Quick Hits: September 7, 2023
1) According to multiple reports but not yet officially announced by the Flyers, restricted free agent center Morgan Frost has agreed to a two-year contract with a $2.1 million average annual value. His qualifying offer come 2025, when he will be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent one year away from attaining unrestricted free agent status, will be $2.4 million.
Once made official, I will write an analysis article for the PhiladelphiaFlyers.com website.
In the short-term, neither Frost himself nor the team could afford to have him miss the start of training camp. Head coach John Tortorella has made no secret of the fact that he's still not sold on the player despite Frost having led the team in scoring over roughly the final two-thirds (55 games) of last season.
It's also been said around the organization that, with Sean Couturier returning and Noah Cates potentially taking on an expanded role, Frost may not get as many minutes at the start of the season as he played in the second half of last season. (Note, some of this may have been the type of posturing that is common when contract negotiations are at a standstill, but Tortorella's commentaries on Frost thus far have rarely been ones of unhedged praise).
At the same time, the Flyers understood that they need Frost on the ice on Day 1 of camp every bith as much as Frost could ill-afford not to be there. Couturier has missed more than a season-and-a-half after two surgeries on his back. He needs to show he can stay healthy and return at something close to the caliber of player he was before the back issues. Neither outcome is a guarantee at this point.
Moreover, Kevin Hayes is now a member of the St. Louis Blues after the Flyers, at Torts' behest, dispatched the player this summer for whatever they could get in return (a 2024 sixth-round pick) despite a 54-point season in 2022-23. Highly regarded prospect Cutter Gauthier is likely a season away from joining the Flyers, and it still remains to be seen whether his future role will be at center or left wing.
Bottom line: Frost needed for his deal to get done so as to not delay his arrival for training camp. The Flyers equally need Frost ready from Day 1. There was no urgency before September to get the contract hammered out, but that urgency started to ratchet up once Labor Day approached and then passed.
2) Chris Maher of Maher Media took note of offseason changes in the Flyers Hockey Operations department. The
changes include some new personnel in pro scouting and amateur scouting and a new senior advisor that the Flyers posted to their official staffing list. Additionally, earlier this summer, the Flyers announced the hirings of John LeClair and Patrick Sharp as special assistants to general manager Danny Briere, Riley Armstrong (previously a Phantoms assistant coach) as director of player development, alum defenseman Nick Schultz (previously a development coach) as assistant director player development, and the promotion of Alyn McCauley from director of player personnel to assistant general manager.
3) After being a healthy scratch in the first two games of the 2023-24 KHL regular season, Flyers 2023 first-round pick Matvei Michkov was in the lineup yesterday as a late comeback bid by SKA St. Petersburg fell one goal short in a 4-3 road loss to Torpedo.
Michkov skated just 6:12 of ice time for the game across 11 shifts. He had just six shifts after the first period (three apiece in the second and third periods). Michkov's deployment represent the second lowest ice time among all SKA forwards (third lowest among all SKA skaters) despite the overall sloppiness and lack of urgency SKA showed as a team until the late minutes of the third period.
4) Alexei Kolosov, who had a 26-save shutout on Monday, was the backup goaltender on Wednesday for Dinamo Minsk in a loss to Kunlun Red Star Beijing. Former Ottawa Senators goalie Dylan Fergoson, who has been in net for two of the three regular season games to date, got the start.
5) September 7 Flyers Alumni birthdays: Andrew MacDonald (1986), Gino Odjick (1970-2023), Rob Zepp (1981).
6) In Memoriam: Today marks 12 years since the tragic plane crash in Russia that took the lives of every player and coach on the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team as it was en route to Minsk for open day of the 2011-12 KHL season. Flyers alum Brad McCrimmon was among those on board. McCrimmon, a longtime NHL assistant coach after his playing days, was Lokomotiv's new head coach. He was slated to make his official debut.
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