LAS VEGAS — The 2024 NHL draft is over, and between that and the early arrival of Matvei Michkov, there’s a decent chance that the most newsworthy portions of the Flyers’ offseason have already now come and gone.
Just after the Flyers wrapped up the second and final day at the Sphere, general manager Daniel Briere reiterated that the club is likely to be dormant when free agency opens up on Monday. There just isn’t much flexibility salary cap-wise, and this isn’t a go-for-it year yet, anyway.
“I still expect it to be slow,” Briere said. “It can always change but I expect it to be slow on our part. We had no choice to buy out (Cam Atkinson) just to put us in a decent position (with the salary cap). We’re not out of the woods with the salary cap, so don’t expect too much.”
CapFriendly shows that the Flyers have approximately $4.32 million of cap space, with 18 players signed for the 2024-25 season. That number does not include Ryan Ellis’ hefty salary, but does include the $4 million cap hit for Ryan Johansen, which could also get buried on long-term injured reserve. Briere confirmed what we reported on Thursday, that the Flyers are ineligible to buy out Johansen due to what is apparently a hip injury.
Cal Petersen, the other candidate for a buyout, will likely remain, said Briere. Expect Petersen to split duty in the net with the AHL Phantoms next season with Aleksei Kolosov, before he would be off of the books entirely in one year.
Briere, though, still has work to do to fill out the rest of the NHL roster. Defenseman Egor Zamula and forward Bobby Brink are both restricted free agents who need new deals, while pending free agent Erik Johnson remains a candidate to return on a cheap one-year deal.
The deadline to qualify restricted free agents is 5 p.m. on Sunday.
There also remains some confusion over the status of goalie Carter Hart, who is facing charges of sexual assault and is also a pending RFA.
The Flyers were hopeful that they would get some clarity from the league on what to do next with Hart, but that apparently had not happened as of Saturday early afternoon.
“We’re going to have those discussions later tonight or tomorrow,” Briere said.
If there’s a reason to think that the Flyers are not done making headlines this summer, it’s that they now have more picks in next year’s draft to play with as currency in potential hockey trades. Briere has always left open the possibility that the Flyers are open for business in that regard, and after they failed to get what many would consider a true blue-chip prospect in this year’s draft, perhaps that makes them a bit more aggressive when it comes to potential deals. Finding a true No. 1 center remains Briere’s biggest challenge.
The Flyers added another 2025 first-round pick on Friday when they flipped this year’s No. 32 pick to Edmonton, while Columbus deferred the second-round pick they owe the Flyers from the Ivan Provorov deal to next year. That makes three picks in each of the first two rounds in the 2025 draft for the Flyers, and 12 in total. The Flyers could deal multiple first- or second round-picks this offseason, and still have a few left over for 2025.
Regardless of whether they’re active or not over the next couple of days, the Flyers will hold their prospect development camp at their training facility in Voorhees, NJ, beginning on Tuesday. Michkov is not expected to attend — he still has yet to officially sign his entry-level deal — but first round pick Jett Luchanko will be there.
(Photo of Jett Luchanko on Friday: Stephen R. Sylvanie / USA Today)
