Some Quality UFA’s that Will Not Land the Flyers Right Back in Cap Purgatory

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Well, after yet another season going by where the Flyers failed to make the playoffs (for the fifth straight season, mind you), there was finally some good news to come out of Voorhees, NJ, this past weekend in that the team’s General Manager Danny Briere came out and said that he thinks that it’s time to move on from the subtraction phase to the addition phase of the rebuild.

And I would say it’s about time! For after shipping out Erik Johnson, Scott Laughton, Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, Wade Allison, Cutter Gauthier, Kevin Hayes, and Ivan Provorov, there just isn’t a lot of fat left that he could trim off the bone as far as the roster goes.

Lucky for us, Danny wasn’t done there. After having exit interviews with the players, it was time to evaluate the coaching staff. Or at least what was left after the much-needed firing of John Tortorella, who more than wore out his welcome with how he went about treating the younger players. And as it turns out, after the evaluations were complete, it was found that the Power Play Coach Rocky Thompson (who oddly enough was a career fighter and tough guy who never spent a second on the ice during a power play in his career) was given his pink slip after having completed multiple seasons with the Philadelphia finishing as or among the league’s worst power-play unit. And while Danny was cleaning house, he also sent Assistant Coach Darryl Williams and Skills Coach Angelo Ricci packing.

Although, as happy as I was to hear that news, it left me to wonder why Briere did not keep going and fire Goaltending Coach Kim Dillabaugh as well. Seeing that the Flyers’ netminders collectively finished last season with the league’s worst save percentage .879%, and a goals-against-average among the league’s worst, with them letting in 3.45 goals a game.

But I guess we can’t have everything, so let us focus on the task at hand. That being the additions that Danny was talking about. Now, while there is still the need for new coaching staff for the purposes of this article, let us focus on possible free-agent additions. With all the aforementioned transactions Dealing Danny has done since he assumed the role as the Flyers GM, the team finally has some cap space, especially since Cal Petersen’s $5,000,000 salary is now off the books, and the cap is supposed to rise next season to $95.5 million, $104 million for the 2026-2027 season, and then $113.5 million in 2027-2028.

However, this doesn’t mean that the team should go out this summer and spend frivolously and put themselves right back into the cap purgatory that they just worked so hard to crawl out of.

Let’s not forget the Flyers currently have some of the early fruits of Briere’s labor playing in the Playoffs right now up in Lehigh Valley with names like Alex Bump, Jett Luchanko, and Nikita Grebyonkin leading the team to victory last night against their rival the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

As nice as making a huge free agency signing like Mitch Marner from the Toronto Maple Leafs would be, I’d stay away. For one, he’s coming off a contract for which he got paid nearly $11 million a season. For two, he played on a line with perhaps the league’s best goal scorer of the last ten years, who is not named Alex Ovechkin, in Auston Matthews, who has netted over 400 goals over the past nine seasons. So, I think it’s fair to say that Marner’s numbers may be inflated. Plus, if the idea is to get someone to help Michkov, Mitch would not be the guy because they both play right wing. The exact position, mind you, that Travis Konecny, Owen Tippett, Tyson Foerster, Bobby Brink, Garnett Hathaway, Nikita Grebyonkin, and the newly signed Devin Kaplan play. And we already have to ask some of them to play their off-wing just to fill out the roster.

We need Centers and Defense! Because after Sean Couturier and Ryan Poehling have nothing. Jett Luchanko and Denver Barkey (C/LW) look promising, but at the end of the day, we don’t know if they are going to be NHL-ready next season or if they will still need more time to develop at the AHL level.

So, with that being said, let’s look at some reasonable unrestricted free agents that could help the Flyers next season.

Sam Bennett

Now, Sam, who is a 28-year-old pending UFA center that plays for the Florida Panthers, is certainly not on the level of a guy like Elias Pettersson, that plays for the Vancouver Canucks that is rumored to be on the move this offseason but acquiring him wouldn’t cost the team $11.6 million in salary over the next seven seasons either. Let’s not forget the Flyers now hold the fourth pick in this summer’s draft, meaning they could potentially draft centers James Hagens from Boston College, Anton Frondell from Sweden, Caleb Desnoyers from the Moncton Wildcats, or Roger McQueen from the Brandon Wheat Kings. Not to mention two other first-round picks and four selections in the second round. So, I would try to save the money to be able to pay them long-term and grab a guy with Stanley Cup-winning experience to assist you for a couple of seasons until Philly’s soon-to-be youthful core is ready.

