In case you’ve been living under a rock for much of the last decade, the Philadelphia Flyers’ center depth is… well… not great. After they traded away Morgan Frost, the group went from unintimidating at best to a flat out disaster. General manger Danny Briere has acknowledged the weakness at the position and is currently looking for the man responsible for not attempting to fix it.
Not only do the Flyers need to be adding centers, but in a perfect world, they’d be adding multiple top six centers. But this is far from a perfect world. The center market in both the free agency and trade in 2025 is pretty barren. So as the offseason looms, let’s take a look at the top names available to be had during 2025.
Trade
Elias Pettersson
Pettersson has dominated the rumor mill for much of the last calendar year now, and with his production stalling out and Vancouver missing the playoffs, there may be fire to all the smoke about a potential trade. Obviously the biggest hurdle here is his $11.6 million cap hit for seven more seasons, which really ups the ante for teams looking to dump assets into acquiring him.
There’s very few teams in the league (including the Flyers) that could easily dance with a nearly $12 million cap hit, so it’s not like going to be an easy acquisition anyway, but if the Flyers identify Pettersson as a target, do they have enough assets to out-spend a team like Detroit? The answer is probably not.
Brayden Schenn
The Flyers trading Schenn to St. Louis at the 2017 draft was pretty much the beginning of the end for the team having any semblance of center depth. Since they recently traded away Frost and Farabee, the two players they drafted with the picks they landed from St. Louis in that deal, maybe they fully undo the screwed up timeline and re-acquire the now 33-year-old Schenn.
He’s pretty much the same player he always was, 20 goals, 50 points and a grimy physical forward. He has three years left on his contract at a $6.5 million cap hit. And he’s been serving as captain since 2023. He’d be a welcome addition, but his age and term on his contract certainly aren’t sexy at all.
The Blues went from potential deadline sellers to holding their own against the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Winnipeg Jets in the first round, so who knows if Schenn is still on the table during the summer.
Ryan O’Reilly
Remember when Ron Hextall could’ve traded for O’Reilly back in 2018 but didn’t want to give up any draft picks and then he was fired a few months later? Good times.
O’Reilly, who is now 34 years old, has two years left on his contract at a $4.5 million cap hit. The Predators seem to be ready to sell after a disastrous 2024-25 season and the rumors indicate that even though he doesn’t have trade protection that the Preds are going to work with him to find a new home. He’s still playing surprisingly well given the over 1,100 games on his body, and could provide a decent short-term stopgap to give the Flyers another year to figure something out. But at this point in his career, would he want to waste away in Philly or play for a contender?
Mika Zibanejad
Mike Zibanejad has been on the block with the Rangers for most of the season. While it’s unlikely he ends up in Philly, considering Zibanejad has scored approximately three-quarters of his over 700 NHL points against the Flyers, maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to have this guy playing for them instead of against them.
Trevor Zegras
Trevor Zegras has been loosely linked to the Flyers in trade rumors for seemingly years now. He has largely failed to regain his former glory in Anaheim after another injury-riddled season. With his stock falling and the Flyers’ desperation for a center continuing to grow, maybe there’s a middle ground for the two teams to come together and make a deal that would be less costly than it would’ve been this time last year. Zegras has one year left on his contract and is still an RFA in 2026. Factoring in that the Flyers’ center depth can’t possibly get worse, assuming they can pick him up for a decent price tag, it seems like a no-lose scenario for the Flyers to at least try him out.
Quinton Byfield
The former second overall pick in 2020 has come and gone from the trade rumor mill for at least the last year. He’s been playing much better with the Kings, but is still struggling to find the score sheet with regularity. LA wants to take a big step forward and attempt not to get crushed in the first round of the playoffs again (which may or may not happen against the Oilers in 2025), and could potentially dangle Byfield for an upgrade elsewhere. Who would the Flyers give up? Well that answer is a bit unclear now. A few months ago the answer would’ve been Joel Farabee, but now would they trade someone like Owen Tippett to land that center help or is Byfield not a worthy enough target to break the bank on?
Free Agency
John Tavares
Kinda hard to believe John Tavares will be 35 years old in 2025, but the former Leafs captain is a veteran of 1,184 NHL games. Considering the Leafs also have to re-sign Mitch Marner this summer, if they once again fall short in the postseason, ditching Tavares could be their most likely move to shake up their core. Tavares’ age may not exactly fit the Flyers’ timeline, but it buys them a legitimate option to link up with Michkov for a couple years while they attempt to patch the hole with a long-term solution.
