The Philadelphia Flyers are rebuilding. And as a result, they certainly won’t be shopping at the top of the unrestricted free agent market, which opens for business on July 1, just days after the NHL Draft next week.
But that doesn’t mean they won’t be shopping at all.
Head coach John Tortorella said at the end of the season that they’ll be looking to bring in some players to do some “backfilling” of the roster, with the goal of helping to further the development of the youngsters already here. In other words, general manager Daniel Briere will be looking to potentially make a few strategic adds to the back half of the lineup come Canada Day.
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But which pending UFAs would be the best fit?
On Tuesday, I broke down six recommendations in terms of the Flyers’ best approach to adding in free agency while remaining committed to the rebuild.
- Avoid long-term deals.
- Don’t block the kids.
- Pursue short-term center and RHD depth.
- Don’t bother with goalies.
- Keep an eye out for upside plays.
- Make sure they’ll click with Tortorella.
Now, it’s time to dive into players who fit the bill. Almost all of them are middle-to-bottom-of-the-lineup players; second-pair defensem*n and third-line forwards at best. But all of them could make sense for the Flyers, both in terms of cost and roster fit. Evolving-Hockey’s contract projection model — which uses past statistical and age-related comparable players to project likely contract lengths and cap hits for pending UFAs — was a big help in determining which players might be in the Flyers’ price range. As for roster fit? Ultimately, that’s a matter of opinion.
Onto our 18 players.
The culture guys
Nick Foligno
Come on, this one just makes way too much sense. Tortorella is attempting to create a culture of accountability in Philadelphia. To that end, he hasn’t even named a captain yet, believing that no one on the roster quite has the personality that he wants out of the player who wears the “C.” So why not bring in his old captain from the Columbus days, a player who Tortorella knows for sure will bring exactly the mentality he wants from a leader? Foligno is 35, but he’s still a useful bottom-sixer and would beef up the Flyers’ depth on the left side, especially if they ultimately trade both Kevin Hayes and Scott Laughton this summer.
Foligno strikes me as someone who Tortorella will see as the ideal “backfiller” who can help the rebuild without actually having any chance of being part of the next contending Flyers club. And he should come relatively cheap.
Wayne Simmonds
Is Wayne Simmonds a shell of what he was in his prime? Yes. Is he still Wayne Simmonds in terms of attitude and toughness? Absolutely.
If the Flyers are looking to bring back a fan favorite to enjoy while the rebuild is still in its early stages, Simmonds would fit, and given his previous role as “bad cop” to Claude Giroux’s “good cop” in the Philadelphia locker room, he’d be on board with helping to implement Tortorella’s brand of accountability while teaming with Nicolas Deslauriers to serve as primary protectors of the young, developing prospects. Plus, there would be something right about Simmonds finishing his NHL career in Orange & Black.
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Center depth
Jordan Staal
Staal is getting up there in age, but he’d be the ideal Sean Couturier insurance. He still drives play to a strong degree — he’s a fantastic forechecker — and his stellar defensive details would let players like Owen Tippett, Joel Farabee and Tyson Foerster focus on the creative, offensive sides of their games when placed on his wing. Nearly $4 million is a bit on the high-end in terms of cap hit projection, but his age should keep the term at a reasonable level. Staal would be an ideal splurge candidate in the UFA market for the Flyers, given that the rest of these candidates are strictly bottom-sixers, while Staal might have another year or two where he can be more of a middle-sixer quality pivot.
Lars Eller
Eller has a bit more offensive upside than the other cheap 4C options available, but his inability to produce in the playoffs for Colorado in April despite being pushed up the lineup out of necessity made it clear that he’s a bottom-of-the-lineup option only right now. Still, he would be a solid center for lower-upside youngsters like Wade Allison and Olle Lycksell, not completely lacking creativity while still providing solid defensive results.
Nick Bonino
Bonino is more of a defensive specialist at this stage of his career, but he still drives play and could slot in comfortably as the Flyers’ fourth-line center or kick out over to the wing if Elliot Desnoyers or Tanner Laczynski impress in camp and/or during the early season.
Derek Stepan
Remember when Stepan was a yearly 50-point player who the Rangers used deployed as their 1C? Yeah, those days are long gone. But over the past two seasons in Carolina, he’s transformed himself into a quality 4C who wins faceoffs, forechecks and drives play. Perhaps that’s more a function of Carolina’s system than Stepan’s talent, but the Flyers could do worse for a cheap fourth-liner.
Nick Bjugstad
Bjugstad is young enough that he might get more years on the open market than the Flyers would be wise to give. But we are talking about a guy whose last two contracts were one-year, $900,000 deals. Briere could do a lot worse for a passable bottom-six center option than Bjugstad at a price like that.
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Pierre-Édouard Bellemare
Bellemare’s underlying metrics tanked in 2022-23, but prior to that, he delivered strong results for three separate contenders (Vegas, Colorado and Tampa Bay) while establishing himself as one of the hardest-working players in those locker rooms. Plus, Philadelphia was where he began his NHL career — perhaps he’ll want to bring it full circle this summer.
Teddy Blueger
Blueger has relative youth on his side, and he had a few strong games for the Golden Knights on their Stanley Cup run. But he’s still a guy who is more of a useful fourth-line center/winger than anything else, and was a healthy scratch for the majority of the postseason. He’s not going to be especially expensive.
