Flyers Continue To Hunt For Star Talent

I think a lot of us expected a large sum of money to head to Leo Carlsson’s bank account.

I don’t think any of us saw him ending up with $18MM. That’s because the former No. 2 overall pick in 2023 received a lucrative offer sheet from the Philadelphia Flyers, which the Anaheim Ducks matched. This offer sheet was a statement to the NHL in many aspects, but one of those statements was that the Flyers are not afraid to play ball to acquire a big-name player. According to Kevin Kurz of The Athletic, he was not the only center Philly has kept tabs on.

Earlier this summer, Flyers GM Daniel Briere released a statement that was transparent on this subject, addressing that despite missing out on Carlsson, they’re not backing down from getting a big name. Had the Ducks let him go to the Flyers, Philadelphia would’ve brought in an automatic No. 1 Center, who was a key player in the Ducks path back to their first Stanley Cup Playoffs appearance since 2017-18.

Notably, Kurz speculated on the Quinn Hughes situation in Minnesota. He has a year left on the six-year, $47.1MM deal he signed with the Vancouver Canucks in 2021. Part of that signing came with playing for then Canucks and now current Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet, whom Hughes is very fond of, but apparently, even though the Flyers inquired before the eventual trade to Minnesota, Vancouver did not want to send him that far East.

The reason Kurz speculates on this is that Philadelphia has been on the phones this offseason with the abundance of player movement seen within the league. Along with Carlsson and Hughes before that, when Dylan Larkin requested a trade out of Detroit, the Flyers inquired before finding out Larkin’s very short trade destination list that remains among four teams. Even when the Zach Werenski rumors were running rampant, the Flyers made a call to Columbus regarding their status on that front before things were patched up.

Briere almost committed $18MM towards their cap hit for five seasons. Instead, they used their remaining $30MM in cap space with no Carlsson to re-up their notable RFAs in extending Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, and Nikita Grebenkin. Zegras became the team’s highest annual earning player, a little under $10MM AAV. That could be surpassed. Today, they still have $13MM to utilize towards their 2026-27 roster. Next offseason, it’ll be $27MM and in 2029, $51MM.

Either way, regardless of the acquisition of the position of player, the Flyers are looking to pounce and have the space to acquire either of their top needs in a first-line center, who they’ve made two attempts to snag now, and a top-pair left-shot defenseman, who they’ve also made two attempts to snag now.

Hughes would require a Cale Makar-esque extension around $20MM in AAV. Larkin has five years left on an eight-year contract at an $8.7MM cap hit, which will pay him until he is 34 years old in 2031. Werenski is set to enter the fifth season of a six-year contract that he signed back in July of 2021 with a total value of $57.5MM (9.583MM AAV). The Flyers, based on the reporting, know they can afford all of this and then some.