Mikael Granlund
If we’re living in a realm of reality, 33-year-old Mikael Granlund may be one of the more likely targets for the Flyers. He was traded to Dallas ahead of the deadline, but he was having a successful run on a lowly San Jose Sharks team for the last few years posting 105 points in 121 games. Taking a veteran on a short-term contract who has success on lackluster teams is certianly an enticing add for the Flyers. He can’t be their only piece, but as a middle six addition he’d probably be well worth the cost for a couple years.
Yanni Gourde
The 33-year-old Gourde may lean a little too far down the depth chart for the Flyers to have serious interest, but given the overall weakness at the position in the 2025 class, he rises up the rankings and some team will surely waste no time adding him.
Sam Bennett
Bennett may be one of the more attractive names on this entire list, especially for the Flyers and their bully identity.
Florida also has to re-sign Aaron Ekblad this summer. Both are still UFAs as of this writing. But they also let Sam Reinhart sit in UFA status until after they won their Cup last season, so it doesn’t necessarily mean that the bridges are burnt between Bennett and the Panthers. If he makes it all the way to free agency, the Flyers need to do their due diligence on the 28-year-old, but color us skeptical he actually hits the open market.
Jack Roslovic
Roslovic is becoming a bit of a journeyman in the NHL currently playing for his third team in the last two seasons. He’s one of those quintessential guys you can plug anywhere in the lineup and he’ll hold his own even if it doesn’t amount to much on the score sheet. The Flyers have had their share of those characters over the years in Scott Laughton, Michael Raffl, Brayden Schenn, etc, but they aren’t quite good enough (or playoff bound) to call this Roslovic big piece of the 2025 offseason.
Brock Nelson
Even though he looks like his in his late 70s, the longtime (and now former) Islander is still 33 years old. His pace has slowed a bit this season, but he’s been surprisingly productive recently, eclipsing the 30-goal plateau in each of his last three seasons. The Flyers love themselves some aging players though, so you can’t rule Nelson out even if it’s not a great idea.
Luke Kunin
This is a player we’ve jokingly used to fill in the blank for who the Flyers could be considering adding over the last few months because it’d be a completely unspectacular addition that isn’t more than a third line plug.
Restricted Free Agents
Marco Rossi
There were all kinds of rumors around 23-year-old pending RFA Marco Rossi earlier in the season, but considering he’s in the middle of a career year with 60 points in 82 games and the Wild are in a playoff spot in the West, it certainly no longer seems likely they part ways with the former ninth overall pick, at least, via trade that is. Flyers fans for some reason are a bit antsy for a offer sheet, and while the Wild aren’t really cash strapped this coming offseason, getting to that number they wouldn’t match would be easier than a team like the Ducks, per se.
Mason McTavish
Speaking of the Ducks, they’ve got 22-year-old former third overall pick Mason McTavish to re-sign this summer. He just hasn’t really gotten it going with the Ducks, coming in kinda average when he should be much better. He did post a career best 22 goals and 52 points thanks to a late-season surge.
He’s along the lines of Dylan Cozens- a player with potential that could succeed on a team that doesn’t totally suck, but even if there was interest from the Flyers’ end, particularly via offer sheet, the Ducks have over $40 million in projected cap space. The AAV would need to be so ungodly high that Anaheim wouldn’t match then they’d have to hope McTavish actually has more to give instead of paying a super premium of cash and draft picks for a third liner.
Gabe Vilardi
Vilardi will turn 26 this summer and is quietly having the best season of his career with the dominant Winnipeg Jets posting 26 goals and 61 points in 71 games. He’s been pretty average otherwise, typically finishing with 20-goals and hovering on either side of 40 points over the last few seasons. He’ll turn 26 before the start of the 2025-26 season. The problem here is that he seems to be a pretty average dude when he’s not on a unbeatable Jets team. Whether it be via trade or offer sheet, the player’s value has never been higher when historically he tends to just be a regular dude. He can be a target for sure, but the Flyers would need to be ready to pull the rip cord of the price got too high. This probably isn’t the guy to go all in on.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: nhl.com
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