As the offseason is officially underway, let’s take a look at what room the Flyers have to work with during free agency.
As the Tampa Bay Lightning were crowned Stanley Cup Champions on Monday night, it officially ended the 2019-20 season. And with about a week until the draft and free agency, things will begin to ramp up with plans for next season. Though, we don’t exactly know when that will be. For the Flyers, they still have a few things to figure out and don’t have a lot of room to do it.
After the recent signings of Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Alex Lyon, and Robert Hagg, the team has only one restricted free agent and a handful of unrestricted free agents left. Philippe Myers will be back in a Flyers uniform for sure. However, the choices will be between locking him up long term or going safe with a bridge deal.
Nolan Patrick will also be back, but his situation will be a bit different. Having played no hockey in over 18 months, the Flyers will have to take a different approach to figure out what he might be worth. He is still a former second overall pick, but his limited amount of games makes it tough. There is also no real situation to the team could compare this to.
It will likely be a type of “prove-it” contract but not necessarily with that term attached to it. It will be a short-term contract that gives the Flyers time to evaluate him when he is healthy.
That leaves the five remaining free agents left. And out of those five, only two seem to have a strong case to come back. That is Brian Elliott and Tyler Pitlick. Before we look at those two, we must first see what the Flyers have to work with when it comes to bringing anyone back.
According to CapFriendly, the team currently has a projected cap hit of $75,264,727. That leaves them with $6,235,273 of cap space to actually use. And with the cap not expected to move for the next few years, it will take some creativity to fit in all of their pieces.
Not to mention the players that will be up for contracts next season. Scott Laughton, Michael Raffl, Matt Niskanen, Travis Sanheim, and Carter Hart will all be free agents next summer. And there’s a good chance the team may want to bring just about all of them back if possible. So some decisions they make this offseason could affect what they are able to do next year.
Going back to their remaining free agents, it likely starts with Elliott. Unless the team believes there is truly a better backup option on the market, it is fair to assume that Elliott will be back with the Flyers. He was sharp this season when needed and has been a perfect mentor to Hart. One that the young goaltender himself vouched for and expressed a desire for him to come back.
The Flyers brought Elliott back this season on a one-year contract worth $2M. Could they get him to lower the price if they added a second year? At the current moment, the team doesn’t have another goaltender ready to step up to the NHL level. This would give them time to develop further in the minor leagues. He is 35-years-old, though. If they can get him to take a small pay cut or a very similar contract, he should be back.
Now Pitlick may be a different story. He came to the Flyers in a trade from the Dallas Stars where he was in the last year of a $1M contract. Did he play well enough to earn a raise from that? The answer is likely yes, though it shouldn’t be too much more than what he was already making.
Chuck Fletcher spoke on the team needed better depth down the lineup. Pitlick proved he was a valuable asset. And it’s tough to believe the Flyers would find a better alternative for around the same price if they let him go.
So that’s at least three more players the team will be looking to sign with just over $6.2M to work with. Is there where we see a trade or two to get money off the books? Don’t be surprised if this is finally the offseason where we see Shayne Gostisbehere traded. The rumors have been heating up and that would be $4.5M off the books that could be used elsewhere.
There were brief rumors that James van Riemsdyk was on the block, but those have seemed to die down for now. But we will have to wait and see what the Flyers decide to do. It will be tough to bring back multiple players with what they have left. It should be an interesting few weeks in Philadelphia.