We’ve done it folks. We’ve reached the end of our hypothetical aggressive retooling of the Philadelphia Flyers. The first three installments detailed our plans through the trade deadline, draft day trades, and the draft itself, and now, we look at free agency to round out the makeup of the 2022-23 Flyers.
Going into free agency the Flyers have almost $10 million in cap room. The Flyers need a difference maker on offense plus a 6th/7th defenseman. Can they add Claude Giroux back to the mix and add another piece like Ondrej Palat (junior teammate of Couturier), Phil Kessel, Rickard Rakell, etc. or do they try to add another big piece like Filip Forsberg or Johnny Gaudreau to this current forward group.
It would feel good to resign Claude Giroux and if he would take a discount to the point where we could add another very solid player and a depth defenseman then it would work. Would Claude resign with the Flyers for $4.5 million for 7 years? I don’t think so. I think he would more likely sign a 3- or 4-year deal for $7 million per year. Does it make sense to use all of the cap space to sign Johnny Gaudreau? It probably would take a 7-year deal and close to $9 million per year. Since this is hometown team, Gaudreau might take 8 to $8.5 million per year. We are going to do none of that.
We are going to sign center Nazem Kadri to a 7-year deal (7-year deal is the longest possible deal we can sign a free agent to) for $8 million per year with a full no-move clause. Colorado is not going to be able to resign all of their unrestricted free agents which includes Kadri, Andre Burakovsky, Valeri Nichushkin, newly acquired Josh Manson, Ryan Murray, and goaltender Darcy Kuemper. Kadri’s biggest contract was $4.5 million per year so this is a big raise for a long time. Kadri is having a career year at the right time with 73 points in 58 games, which is 7th in the NHL in scoring. Kadri also brings grit and truculence to a team who could use some. Does Kadri get more money on the open market? Maybe, but we are just going to go with it. Kadri is a natural center and that will help move Scott Laughton to wing.
With Kadri the Flyers will have Couturier, Thomas, and Geekie down the middle with Laughton and Jost able to take faceoffs as well. Kadri is an excellent possession player. He starts much of his zone starts in the defensive zone (48% in the defensive zone) and he has a positive corsi (56.3%) and positive corsi relative to his teammates (5.3%) at even strength. That means when he is on the ice, he is getting more pucks on net than the opposition. Kadri will help replace Giroux’s production on the power play. Kadri also averages 0.81 points per game in the playoffs. If the goal is to win the Stanley Cup, then adding a player who produces in the playoffs is a must.
If Kadri was the main course, then we need to improve the depth of our defense in case York or Zamula are not ready to go or if an injury occurs which it will. We have roughly between $1.6 million and $2.3 million in cap space for a 23-man roster. So, let’s go back to a familiar face, enter, Justin Braun. A one year, $1.5-million-dollar deal. Braun will be used as a 6th or 7th defenseman. Braun has averaged 20 minutes per game this season. If we could get him at 14 to 16 minutes a night. He will be much more effective, and we can stretch him longer as the season wears on. He can play 20 minutes in each night with injuries if needed. He is a useful piece to have even if he is not that exciting of a player.
We are going to sign goaltender Garret Sparks to a two-way contract worth $750,000. We need some experienced depth behind Carter Hart and Ivan Fedotov. Sparks has NHL experience and can be called up if needed. The organizational depth behind Hart and Fedotov with Sparks, Kirill Ustimenko, Felix Sandstrom and Sam Ersson are strong from the NHL to the AHL to the ECHL. Competition breeds winners. We are going to sign Brendan Smith who is a defenseman and wing hybrid to a two-way $750,000 deal. Smith provides good depth and plays with physicality. He is another solid depth add where he can be called up and can be part of the leadership group on the Phantoms. That will give the Flyers 49 pro contracts on the books. The max is 50 pro contracts. They have a little wiggle room if there is a player on waivers they like when the season starts.
