With the Philadelphia Flyers icing a younger and younger lineup, one of the new balls they need to juggle is a fresh batch of restricted free agents every summer. The 2024 class features two key players, one surprise riser, and a few depth guys with various statuses in the eye of John Tortorella. With the season quickly approaching the halfway point as the calendar prepares to flip to 2024, let’s take a stab at predicting the values of the Flyers’ pending restricted free agent’s new contracts.
Carter Hart
The future of Carter Hart is in limbo. The Team Canada investigation continues to drag, but it means that Hart is still around and playing in the meantime. Rumors emerged last summer that Briere tried to trade Hart away, but any deal ultimately fell through. Now he’s playing every night and he has returned to a very high level in the process. In the past, we’ve looked at comparable contracts for Hart, who is a bit of a unicorn when it comes to age, experience and mixed on-ice results partnered with a high ceiling. But on the whole, goalies don’t get paid nearly as much as you’d think, and Connor Hellebuyck re-signing at a $6.1 mil aav should help squash Hart’s hope of getting a massive deal, but whatever he agrees to is going to be a significant upgrade over his current $3.9 million contract.
Six-by-six, give or take a year and a million dollars, should be pretty much in the ballpark of Hart’s next deal. If Team Canada or the police don’t bring a hammer down before the offseason, the Flyers are just going to have to take the risk and re-sign him, especially since they’re hellbent on winning games instead of rebuilding, and nobody is more important on that front than Hart.
Prediction- Six years, $6 million aav
Owen Tippett
Owen Tippett has been a firecracker since showing up late in the 2021-22 season as a return in the Claude Giroux trade. He hasn’t always seen his play make it to the score sheet, but he takes a lot of shots and has both the speed and talent to be dangerous. He had a career-best 27 goals and 49 points in 77 games last season, and has nine goals and 17 points in 28 games as of this writing.
The Flyers have more bodies on the wings than they know what to do with, and are soon going to have to make a hard decision or two when it comes to who stays and who goes. If they decide to re-sign Tippett does it put pressure on someone like Joel Farabee? Does it mean they have to ditch Atkinson at all costs? If Tippet stay around long term, something else in the lineup is going to have to give.
Prediction- Four years, $4.5 million aav
Bobby Brink
Brink has been one of the more pleasant surprises of the 2023-24 season as the only unexpected prospect to sneak through John Tortorella’s “youth movement.” Brink will turn 23 in July, just a few days after free agency opens. He’s got four goals and 13 points in 23 games thus far, but his play has been, on the whole, better than his numbers suggest.
Last summer, Cam York got a two-year, $1.6 mil aav extension, Noah Cates got a two-year, $2.6 aav deal and Morgan Frost landed a two-year, $2.1 mil aav contract. All of which had more NHL experience than Brink will. For the Flyers, it poses an interesting option of attempting to lock Brink up long-term as a pillar of the future on a cheaper cap hit. They don’t need to go down the Farabee 6x$30 foolishness, but maybe a four or five year deal with a cap hit in the $2.5 mil neighborhood could serve the Flyers well. Does Brink take that kind of deal with the salary cap on the rise? Or would he be looking for a bridge deal and hope to cash out in a couple years? Maybe they meet in the middle, a solution best for both parties.
Prediction- Three years, $2 million aav
Ryan Poehling
Ryan Poehling was a rehab project the Flyers took on during the 2023 offseason when he signed a one-year, $1.4 million contract. Since then, he has been a passion project for John Tortorella, giving the soon-to-be 25-year-old forward opportunity to grow at the NHL level. While he’s been fine and has occasionally stepped up, there’s not exactly much that separates him from every other random depth forward out there.
If they’re invested in building up his value that means they’ll probably consider re-signing him, but anything more than his current $1.4 mil cap hit is nuts, considering the team already has over $4 million invested in the fourth line between Nic Deslauriers and Garnet Hatahway for next season. 4C is a position they can cost cut if necessary, as someone like Elliot Desnoyers is making half of Poehling’s cap hit and will be just as, if not more, effective in the role.
Prediction- One year, $1.5 million aav
Egor Zamula
The Flyers’ handling of Egor Zamula hasn’t been great. At all. But he’s still a restricted free agent this summer and won’t turn 24 until the end of March. As of this writing, Sean Walker, Marc Staal and Nick Seeler are all unrestricted free agents and there are trade rumors circling Rasmus Ristolainen, so it’s very possible the 2024-25 defense could look significantly different than it does right now.
Are they mishandling Zamula as a rookie initiation where everything has to be earned in Tortorella’s eyes? Or do they genuinely not like the guy and won’t qualify him in the summer? Either seems like a likely outcome at this point, but if there’s mutual interest, keeping Zamula around as a depth plug isn’t the worst thing in the world.
Prediction- One year, $1 million aav.
Wade Allison
The last notable name to hit RFA status in 2024 is Wade Allison. Considering the Flyers have treated this guy like dirt for much of the last two seasons, it’s highly unlikely they offer him a new deal, and it’s highly unlikely he would commit to staying anyway.
Prediction- Not re-signing
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: tsn.ca
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