As the 2025-26 NHL season starts to wind down, the Flyers are finding themselves in an uphill battle trying to secure a playoff spot. Whatever the outcome of that storyline ends up being, the far more interesting story is going to be their approach to the offseason. Will they finally make sweeping changes and turn the organization around in one summer?
No.
But hey, we can dream right? Let’s take a look at what exactly should be on the Flyers’ to-do list during the 2026 offseason!
Number 5: Move Ristolainen
The Flyers once again refused to move 31-year-old right-handed defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen for what feels like the third consecutive trade deadline in a row. And while the exact merits on whether or not they should can be argued, Danny Briere made a move at the deadline that is going to put some heat on himself with the acquisition of fellow RHD David Jiricek. It’s already nuts that he’s condemned to finish the season in the AHL without so much as a single game of NHL action, but if he starts next year down there as well because they, again, chose not to part ways with Ristolainen which left the roster clogged, there are going to be some questions to answer about their vision for their controversial addition.
Number 4: Fire Rick Tocchet
Rick Tocchet’s first season at the helm of the Flyers… wasn’t great. A season-long feud with their star player Matvei Michkov, partnered with barely improved team stats and what is still likely a missed postseason has brought more trouble than solutions to the Flyers.
Unfortunately, this late-season winning and too-late playoff push may be just enough to erase the little bit of doubt about his job security. He’s probably coming back next season, but if there aren’t major roster changes and they come out of the gate slow in 2026-27 with this guy keeping his shenanigans up, it could bring the entire front office down within a year. At this point, maybe that’s not a bad thing. *cough Dave Hakstol and Ron Hextall cough*
Number 3: Ditch at Least One Winger
SPOILER ALERT: The Flyers have way too many wingers on this roster. Michkov, Konecny, Foerster, Tippett, Grebenkin, Bump, Barkey, Hathaway, and (mostly) Zegras are all either under contract or expected to return next season, and that doesn’t even factor in Porter Martone and any potential offseason additions.
Moving Brink at the deadline was a start, but it can’t be the only time the address the overcrowding between now and the start of next season. One way or another it’s not going to be an easy decision, but it’s the hole they worked themselves into, and one they have to get themselves out of to bring a precise direction to the roster and use the excess as trade fodder to address other weaknesses in the organization.
Number 2: Acquire a Backup Goaltender
The Sam Ersson experiment is likely, mercifully, coming to an end this summer as his current contract expires, even though he’s still a restricted free agent.
Unfortunately, the free agent goalie market is, like the rest of 2026 free agency, not great. It’s filled with aging former Flyers like Sergei Bobrovsky, Cam Talbot, Petr Mrazek, Ivan Fedotov and Cal Pickard. While those names were slightly cherry picked, they also represent a decent chunk of the UFA scene this summer. Laurent Brossoit, Stuart Skinner and Vitek Vanacek are among the non-former Flyers to hit the market. They’re probably going to have to get creative via trade to solve the problem… but if recent history is anything to go off of, “get creative via trade” hasn’t exactly been the Flyers’ strong suit when it comes to legitimate solutions.
Number 1: Acquire a Top Center
The Flyers have largely ignored their gaping hole at center for nearly a decade now since Brayden Schenn was traded away, with the Kevin Hayes signing in 2019 their most recent direct effort. Maybe acquiring Zegras counts, but considering he spent a vas majority of his Flyers tenure on the wing so far, the jury is still out. Either way, they need to finally make a big splash in 2026 to help even out the roster.
With the exception of Robert Thomas in St. Louis, who the Flyers didn’t seem to have interest in at the deadline, the list of suitable names is virtually nonexistent. Considering Sean Couturier, Noah Cates and Christian Dvorak are not only all under contract for next season but the foreseeable future as well, they need at least one, maybe two, big time bonafide top six centers to salvage this roster, but they picked a real bad summer to go desperation fishing for an outside addition.
Honorable mentions
Move Couturier
Speaking of Couturier, can we, collectively as fans and as an organization admit that it’s time to move on from the captain? He’s old, he’s slow, his leadership abilities are questionable at best, and more importantly he represents one of the last remaining “old guard” players from days gone by. It would be in the best interest of just about every angle for the Flyers to either trade or buyout Couturier, who still has four more years left on his contract, but if the organization was ever serious about change, this would be the place to start. The problem is, they’re not serious about it. At all.
Fix the Phantoms
It was a surprisingly wretched season for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Their roster once looked promising on paper, but with call ups, injuries and stagnate development, it ended up being a, slow, painful season from hell.
Considering the Flyers have been “rebuilding” for over a decade now, they’ve always been a bit guilty of not fully setting up the Phantoms to succeed. From a roster perspective, there’s actually looking to be quite a bit of turnover this summer as a bulk of the roster is about to hit either RFA or UFA status. The influx of prospects isn’t exactly the most promising group of all time, but surrounding them with some strong veteran outsiders could be enough to get the team back on track… or at least make for a much more interesting product with a chance to properly develop some of the incoming youngsters.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: nhl.com
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