The depth RHD
Radko Gudas
If Staal is the splurge candidate at center, Gudas is that guy on defense. Most likely, some team will overpay the 33-year-old Gudas after his impressive work for Florida in the playoffs. But he certainly would be a nice fit next to Cam York for the next few seasons, and Evolving-Hockey’s projected contract isn’t too far out of line with what might make sense for a rebuilding Flyers club, though they’d ideally want to keep his term in the 2-3 year range.
Gudas isn’t a perfect defenseman. He still spams point shots, takes too many penalties and isn’t the fleetest of foot; there’s a reason why multiple teams have determined that he can’t be on their top pair despite producing underlying results that would otherwise warrant such a promotion. But as a second-pair RHD for a couple more years in Philadelphia to provide stability for youngsters like York, Egor Zamula and Emil Andrae? Sure, he would work.
Justin Holl
Holl became a bit of a whipping boy for Toronto fans over the past few seasons, and he’s not a player who is ever going to pass the eye test with flying colors. But we’re also talking about a player who held his own for 20 minutes per game on a contending team, keeping his head above water by advanced metrics despite regularly facing tough competition.
He might prove to be a little too pricey for the Flyers given that he’s still young enough to potentially pull some long-term offers on the market, and he’s of course a coveted right-handed shooting defenseman. But Holl is worth keeping on the radar.
Connor Clifton
Unlike Holl, Clifton was more of a third-pair defenseman for his contending club. But he has relative youth on his side and maybe even some untapped potential. He’d be an upgrade over Sean Walker, and probably a better stylistic fit than Tony DeAngelo, though his age might push him out of the Flyers’ price range.
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Luke Schenn
Most likely, it will be a contending team that ponies up for Schenn, wanting to add size and physicality to the back end. Schenn would likely be nothing more than a useful third-pair defenseman in Philadelphia; he would provide more intangible value elsewhere. But he’s still a solid player, and if he has interest in continuing his early 30s reunion tour to another previous home, it would be worth exploring at the right price.
Erik Johnson
At 35, Johnson isn’t going to be getting a long-term deal. And at this stage, he’s basically just a third-pair defenseman who would make sense for the Flyers as more of a rotational lineup piece than an every-game staple, especially if one (or a few of) Zamula, Ronnie Attard or Helge Grans make the roster out of camp. But he’s still got a bit left in the tank, and certainly isn’t lacking for experience — he won the Cup with the Avs in 2021-22 and is just 80 games away from hitting the 1,000 mark for his career. As a cheap one-year signing, he’d make sense.
The upside plays
Max Pacioretty
A one-year, $1.54 million deal seems like a light projection for Pacioretty, but then again, he did tear his Achilles twice over the course of a calendar year and basically missed the entire 2022-23 season as a result.
Still, if the market is cool on Pacioretty, he’s exactly the type of one-year upside swing the Flyers have the luxury of taking. If he’s healthy, Pacioretty has the talent to be a big help on the power play — which would be a boon to all of the Flyers’ youngsters — and beef up the relatively weak left wing position in the short term. And then, assuming the Flyers are well out of playoff contention by the trade deadline, he could be shipped to a contender for quality assets.
Basically, signing Pacioretty would be an investment, a hope that he re-establishes himself as an impact scoring forward and then can be turned into future picks/prospects at the deadline. Contenders may not want to take the offseason risk of depending upon Pacioretty to stay healthy or be the same player he was pre-injury. The Flyers, on the other hand, are well-positioned to do so if no one else will.
Connor Brown
Another post-injury investment candidate, Brown brought back a 2024 second-round pick last July for Ottawa, but then he tore his ACL after just four games with the Capitals. A healthy, productive Brown clearly has value around the league. It might be worth the Flyers’ while to try and be the team that benefits from that value next trade deadline, while also benefiting from the presence of a pretty useful winger in the interim.
Vladislav Namestnikov
In 2019, Namestnikov was traded from New York to Ottawa for a fourth-round pick. In 2020, he was shipped from Ottawa to Colorado for a fourth-round pick. In 2021, he was traded from Detroit to Dallas for a fourth-round pick. In 2022, he was traded from Tampa Bay to San Jose for Michael Eyssimont — but then San Jose shipped him two days later to Winnipeg for (you guessed it!) a fourth-round pick.
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Signing Namestnikov, in other words, is basically a way to “buy” an extra fourth-rounder — not the highest-quality asset, but not a useless one, either. He’d especially make sense if the Flyers trade Laughton this summer, given Namestnikov’s positional versatility. He wouldn’t bring Laughton’s intangibles, but he’d be a cheap way to replace a lot of his production, with the knowledge that by the trade deadline, he’s invariably getting turned into a very specific draft pick.
Nick Ritchie
Is Ritchie just not very good? Yeah, that’s the most likely explanation. After all, he’s now gone through five teams before turning 28 and he’s yet to find a team that wants to stick with him.
That said, he’s a big, physical (218 hits last season) forward who was talented enough to be drafted No. 10 in 2014. At 27, he’s still young enough that maybe a late-career breakout could be possible. Maybe the Flyers can unearth something that other teams couldn’t, and his crash-and-bang style fits perfectly in Philadelphia. It’s not like his price tag will be huge.
(Photo of Wayne Simmonds: Bill Streicher / USA Today)
