The Flyers have a real contract-management test in front of them now, and it starts with the players already in the room.
Jamie Drysdale and Trevor Zegras both filed for salary arbitration, and that puts Philadelphia in the middle of two negotiations that could shape how expensive this roster becomes. The club’s failed Leo Carlsson offer sheet bid is part of the backdrop here, but the bigger issue is what happens next: the Flyers cannot let one aggressive move lead them into paying a premium that gets out of hand.
Drysdale, 24, has become one of the clearest examples of what the Flyers want to be - skilled, hard-working, and still climbing. He’s a restricted free agent now, and while reports have suggested a medium-term deal around $6 million annually, others believe he could land even more. That’s where the caution has to kick in for Philadelphia.
If Drysdale gets beyond Travis Sanheim’s $6.25 million cap hit, he would become the Flyers’ highest-paid defenseman. That would put him above Cam York, who signed for $5.15 million annually last summer, and Rasmus Ristolainen, who has one year left at $5.1 million.
Drysdale has settled in as a solid second-pairing defenseman, but the Flyers have to be honest about what he is right now. York is the stronger defender in his own zone, and the main separator between the two is usage: Drysdale has been labeled a power play quarterback, while York rarely gets the chance to work with the team’s most gifted players.
That’s why a deal that starts drifting toward $10 million annually instead of $5 million annually would be a dangerous leap, especially when Drysdale has not consistently beaten out York or Ristolainen for power play time on the NHL’s worst unit.
The same discipline has to apply to Zegras. Around the league, the expectation is that he and the Flyers will eventually land on a long-term contract worth more than $8 million. That number makes sense at first glance, but the line gets much thinner once it pushes to $9 million or higher.
Nico Hischier’s five-year extension with the New Jersey Devils is worth $11.7 million annually, and the source material makes clear that Hischier is 10 times the player Zegras is at both ends of the ice. That comparison is a reminder of how quickly these deals can balloon if the term or annual value gets loose.
A more fitting guide for Zegras may be the five-year extension Dylan Holloway signed with the St. Louis Blues in May, which carries a $7.75 million cap hit. That kind of structure - some flexibility on the dollars, but not too much term - would help keep the contract from becoming an outlier too soon.
The Flyers were right to take their shot on Carlsson. But now the job is different.
They need to take care of their own players without creating avoidable damage along the way. That was part of the whole appeal of building this roster in the first place: many of the best pieces were already signed to medium- and long-term deals at reasonable prices.
Philadelphia can’t afford to burn that edge now.
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