The Philadelphia Flyers have not signed Carter Sotheran, Brian Zanetti, and Matteo Mann by the deadline and all three are unrestricted free agents.
The Philadelphia Flyers have not signed three of their drafted prospects by the deadline and now they have hit unrestricted free agency, free to sign with any NHL organization or any other hockey team.
The Flyers had until 5:00 p.m. on Sunday to secure the services of three prospects and they have let the deadline come and go without inking any of the three to a deal. Those three prospects are defensemen Carter Sotheran, Matteo Mann, and Brian Zanetti.
When an NHL team drafts a player, depending on what league that player was selected from, they have a certain timeline to agree on an entry-level contract or else their exclusive signing rights expire. It could be the two-year timeline that players out of the CHL have, or the four years NCAA players and players from European leagues have to sign with their NHL teams, or it could never expire like it is with Russian players.
The most high-profile (if we can even call him that) is certainly Carter Sotheran. The soon-to-be 20-year-old defenseman from the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks was seen as a very solid prospect to get in the fifth round of the 2023 NHL Draft. He was a good blueliner in transition and had a general well-rounded feel for the game. Unfortunately, he has just plateaued since being drafted. Sotheran followed his 40-point Draft+1 season with being able to only secure six goals and 33 points in 66 games this past season. Tie in that he didn’t impress Flyers coaches at development camp last summer and he has some sort of heart issue, it was probably going to be a longshot that the Flyers were going to use a contract spot on him.
Sotheran certainly has the tools to carve out a career — not many 6-foot-4, right-handed defensemen who do not have skating as a weakness, are readily available at a young age — but it won’t be with Philadelphia.
Another prospect that will be no longer tied to the Flyers is Matteo Mann from the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs. Mann is a hulking 6-foot-6, 234-pound blueliner that was taken in the seventh round of the 2023 NHL Draft. It was the last pick of that Michkov-led draft class and surely the Flyers just threw one at Mann to see if he could stick as a decent professional player with that size.
And, well, he scored 14 points in 56 games on a not-great Sea Dogs team this season. We’re not sure what exactly the Flyers expected out of him since he never really scored before — he had five points in 45 games during his draft year — but Mann will probably go play for a USports team up in Canada and earn his CHL-funded degree.
And finally, it’s 22-year-old Brian Zanetti who was drafted all the way back during the 2021 NHL Draft in the fourth round. The 6-foot-3 defenseman (there is a theme here) was taken from the Swiss junior leagues after scoring at a decent clip and after his selection made his way to North America to play two seasons with the OHL’s Peterborough Petes. He didn’t really score there, with 38 points in 103 total games. But, since then he has been able to sick around at the top Swiss division in the National League with the SCL Tigers. Again, not as a scorer but it’s no small feat to already play a well-earned chunk of time for one of the more underrated leagues in Europe. And for this upcoming season he is back at his childhood club, HC Lugano, to suit up for their top team for the first time ever. That rocks.
Out of the three, we can only see the Flyers letting Sotheran walk have any chance whatsoever to come back to bite them. As mentioned, he has decent tools and if he just found a role on whatever team he plays with next — maybe it’s an AHL contract somewhere — he can steadily develop and might be a depth player for 100 or so games in the future.
But, the Flyers already have such a logjam on the blue line depth chart. Beyond the NHL, there’s already players like Hunter McDonald, Helge Grans, Adam Ginning, Ethan Samson, and Ty Murchison, who will have a spot with the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms. And that’s not even mentioning Oliver Bonk coming in to make his professional debut next season. If the Flyers add some more veteran voices (maybe Louie Belpedio comes back, for example) and Murchison is down in the ECHL, that’s every spot accounted for. Could you argue that Sotheran is at least worth a contract to then stick down with the Reading Royals just to find some sort of footing in pro hockey? Maybe. But it would also count against the Flyers’ 50-contract limit and if they sign all their restricted free agents, they are at 45 contracts before adding anyone else this summer.
All in all, it’s no harm and no foul.
