The Flyers trimmed their restricted free agent list in a pretty decisive way, extending qualifying offers to four players and letting six others walk into unrestricted free agency.
According to reports ahead of the 5 p.m. Eastern deadline, Philadelphia did not issue qualifying offers to Karsen Dorwart, Christian Kyrou, Tucker Robertson, Brett Harrison, Artem Guryev, and Phil Tomasino.
That leaves Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, Nikita Grebenkin, and Hunter McDonald as the players who appear to have received offers from the club. The deadline for qualifying restricted free agents came at 5 p.m.
Eastern, and while the qualifying offer is usually more of a paperwork move than a major roster decision, players can’t accept it until after July 1.
For the Flyers, the six who weren’t qualified don’t exactly leave a huge hole behind.
Dorwart, whom Philadelphia signed on March 30, 2025, appeared in just five games for the Flyers in 2024-25 and finished without a point. He spent the 2025-26 season with Lehigh Valley, where he put up 10 goals and 24 points in 70 games.
Kyrou never got into a game for Philadelphia after arriving in the trade with Dallas last October that sent Sami Tuomaala the other way. He did, however, produce from the blue line for the Phantoms, finishing with 10 goals and 24 assists for 34 points in 55 games.
Robertson came over from Seattle in September in the J.R. Avon deal, but he never really separated himself in Lehigh Valley. He posted 13 goals and 28 points in 63 games and sat low on the depth chart, making him a long shot to push for an NHL spot unless injuries piled up badly.
Brett Harrison, picked up from Boston at this year’s trade deadline with Jackson Edward in the deal that sent Alexis Gendron and Massimo Rizzo to the Bruins, had a short stay with the Phantoms. In 12 games, he scored two goals and added two assists.
Guryev’s path with the organization was even thinner. He was one of the pieces San Jose sent to Philadelphia with Carl Grundstrom, with the Flyers also moving a 2026 sixth-round pick plus Ryan Ellis and his contract. The defenseman played six games for Lehigh Valley but spent most of his time with Reading in the ECHL.
Tomasino arrived on New Year’s Eve from Pittsburgh in exchange for Egor Zamula, and he logged the most productive numbers of the group in Lehigh Valley. In 38 games with the Phantoms, he scored seven goals and added 19 assists for 26 points.
Kyrou may raise the most eyebrows among the six who weren’t qualified, but the bigger picture for Philadelphia is straightforward: the rest of the group would have needed to make a stronger case to stay in the organization, or else they would have been blocking younger players moving up the pipeline.
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