Michael Bunting has landed with the Philadelphia Flyers, signing a one-year, $1.2 million deal after spending weeks on the market and drawing interest from the Maple Leafs.
The Flyers announced the move Tuesday afternoon, adding a forward they’re hoping can help a lineup that has struggled to find the net. TSN’s Darren Dreger was first to report the signing on X.
Bunting, 30, split last season between the Nashville Predators and Dallas Stars, finishing with 14 goals and 33 points in 74 games. The deal closes the book on a stretch in which he remained unsigned despite interest from his former team in Toronto, which is still looking for more secondary scoring of its own.
The seven-year veteran now has 109 goals and 242 points across stops in Toronto, Pittsburgh, Carolina, Arizona, Dallas, and Nashville.
Toronto’s brief consideration never turned into a reunion, even though Bunting had two of the best seasons of his career alongside Auston Matthews. In the end, the Maple Leafs moved on, and Bunting kept waiting as summer offers faded away.
Philadelphia, meanwhile, badly needed help. The Flyers have scored just five goals in four games, and that total includes a rough 7-0 loss to the Penguins. Two of those five goals have come from defensemen, Travis Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen, while Travis Konecny, Trevor Zegras, Denver Barkey and Sean Couturier have yet to get on the board.
Bunting is not being brought in to be a 40-goal answer. The hope is simpler: give the Flyers a steady scorer who can chip in 15-20 goals and stabilize the offense. If he does that, it would help Philadelphia immediately and put him in position for another contract next year.
For GM Daniel Briere, it’s a low-risk, high-reward bet on a player who once looked like a hot target and now gets a fresh start in Philadelphia.
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