Expect the Flyers to be moderate spenders this offseason

The 2024-25 season ended in a tumultuous way for the Philadelphia Flyers. After an impressive 2023-24 season for rookie GM Daniel Briere, this season never really got off the ground and saw the team fall out of the playoff picture by the 4 Nations Face-Off in mid-February. 

Briere, who had caught some public criticism for being too cautious, took an ax to the team, dealing forwards Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost and Scott Laughton ahead of the Trade Deadline in early-March. Then, in a move that sent shockwaves throughout the NHL, John Tortorella was given his walking papers later that month. The dismissal of Tortorella, once thought to be one of the most powerful coaches in the game, showed that Briere and team president of hockey operations Keith Jones were not prepared to accept the dismal season that ultimately unfolded.

In his end of season media availability, Briere implied that the subtraction phase of the Flyers’ rebuild was now over and the team would begin to look to start adding to an inexperienced (yet promising in the way of potential) roster. But how aggressive can we expect the Flyers to be this summer?

While I do think the Flyers will be looking to augment the talent of their roster, 2025 doesn’t strike me as “go time” for them in the way of monumental additions. Speaking with team sources, the summer of 2026 has always been the goal to make major additions due to all the dead money and bad contracts fully coming off the salary cap. Entering next season, the Flyers have just under $7 million dollars of dead money due to the buyout of Cam Atkinson and retained salary on Kevin Hayes and Laughton; all of that money will come off the books entirely in 14 months. 

But this summer will see a decent amount of money evaporate off the Flyers’ salary cap – most notably the Cal Petersen contract along with the Tony DeAngelo buyout – that will allow the Flyers to look to make some additions earlier than expected. The trade of Farabee and his $5 million cap hit contributed to this flexibility, as well. They project to have a little more than $24 million in cap space when you factor in the rise of the salary cap, per Puck Pedia. 

So what will the Flyers look to add this summer?

It has been the low hanging fruit for quite some time, but the Flyers need centerman (or two) in the worst way. Again, I don’t foresee them going full steam ahead and looking to add a major free agent; they don’t seem poised to blow the bank on an addition like that this summer. So a free agent like Sam Bennett may not be in the cards for them, as the demand for his services may push the price tag to a place the Flyers are not yet comfortable going to.

If they were to look in free agency, I wonder if a Brock Nelson type of addition on a three year contract is something the team will look at. To be clear, I have not heard Nelson’s name (or any other specific target) from a team source, but based on conversations I’ve had with those in management, I think an addition or two like that on stop-gap type of deals is what we may see. 

On the back-end, the Flyers are more set up than they are with their forwards. They still lack a true No. 1 defenseman, but there is at least a framework in place where you can see a long-term outlook. Cam York needs to have a major bounceback, and Jamie Drysdale is in need of another step in his development, but there is reason for optimism. I wouldn’t be shocked to see them add a defenseman, but nothing major, as the team already has significant long term dollars committed to Rasmus Ristolainen, Travis Sanheim and Nick Seeler. 

As far as the goaltending goes, I do think this season’s unmitigated disaster between the pipes sounded some alarm bells in the Flyers’ front office. Aleksei Kolosov has already bolted back to Russia, opting to forego playing with the Phantoms in the AHL playoffs. While I can’t say for certain, it does seem very possible that the Kolosov experiment may be over with the Flyers; speaking with a team source Tuesday, he didn’t sound optimistic that Kolosov would be part of the picture in North America next season. 

Beyond Kolosov, Samuel Ersson and Ivan Fedotov did not have great seasons, either. In the case of the former, I have been told that, while he may never be a slam dunk starter, there is still a belief that Ersson can be a reliable tandem-goaltender – a “1B,” if you will. He will be one of the Flyers’ goaltenders next season and still has the confidence of the team that he will figure it out. 

Fedotov is a different story, as the 28-year old was always meant to be more of a stop gap option over this year and next. Fedotov’s dismal play for the majority of the year didn’t go unnoticed, and it was suggested to me by more than one person that we may see him in the AHL next season alongside 2023 second-round pick Carson Bjarnason, who is set to migrate from the WHL. Fedotov’s $3.275 million AAV will likely keep him from being claimed on waivers; if that’s ultimately the case, he will be pencilled in as the team’s No. 3 on the goaltending depth chart. I get the sense that the Flyers will be on the lookout to add a veteran goaltender to pair with Ersson. I can’t say who or how (ie. free agency or by trade) the Flyers will go about it, but I fully expect them to bring in an upgrade in goal. With Bjarnason, Ersson and Egor Zavragin having long-term potential to potentially be NHL starters, I don’t think the Flyers will be looking to add a starting goaltender for the long term. 

With seven draft picks in the first two rounds in the upcoming NHL Draft, the Flyers have a lot of assets to get creative in how they make additions. Offer sheets, trading picks for NHL players, moving back, moving forward, moving picks for ones in later years – everything is on the table for Briere and his staff. There won’t be major additions this summer, but things are definitely set to get going in the way of additions as the Flyers are poised to take the next step in rebuilding their roster. 

The coaching search

The Flyers’ coaching search is set to get under way, and they are prepared to cast a wide net in terms of candidates. “All of the names you’d expect” are on the Flyers’ radar, as one team source said to me on Tuesday. 

NCAA coaches David Carle and Pat Ferschweiler are two names that have been tied to the Flyers, with the former being the most sought after non-professional hockey coach in quite some time and having already interviewed for NHL jobs in the past. Ferschweiler is coming off a championship season and has long standing ties with Jones, so there is a built in connection. Interim head coach Brad Shaw will get consideration too, I’ve been told.

The low hanging fruit in all of this is Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet, whose future in British Columbia is anything but certain. As of right now, the Flyers can’t authentically consider Tocchet a candidate because he is “not available,” but there has been more than one person suggest to me that in an ideal world he is their preferred candidate. Tocchet has long standing ties to the Flyers, as he was one of their premier forwards in the 1980s; he also interviewed for the head coaching job in 2022 before Tortorella ultimately got the gig. 

If he is to become available, it does sound like he will shoot to the top of the Flyers’ list; until or unless he is officially done with the Canucks, the Flyers can’t formally go down that road.