One-Year Deals
Flyers Find Stop-Gap Goalie; Agree to Terms With Dan Vladar
Kevin Weekes has reported there are more dogs in the Shabanov fight than expected. In addition to the Flyers, Weekes reported the Mammoth, Rangers, and Islanders are in the running.
The Flyers now have $5,491,905 in remaining cap space. With York unsigned, still being in the Shabanov race, and looking to improve LHD and possibly more, I’d expect a subtraction sooner than later.
Flyers also agreed to terms with depth LHD Dennis Gilbert, per the team. They now sit at $4,616,905 in cap space.
Read More: Updated Flyers Prospect Rankings After the NHL Draft (+)
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Please don’t go into the season with Deslauriers and Abols, not to mention Dorwart, Lycksell, or any other career minor-leaguers on the regular roster. There are NHL options out there they can afford: Cody Glass, Pius Suter, Adam Gaudette, Nick Bjugstad. Yes on Shabanov. I would even bring Kuzmenko back – he put up some points while here and in the playoffs, and he has skill. A veteran dman would be good, too.
Kuzmenko re-upped in LA for 4.5m or so yesterday.
I’d try for Glass or Gaudette. Not sure about goalie if Allen is re-upped in NJ.
That is simply the projections with current rostered players. I agree, upgrades are needed. Though, I’m not opposed to giving Dorwart a shot.
I say Bjugstad on a 1yr 3-4mil cap hit and then u could always flip him at the trade deadline for maybe a 2nd rd pick?
Pius Suter is a Swiss army knife player similar to Scott Laughton. He has a connection with Tocchet so hopefully we get him. Shabanov would fill out the forwards and that leaves a veteran DMan and a goalie. Alex Lyon and somebody like Nate Schmidt, who played with the Panthers on a sub 1 million contract.
I second this. A sensible move and would be a great signing at the right price.
Christian Dvorak??,
Not sure as to why Dvorak. Over $5million as well.
It is befuddling. But clearly Briere is going low and slow on the rebuild. Dvorak is very unimpressive, but does provide some depth down the middle where the Flyers have a gaping hole. At least he’s only on a one year deal. Having another albatross contract would make my head explode.
What I’ve learned is that Briere is very eager to be on the wrong side of most transactions. The Frost / Farabee trade return was barely worth mentioning. The Laughton trade was embarrassing. The deal with EDM was a waste after shipping that out to PIT to move up a couple of spots to get a player that we may see in 2027, if we’re lucky. I feel like he’s kicking the can down the road and we’re due for cycles of filler players like Dvorak for the foreseeable future. Not impressed.
Luchanko is going to be your other center, not Abols.
Shabanov and Martone should also be on the team as wingers.
I like the top line listed, but the next three are subject to change with the additional players I mentioned above. Then there are some discussions about who to sit but still carry on the roster.
Even when healthy, I see Couturier as a drag on the franchise until his contract runs out. But they’ll still play him every game until he’s gone.
Ugh. Just saw the Dvorak and Juulsen news. I guess we have to find places for them to play now as well.