The Philadelphia Flyers will head into the 2025-26 season with the third-highest amount of dead salary cap space in the NHL.
The Flyers are, for the time being, well-positioned to be cap-compliant to start the new season.
Their $5.52 million in available cap space currently ranks 17th in the NHL, and that's after a flurry of signings on the first day of NHL free agency, including center Christian Dvorak and goalie Dan Vladar.
But, there is one important piece of business still remaining, and that is to re-sign RFA defenseman Cam York,
The 24-year-old's next contract is likely to take up most of, if not all of that remaining space, especially given the current state of the market for defensemen and the rising cap ceiling in future seasons.
That's where the Flyers' sky-high dead cap comes into play.
According to PuckPedia, the Flyers have the third-highest dead cap in the NHL, with their $6.83 million coming in behind San Jose's $9.69 million and Nashville's $10.23 million.
The Flyers have one year remaining on Cam Atkinson's buyout at a $1.758 million cap charge in addition to retaining half of Scott Laughton's salary ($1.5 million) and Kevin Hayes's salary ($3.571 million) in previous trades.
Not included in the dead cap number is Ryan Ellis's contract, which can be put on LTIR for relief during the season. But, technically, that's another $6.2 million the Flyers can't use for the roster.
If and when the Flyers assign goalie Ivan Fedotov to the AHL, they'll create a small $2.1 million cushion for themselves, but bringing a forward like Alex Bump or Porter Martone onto the NHL roster in his stead will immediately eliminate half of that relief.
Fortunately for the Flyers, their cap woes will come to an end after this season, as Atkinson, Hayes, and Laughton are all due to come off the books.
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