After a quiet first day of free agency season, the Philadelphia Flyers stiil have $8,685,273 of cap space available for the 2020-21 season. The team has two arbitration ineligible restricted free agents to sign in defenseman Phil Myers and center Nolan Patrick, and is primarily looking for a right-side defenseman capable of playing 20-plus minutes per game alongside Ivan Provorov.
Here are some notes from Day 1:
1) The Flyers lost two of their unrestricted free agents. Tyler Pitlick has signed a two-year contract with the Arizona Coyotes at a $1.75 million cap hit. Derek Grant has returned to the Anaheim Ducks, signing a three-year contract at a $1.5 million cap hit.
Pitlick was an effective third/fourth line winger for the Flyers in 2019-20, using his north-south speed and size effectively on the forecheck. Grant, who primarily played third line center after his acquisition from Anaheim at the trade deadline, was effective in most of his seven regular season games as a Flyer but struggled mightily in the postseason.
The Flyers' organizational hope is at least one among incoming rookies Tanner Laczynski ($925,000 cap hit at the NHL level), Wade Allison ($925,000) and/or Swedish import Linus Sandin ($792,500) are ready to replace the players who have departed. Also in the mix to compete for fourth line roles are holdover forwards Connor Bunnaman ($736,666) and Carsen Twarynski ($775,833).
The Flyers only remaining unsigned UFA is veteran center Nate Thompson.
2) On Friday, the Flyers clarified the free agency status of center Nolan Patrick. Patrick falls under the 10.2 (c) classification of restricted free agents. He is an RFA in terms of his entry-level deal being completed and the Flyers have had to make a qualifying offer.
However, due to the fact that he has not yet genuinely played three pro hockey seasons -- two seasons in which he played and one spent entirely on injured reserve -- he is ineligible for an offer sheet from other teams. He is also not eligible for arbitration.
Thus, the Flyers hold Patrick's exclusive negotiating rights this offseason. The 10.2 (c) rule rarely applies but is not unprecedented. Most notably, Calgary star Johnny Gaudreau fell in the same category in the 2016 offseason due to the late season date when the first season of his ELC was burned after he left college and turned pro to play in a single game.
3) The Flyers made one Phantoms/NHL depth geared signing on Friday, inking defenseman 26-year-old defenseman Derrick Pouliot to a one-year, two-way contract for the NHL minimum ($700,000) at the top level and $425,000 in the American Hockey League.
Originally chosen by the Pittsburgh Penguins with the eighth overall pick of the 2012 NHL Draft, Pouliot is a left-handed defenseman with an offensive-minded bent to his game. He has appeared in 202 NHL regular season games for Pittsburgh, the Vancouver Canucks and St. Louis Blues. Pouliot was a semi-regular starter in Vancouver during the 2017-18 and 2018-19 season but spent most of this past season in the AHL with San Antonio apart from two NHL games with the Blues.
At the AHL level, Pouliot figures to be a power play regular for the Phantoms. He posted 39 points in 58 games for the Rampage in 2019-20. If injuries at the NHL level prompt a recall to the Flyers, Pouliot's duties would be as a third-pair puck mover.
4) According to multiple reports, the Flyers were one of the short-list finalists for the services of UFA defenseman TJ Brodie, late of the Calgary Flames. Ultimately, he signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs, who were willing to give the 30-year-old blueliner a no-movement clause (NMC) in his contract along with with a four-year contract at a $5 million cap hit.
If the Flyers had done the same thing, they'd have been forced to protect Brodie from the 2021 Expansion Draft. The upshot of that would be that one of Travis Sanheim or Myers would have to be exposed to the Expansion Draft (because Ivan Provorov is a lock to be protected). Alternative, if the Flyers opted to protect all four, they'd be limited to four protected forwards (rather than seven) and would be in severe jeopardy of losing Oskar Lindblom or Patrick to an Expansion Draft claim.
It may be worthwhile for the Flyers to re-strategize the Expansion Draft if the Flyers were able to land prized unrestricted free agent defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, but Brodie is not of that same caliber. Pietrangelo, meanwhile, seems to be looking elsewhere, reportedly to the Vegas Golden Knights or possibly to the Boston Bruins.
Torey Krug has opted to leave the Bruins to sign with St. Louis, which all but closes the door of the possibility of the Blues re-signing Pietrangelo. However, it increases the chances of Pietrangelo going to Boston, because the Bruins currently have north of $15 million in available cap space, albeit with several roster vacancies left to fill.
Vegas is hurting for cap space, having just $1.875 million in open space. To be able to sign Pietrangelo, they would be compelled to shed multiple salaries. The Flyers themselves do not have enough cap space to realistically sign Pietrangelo. Trading Shayne Gostisbehere with little or no salary retained would get the Flyers to where they could absorb Pietrangelo's upcoming cap hit but would make thing extremely tight to do than while also getting Myers and Patrick re-signed.
If Pietrangelo wants to go to Vegas, there are ways the Flyers could attempt help keep Pietrangelo in the Western Conference and help themselves in the process by trading for players Vegas would want to keep but for cap issues. Defenseman Alec Martinez is an unrestricted free agent after the 2020-21 season (and thus would not create any added Expansion Draft headaches). There would also be other players, mainly forwards, whom Vegas might be willing to make available, such as proven 25-30 goal scorer Jonathan Marchessault ($5 million cap hit, four years remaining) or two-way winger Reilly Smith (two seasons left at $5 million).
Vegas defenseman Nate Schmidt, whom Nick Kypreos reported may be available if the Golden Knights sign Pietrangelo, brings many of the same qualities the Flyers' lost when Matt Niskanen retired plus is a right-side defenseman (despite shooting left-handed). Martinez has played the right side in the past but more recently has played the left side. However, Schmidt has a partial no-trade clause -- a non-public list of 10 teams to whom he can refuse a trade -- and the 29-year-old has five years left on a deal that carries a $5.95 million cap hits, thereby likely creating the same Expansion Draft dilemma that Brodie would have.
How likely are the Flyers to be able to sign Pietrangelo themselves or benefit from Vegas paring down a lot of salary to afford Pietrangelo? Not nearly as likely as it seems for the Bruins to sign him to replace Krug. Forty-three-year-old icon Zdeno Chara is also a UFA.