The Philadelphia Flyers have officially tapped into the NCAA free agent market.

Now official, the Flyers have signed Ohio State center Riley Thompson to a one-year entry-level contract, which kicks in next season.

Thompson, 23, spent three seasons in the NCAA. His freshman campaign was spent at Alaska Anchorage, where he had 9 goals and 24 total points in 34 games.

The Ottawa, Ontario, native then spent the next two seasons at Ohio State, where in 77 combined games, the 6’4” center tallied 30 goals and 60 total points. Thompson wore the “A” for Ohio State in his final campaign. He had 13 goals and 27 total points in 37 games this past season. Notably, 7 of his goals in 2025-26 came on the power play.

This past season at Ohio State, Thompson won 50.4% of his faceoffs, which is a big improvement from his 44.5% the season prior. During his freshman season at Alaska-Anchorage, Thompson was 53.5% at the faceoff circle, making his NCAA career total 47.6%.

For a large center like Thompson, I’d like him to be a little more physical than he is. However, he is a hard worker and has a good scoring touch. He has a lot of room for improvement with his skating, which checks out for a young, 6’4” forward. Getting Thompson on a one-year ELC is a low-risk, high-reward move for the Flyers.

Per PuckPedia, Thompson will carry a cap hit of $1.025 million and have an NHL salary of $922.5K. His minor league salary is reportedly $85K.

Thompson will be 24 when next season starts. Per the Flyers, he’ll join the Lehigh Valley Phantoms for the rest of the season on a PTO.

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