The 2025 offseason was the busiest summer the Philadelphia Flyers have been in quite some time. Between a new coach, a notable trade, a loaded draft and free agent signings, let’s go through and grade the Flyers’ 2025 offseason!
Coaching
Rick Tocchet
Meh. The jury is out on this one. Historically, Tocchet doesn’t have a ton of success to fall back on. And the connection to his Former Flyer™ past can’t be ignored considering that’s been the sales pitch from the organization. It’s not the big deviation away from John Tortorella most had hoped.
He’s supposedly a good communicator and most players and front offices end up loving him, which isn’t nothing. But whether or not he can actually find success on the ice is still very much TBD.
He brought in some fairly random assistants in Yogi Svejkovsky and Jay Varady (who both have worked with Tocchet in the past). One has to live up to the high bar Brad Shaw set on defense, and the other has to clear the insanely low bar left behind by Rocky Thompson.
Grade: C
Trades
Trevor Zegras
The Flyers opened their offseason by trading Ryan Poehling, a second round pick and a fourth round pick to the Ducks for 24-year-old forward Trevor Zegras.
The reason they got Zegras so cheap is because he’s a rehab project at this point. Two seasons of injuries and underwhelming play dropped his value quiet a bit, so it’s not quite the straight up highway robbery it seemed, but if Zegras can turn his game around in Philly, it’s an even better deal.
Can’t complain about this one for a second. They got Zegras for, essentially, free. Even if he doesn’t have a career renaissance as a Flyer, they didn’t give up a single thing of substance to take the risk in the first place.
Grade: A+
Pick 22 & 31 for Pick 12
The Flyers dealt picks 22 and 31 in the 2025 draft to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for the 12th overall pick. They used it to select Jack Nesbitt in a move that stunned pretty much everybody.
Obviously, it’s too early to call this one yet. It’s pretty clear that Nesbitt was “their guy,” despite what the consensus thought, so the aggressiveness can be appreciated, but it sure feels like those two picks could’ve been utilized better, be it a trade or drafting.
Grade: C
Entry Draft
Porter Martone
Martone was the best player available when the Flyers selected at six, even though James Hagens would’ve been the better positional fit. Considering all the random rumors surrounding the Flyers leading up to the draft that indicated they were going to go off the board, the fact that they took Martone a pleasant surprise and will probably look pretty good in a few years from now.
Grade: A
Jack Nesbitt
The Flyers traded up to 12 to select Nesbitt. Everyone knew this draft was going to be a bit wild given the uncertainty of the depth behind the first few players, and the Flyers weren’t the only team to go off the board with a selection, but Nesbitt is going to really have to prove himself one day to differentiate himself from all the other random first round swing and misses the Flyers have on their résumé over the last decade or so.
Grade: C
Rest of the 2025 draft
The folks who know prospects seem to agree that the Flyers had a great second round. It is mind-blowingly stupid they didn’t draft a goalie for the second year in a row, which is a huge negative for a team that desperately needs a solution in net. And the verdict is still out on the Nesbitt pick that may not look great in time.
Chances are that in a few years from now that most of these guys are just random dudes with low ceilings, but as we sit in the hopes and dreams phase of their careers, it was a good draft overall.
Grade: B
Free Agency
Christian Dvorak
The Flyers needed a center, and they added a center. The 29-year-old Dvorak signed a one-year deal, so despite the fact that he’s probably not much more than a 3C, it wasn’t a long-term commitment. He’s certainly not the most electric option out there, but the Flyers adding someone at a position of need is far bigger news than it really should be.
Grade: C+
Dan Vladar
At the top of the offseason to-do list, finding a goaltender better than the very bad options already on the team should’ve been priority number one. Vladar has a career 3.00 GAA and .895 SV% in 105 appearances over the course of five seasons. That’s right in the same boat with Sam Ersson and Ivan Fedotov and only slightly better than Aleksei Kolosov.
A two-year deal with a cap hit over $3 million for a random dude that isn’t going to solve any of their problems was about the biggest wet fart the Flyers could’ve mustered.
Grade: D
Various other signings
They added a RHD with NHL experience in Noah Juulsen which will help fill the Ristolainen hole in the short term so they don’t have to rely on Helge Grans or Oliver Bonk out of the gate.
Dennis Gilbert and Lane Pederson are random dudes who will more than likely end up in the AHL.
It was an expected, but very lackluster free agency.
Grade: C
Signings
Noah Cates
Should the Flyers be committing to what is essentially a third line player long term? No, probably not. But they didn’t go overboard either, which they’ve got a history of doing. 4×4 is a perfectly fine number, especially if they can get the best version of Cates more often than not.
Grade: B
Tyson Foerster
The reality is it was a pretty standard bridge contract. The AAV is a slight tick higher than expected, but with the rising cap it’s fine. The chances are the players’ camp was aware of his untapped potential and the rising cap and wasn’t going to sign a longer-term contract, so this is what the Flyers got.
Grade: B
Cam York
York finally inks a five-year, $5.1 million aav contract. Considering most top young defensemen get significantly bigger money and longer term, this was a win for the Flyers. If he turns his game around and the salary cap on the rise, it’ll be an even better deal, if he just sputters as a second pair option, it’s not a huge hit for the team to take and they should easily be able to flip him in the worst case.
Grade: A
Missing Maxim Shabanov
Can’t really grade this one, but it is worth noting that what seemed like a sure-thing a few weeks ago fell apart at the eleventh hour and the Russian star signed with the Islanders. Obviously, Shabanov’s impact was TBD, and the Flyers have their own prospects to integrate this season, but if this guy ends up being a star in the NHL, some questions about what went wrong will surely be asked.
Overall: B
Danny Briere kept up his trend from the rest of 2025 and had himself a decent little summer. The reality is this is the kind of offseason they should’ve had last year Baby steps in the right direction building towards a theoretical goal. There was a hope we’d see more progress, but overall there was nothing that was individually terrible either.
The draft was good.
They didn’t sign any stupid contracts.
They did address their main roster center deficiencies.
They did not properly address the goaltending either for today or in the future, which feels like it isn’t getting talked about enough. It’ll only be in December when the team is smoldering when folks will talk about it.
They also didn’t really make any kind of monumental roster change, which may not be a “bad” thing, but they’re still running back a nearly identical roster to last season’s which is not great if you’re looking for progress.
As long as there’s more to come at the deadline and in the 2026 offseason, this summer can be looked back on positively.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: nhl.com
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