The Flyers have made their intentions pretty clear: they’re hunting for star power, and they’re not shy about kicking tires on some of the biggest names out there.
That came into focus this summer with the Leo Carlsson offer sheet. Plenty of people expected a huge payday for the former No. 2 overall pick in 2023, but not many saw $18MM coming.
Philadelphia’s aggressive move was ultimately matched by Anaheim, but the message was unmistakable. The Flyers were willing to go big to land a headline player.
According to Kevin Kurz of The Athletic, Carlsson wasn’t the only center Philadelphia tracked. Earlier this summer, Flyers GM Daniel Briere was direct about the team’s approach, making it clear that missing on Carlsson wasn’t going to change the plan. If Anaheim had declined to match, the Flyers would have landed an automatic No. 1 center, a key piece in the Ducks’ push back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2017-18.
Kurz also pointed to the Quinn Hughes situation in Minnesota. Hughes has one year left on the six-year, $47.1MM deal he signed with the Vancouver Canucks in 2021.
That contract came with the chance to play under then-Canucks and now Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet, whom Hughes is said to be very fond of. Philadelphia checked in before Hughes was eventually traded to Minnesota, but Vancouver reportedly wasn’t interested in sending him that far East.
That fits the broader picture of how the Flyers have operated this offseason. With so much movement around the league, they’ve stayed active on the phone.
Along with Carlsson and Hughes, they also made a run at Dylan Larkin when he requested a trade out of Detroit, only to learn his destination list was down to four teams. And when Zach Werenski rumors were swirling, Philadelphia called Columbus to see where things stood before that situation was patched up.
The near miss on Carlsson would have been expensive. Briere was close to committing $18MM against the cap for five seasons.
Instead, the Flyers used their remaining $30MM in cap space without Carlsson to lock up key RFAs Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, and Nikita Grebenkin. Zegras now carries the team’s highest annual salary at just under $10MM AAV, though that mark could be topped later.
Even after those moves, the Flyers still have room to work. They have $13MM available for their 2026-27 roster, $27MM next offseason, and $51MM in 2029.
And the targets are obvious. Philadelphia has now made two attempts to land a first-line center and two attempts to land a top-pair left-shot defenseman.
Hughes would likely take a Cale Makar-like extension around $20MM in AAV. Larkin is signed for five more years on an eight-year deal carrying an $8.7MM cap hit, which runs through 2031.
Werenski is entering the fifth season of a six-year contract he signed in July 2021, a deal worth $57.5MM with a $9.583MM AAV.
The bottom line from the reporting is simple: the Flyers know they can afford to swing big, and they’re acting like a team ready to do it.
In Other News...
Flyers Interest In Dylan Larkin Just Hit One Clear Roadblock
Once Dylan Larkins trade request became public, the Flyers did what teams in their position tend to do and checked in on a player who would have changed the conversation around the franchise. Philadelphia had interest, and on paper it made sense to at least see whether there was any path forward for a center of that caliber. But the early read out of the situation made the market feel narrower than it first appeared, with Larkins preference list already limiting the field.
The roadblock for the Flyers came quickly, and it was a meaningful one. Larkin let Philadelphia know it was not among the destinations he was open to, which effectively took the club out of the running before things could gain traction. With the front office also weighing its own roster priorities, the Flyers are not expected to keep pushing here, even if the dynamic could look different down the line depending on who is making the decisions. [Read more 🡒]
Ex-Flyers Goalie Is Suddenly Reviving An Old Philadelphia Frustration
Ivan Fedotov is back in Russia and wasting no time reminding the Flyers how complicated his path has been. After a stint in North America that included time in the NHL and AHL, the former Philadelphia goalie has resurfaced with Spartak Moskva, where his early play has been strong enough to reopen an old discussion about what might have been in Philadelphia.
Through the first two games of the KHL season, Fedotov has a 1-1-0 record, and the numbers beneath that are the sort that can sting for a team still looking to settle its goaltending picture. For the Flyers, it is another familiar reminder that some of the most frustrating personnel decisions are the ones that never quite stop echoing, especially when a player finds a better fit after leaving North America. [Read more 🡒]
Flyers Are Being Linked To Another Big Swing On Defense
Trade chatter around the league is already starting to widen, and the Flyers have found themselves in the middle of it again on the blue line. Philadelphia has been mentioned before in connection with Quinn Hughes, and the latest roundup of possible early-season movers only adds to the sense that the Flyers could be eyeing another major swing if the right situation develops.
The bigger question is not whether the fit would intrigue them, but how far they would be willing to go to make it work. Any pursuit of a player at that level would come with familiar complications for a team trying to build smartly, and the contract side of the equation would have to line up before Philadelphia seriously commits to a move. [Read more 🡒]