PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Christian Dvorak bet on himself when he signed with the Flyers as a free agent. Monday, he came away a big winner.<\/p>\n
A new five-year contract worth $25.75 million, signed Monday, certainly qualifies as big.<\/p>\n
It goes back to Dvorak\u2019s decision to sign a one-year free-agent deal with the Flyers on July 1 for $5.4 million. He might have gotten more years or more money elsewhere, but both the player and the Flyers were comfortable with this arrangement. And it\u2019s paying off for the 29-year-old Illinois native.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe I had more offensively,\u201d Dvorak said on Tuesday. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of why I took the one-year deal. I kind of bet on myself. Thought I had a good opportunity here. My teammates, I have to thank them, too. They\u2019ve been good to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
General manager Daniel Briere spoke before Tuesday night\u2019s game against Anaheim and sounded relieved that Dvorak will stay in the fold. He confirmed what Dvorak had said about betting on himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I like about Christian is, he bet on himself going into this season,\u201d Briere said. \u201cTook a one-year deal, we wanted to get to know him a little better. Since he arrived, a total pro. He\u2019s a good example for our players and for all our young guys coming up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited about what he\u2019s bringing to the rest of the team. Plays both ends of the ice, wins faceoffs, smart hockey. I\u2019m excited that he wanted to stay here. I think for us it\u2019s a good sign. Someone that bet on himself. Chose us and wants to stay here. It\u2019s very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dvorak had a feeling the Flyers would be much improved. That\u2019s another reason why he bought a plane ticket to Philly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of fun and it\u2019s a good fit for me,\u201d Dvorak said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been playing some good hockey this year. I think we\u2019re just headed in a good direction here. And that\u2019s really important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dvorak had played two seasons for Flyers coach Rick Tocchet in Arizona. That helped the comfort level for both.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s definitely a reason why I signed here last summer,\u201d Dvorak said. \u201cI was comfortable with playing with him from before. I think it\u2019s gone well so far this year. He\u2019s given me a good opportunity and I\u2019ve tried to make the most of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dvorak said the length of the contract was important to him. It will take him to age 34.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was important,\u201d Dvorak agreed. \u201cI think it (the negotiations) were a pretty smooth process overall. It (the length) was one of the things I was working for. I\u2019m just very excited and happy it got done.\u201d<\/p>\n
The center said he hasn\u2019t been surprised by how well it\u2019s gone. He entered Tuesday night with nine goals and 25 points; he had 33 points in 82 games with Montreal last season and has a career-high of 38 in 70 games in 2019-20.<\/p>\n
The fit with fellow new arrival Trevor Zegras has been superb. He\u2019s also helped keep the Flyers\u2019 penalty kill at a high level.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if I would say surprised,\u201d he said when asked if he was caught offguard by the Flyers\u2019 success. \u201cYou believe, you trust that things are going to work out. That\u2019s why I made the decision to come here. I thought it would be a good fit for me. I couldn\u2019t have asked for more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tocchet expressed satisfaction that Dvorak isn\u2019t going anywhere when the season is over. He\u2019s one of the guys the coach relies in all situations.<\/p>\n
\u201cCentermen are tough to find,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cHe\u2019s come in here and he\u2019s done a really nice job. He\u2019s well liked in the locker room, he\u2019s a culture guy. Came into camp in shape, does the right things. You\u2019re keeping character and quality in the room. It\u2019s good for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The signing might have been a signal to the rest of the team that the Flyers won\u2019t be traders at the trade deadline. They\u2019re thinking positively, they\u2019re thinking of adding and making the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talk about building blocks, that\u2019s the way I look at it,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cYou have a quality player in that room for the next five years. He\u2019s played really well for us. Who knows what happens in the future but it\u2019s another strong asset in your room.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some might wonder why the Flyers might throw 25 million at a soon-to-be 30-year-old. Tocchet, who played well into his late 30s, had a quick answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThirty is still young, don\u2019t get me wrong,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cYou train a little different. \u2018Devo\u2019 has a really good hockey IQ. When you have a really good hockey IQ, you can play late into your 30s. He\u2019s a good faceoff guy. Things like that you can still be really good at when you get older.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar and center Rodrigo Abols were officially added to their countries\u2019 Olympic rosters Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Vladar will be join Team Czechia. He entered Tuesday night\u2019s game vs. Anaheim with a 15-8-3 mark, a 2.39 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage.<\/p>\n
Abols was named to Latvia\u2019s team. He has played in 35 games for the Flyers with two goals and eight points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Christian Dvorak bet on himself when he signed with the Flyers as a free agent. Monday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,5,4,1467,56,5205,43,5095],"class_list":{"0":"post-394507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-flyers","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","13":"tag-philadelphiaflyers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115850882867417752","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}