2022-23 Roster
Forwards: $49.75m
T. Jost ($2m) – S. Couturier ($7.75m) – M. Tkachuk ($8.4m)
C. Atkinson ($5.875m) – N. Kadri ($8m) – W. Allison ($0.800m)
O. Lindblom ($3m) – R. Thomas ($2.8m) – J. Farabee ($5m)
S. Laughton ($3m) – M. Geekie ($0.900m) – I. Ratcliffe ($0.800m)
Ex. Z. MacEwen ($0.725m), Z. Senyshyn ($0.700m)
Defensemen: $26.98m
N. Mikkola ($1m) – B. Burns ($6.5m)
I. Provorov ($6.75m) – R. Ellis ($6.25m)
C. York ($0.880m) – B. Carlo ($4.1m)
Ex. J. Braun ($1.5m)
Goalies: $4.904m
Hart ($3.979m)
Fedotov ($0.925m)
Cap Used: $81.634m
Salary Cap: $82.5m
Cap Available: $0.866m
2022 Post Free Agency Off-Season
Meet your 2022-23 Philadelphia Flyers roster. We have depth down the middle with a healthy Couturier, new acquisition Nazem Kadri, Robert Thomas, and Morgan Geekie with Scott Laughton available. Our biggest acquisition is Matthew Tkachuk. He is a star in the making and did not get the recognition in Calgary. Couturier, Lindblom, Atkinson, Farabee, Laughton, Ratcliffe, and Allison were not moved because we believe they can be a part of the new core along with Provorov, York, and Hart. We needed to turn over the talent we had into something new that has heart and compete. Tkachuk is a player who will change the outlook of this team. He brings it every shift. Kadri and Tkachuk are going to disturb the opposition’s best players and could be forces in the playoffs. Thomas is a similar players but with less hate. Mikkola, Burns, and Carlo add different elements. Mikkola and Carlo are big, defensive defenseman but are swift footed. Burns is an elite skater and point producer. If Ellis is unable to play, we have enough depth with the re-addition of Braun plus Egor Zamula and Brendan Smith. You can never have enough defensemen. The hope is that Ivan Fedotov is a solid backup to Carter Hart. Fedotov just led Russia to the Gold Medal game and a Silver Medal in the Olympics.
Organizationally, we have remade everything from our prospect pool to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and want to create competition at every position. We want the Phantoms to be competitive but most importantly develop the talent into NHL players. Our weakness is probably future left-handed defensemen and we could use some more size and grit in the AHL.
This is what an aggressive retool should look like. Get rid of the fat at the deadline and use them to get assets and future assets for the Flyers. If the Flyers are a playoff team at the trade deadline, they have assets to go out an acquire talent to help bring a Stanley Cup to Philadelphia. If they are not a playoff team, then run it back again and trade pieces that can help you acquire better or different fitting players.
AHL/Prospects
Connor McClennon – Tyson Foerster – Samu Tuomaala
JR Avon – Elliot Desnoyers – Olle Lycksell
Zayde Wisdom – Jay O’Brien – Bobby Brink
Linus Sandin – Martin Pospisil – German Rubtsov
Brendan Smith
Unsigned Prospects: Bryce Brodzinski, Valdemar Johansson, David Kase, Cole Knuble, Cruz Lucius, Owen McLaughlin, Tucker Robertson, Matthew Savoie, Yegor Spiridonov, Mikhail Vorobyov, Raul Yakupov
Mason Millman – Jack St. Ivany
Egor Zamula – Hunter Skinner
Cam Dineen – Wyatte Wylie
Cooper Zech
Unsigned Prospects: Emil Andrae, Vinny Borgesi, Jacob Guevin, Ty Murchinson, Sam Rinzel, Ethan Samson, Vasili Vasiliev
Kirill Ustimenko
Sam Ersson
Felix Sandstrom
Garret Sparks
Unsigned Prospects: Gibson Homer, Alexei Kolosov, Matej Tomek