The Florida Panthers have been putting everything into winning now, and it worked out for them last season and potentially again this season. However, with that being said, a considerable portion of their team is due to become either unrestricted free agents or restricted free agents this summer.

That list includes the hard-working Sam Bennett. Since joining the Panthers some five years ago, he has scored nearly 100 goals and 200 points. All while being able to sustain a +46 average during that time. It should be noted that this season was one of his best offensively, with him netting 25 goals and 26 assists for 51 points.

Sam has all the same qualities that the beloved Scott Laughton had while playing here in Philly, but Bennett does them better. He is a hard-nosed player who is willing to do whatever it takes for his team to win. He forechecks, back-checks, lays huge body checks, and is willing to drop his gloves with anybody if he thinks they did anyone on his team an injustice.

Overall, I think Bennett’s style of play would make him an instant fan favorite, and with him coming off a contract that paid him under $4.5 million to play top-six minutes, signing him for a couple of seasons to do the same thing here in Philly would not be a bad thing at all.

Pius Suter

Keeping that same mindset, if Bennett and his team have another long playoff run, his price might go up, so another name Danny should be calling about is 28-year-old Swiss-born center Pius Suter from the Vancouver Canucks.

Pius is a monster around the net. He plays a lot tougher than his 5’11 and 179 pounds frame should allow, but I think that is because he plays with a lot of heart. Suter loves to pick passes off in the neutral zone and turn them into scoring chances. He does not mind getting into the dirty areas and taking a beating in order to be able to redirect a puck or knock home a nice juicy rebound.

This season was kind of a breakout year for Suter in that he went from scoring around 14-15 goals consistently every year to lighting the lamp 25 times this season. Therefore, since he has not done it for multiple seasons in a row yet, the Flyers might be able to offer Pius (who made just $1.6 million last season) an offer he can’t refuse. Because, despite the fact that he is rumored to want to stay with the Canucks, there has been minimal talk between the team and his agent thus far.

Dante Fabbro

Moving on to defense, there are going to be a couple of really intriguing names available in free agency, like Carolina’s Dmitry Orlov and Florida’s Aaron Ekblad, but they are all over or soon to be 30 years old and make nearly $8 million a season; which I don’t know about you, but they seem too old and too rich for my blood.

So, instead of them, I would like to see the Flyers pursue a guy like 26-year-old Dante Fabbro. A right-hand-shot defender who was initially drafted by Nashville in the first round back in 2016 but was claimed off waivers this season by the Columbus Blue Jackets.

After being swiped off the waiver wire, Dante was able to come in and take over 1st pairing minutes from ex-Flyer Ivan Provorov to afford himself the chance to play with Zach Werenski. One team’s trash is another team’s treasure, I guess. Along with that, Fabbro was able to put up a career-high in goals with nine, points with 26, and plus-minus with him posting a +23 this season. Now, you may not think that the plus-minus stat is not that important, but I’m here to tell you that there’s a reason why our goaltenders averaged some of the worst numbers in the league this year. Drysdale a -32, Zamula a -14, Cam York a -8, Sanheim a -6.

Fabbro, a puck-moving defenseman who can really lay some big hits, is coming off a one-year deal that paid him just $2.5 million this season. If brought in by the Flyers this off-season, Dante could prove to be a brilliant signing since Rasmus Ristolainen just had surgery to repair his right triceps tendon and is due to be out for at least six months.

Now, although these players I suggested above are not the face of the franchise-type signings, we fans are all hoping for the Flyers to make. Keep in mind that free agency is rarely the place where you get those types of players, especially since guys are not even eligible to reach unrestricted status until they are 28 years old. By then, most true stars of the game had already been signed to long-term deals by their respective teams. Free agency is where you get role players who can come in and be a piece in what you’re already building.

The draft is where you get those game-changing players that you see on billboards all around town, and the Flyers have a lot of picks in this upcoming draft to make that dream a reality. So, let’s just wait and see if that comes true.