It’s July 1st, which means NHL Free Agency will officially begin at 12:00 p.m.

The Philadelphia Flyers still have a lot of work to do ahead of the 2025/26 season if they want to compete. Free agency is the perfect time to do so.

The majority of the big names have already been resigned. Florida, miraculously, found a way to retain all three of their key free agents. They were able to extend Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, and now Brad Marchand.

The Red Wings re-signed Patrick Kane to kick off free agency for them. Columbus extended Ivan Provorov to a long-term deal as well.

Oh, yeah, and the Mitch Marner saga is over. Marner will officially be joining the Vegas Golden Knights after a sign-and-trade, sending Nic Roy to Toronto. He signed an eight-year deal worth $12 million annually with Vegas. A great deal for Vegas. Make sure to check out Hannah Kirkell’s coverage of the Marner saga over at Vegas Hockey Now.

The point: the market making it to free agency is thin. That does not mean the Flyers won’t do what they can to improve the team. So, let’s start with the basics.

Flyers Current Cap Space

*Will update this during the day along side the Flyers moves*

The Flyers currently have $15,141,905 in cap space for the 2025/26 season, per PuckPedia.

$43,600,000 is tied up in the forward group, which still needs at least one more player. $25,203,333 is tied up in defensemen, with six under contract, not including Cam York’s possible new deal. The rest, $4,725,000, is for the goaltending.

Obviously, the Flyers can make moves to create more space as free agency evolves.

Projected Lineup

Using the current rostered players, here is the projected Flyers lineup

F

Matvei Michkov – Trevor Zegras – Travis Konecny

Tyson Foerster – Sean Couturier – Owen Tippett

X – Noah Cates – Bobby Brink

Nic Deslaurier – Rodrigo Abols – Garnet Hathaway

D

Cam York (assuming he resigns as expected) – Travis Sanheim

Nick Seeler – Jamie Drydale

Emil Andre – Egor Zamula

(Ristolainen IR)

G

Ersson

Fedotov

Flyers’ Big Needs Heading into Free Agency

We discussed this yesterday, so no need to deeply dive into this today. So, in short, here are the Flyers’ big needs.

Goaltending must be addressed. The tandem of Sam Ersson and Fedotov or Kolsov will not get you to the playoffs. Ersson needs a true tandem partner.

A left-shot defender would be an ideal addition. The Flyers should not be comfortable with Egor Zamula and Emil Andrae as their bottom pair LHD options. That should be a big area of improvement.

Getting a fourth-line center should be a priority as well. I understand that in-house options, such as Karsen Dorwart, Rodrigo Abols, and even Jacob Gaucher, will make it interesting. However, if the Flyers truly want to compete, that is an area where they should focus on improvement.

Now, if the Flyers really want to spice things up, it looks like they have an open spot for a top-nine winger. Sure, that could be snagged by someone like Alex Bump after training camp, but if they want to make things interesting, that could be one last spot to improve this offseason.

Unsigned Flyers To Hit Free Agency

The Flyers got out ahead of things and re-signed Noah Cates and Tyson Foerster before they could hit the open market. The Flyers have no pending UFAs.

Yesterday was the deadline for the Flyers to extend qualifying offers to players, giving them RFA rights, or letting them hit unrestricted free agency.

Well, only Cam York was extended a QO. He remains unsigned heading into free agency.

As for Jakob Pelletier, the other Flyers’ pending RFA, he did not receive a QO, meaning he is an unrestricted free agent.

Zayde Wisdom and Elliot Desnoyers also were not extended QOs.

York is the name to watch for the Flyers.

Flyers Free Agency Rumors

*Live Updates during the day*

Now for the juicy stuff: rumors and speculation.

Between chatter I have heard and things I have read throughout the week, all signs point to Maxim Shabanov announcing a deal with the Flyers at some point very soon. He had been long rumored to be coming to the Flyers, but it’s beginning to feel like it will be a reality soon. Obviously, no guarantees in today’s NHL, but I’d stamp a 95% chance.

Elliote Friedman on Sportsnet mentioned that the Flyers are believed to have interest in Corey Perry, just does not know the likelihood of it happening. That one makes no sense to me, just thought it was worth sharing.

The goalie market is thinning again. Thatcher Demko’s extension (3x$8.5M) has just gone official, and Dave Pagnotta is reporting it’s more likely than not that Jake Allen remains in New Jersey.

Yesterday, Kevin Kurz of The Athletic reported that the Flyers and Cam York were “Not too far” from getting an extension done. Kurz says he does not get the impression that the Flyers are worried about losing him to an offer sheet.

UPDATES

Flyers Busy to Open Free Agency; Agree on Two One-Year Deals

Flyers Find Stop-Gap Goalie; Agree to Terms With Dan Vladar

Kevin Weekes has reported there are more dogs in the Shabanov fight than expected. In addition to the Flyers, Weekes reported the Mammoth, Rangers, and Islanders are in the running.

The Flyers now have $5,491,905 in remaining cap space. With York unsigned, still being in the Shabanov race, and looking to improve LHD and possibly more, I’d expect a subtraction sooner than later.

Flyers also agreed to terms with depth LHD Dennis Gilbert, per the team. They now sit at $4,616,905 in cap space.

Read More: Updated Flyers Prospect Rankings After the NHL Draft (+)

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