Humdrum Flyers Offseason Compounded by Leo Carlsson Miss

By all accounts, the Philadelphia Flyers exit the Leo Carlsson saga exactly where they began: back at Square 1. Drama aside, it has been a mediocre, humdrum offseason for a team that needed to make the big move.

Flyers general manager Danny Briere admitted himself that the team could “take a little bit of a step back”, which would have been fine if they hadn’t already committed to being more competitive.

The Flyers, when they were really bad, walked away from the NHL draft with Matvei Michkov, Cutter Gauthier, and Porter Martone. When they’ve been good or average, they got Jett Luchanko and Maksim Sokolovskii. Combining two first-round picks from teams that were good, they traded up for Jack Nesbitt.

There’s a bit of a pattern there, where the higher the Flyers draft, the better players they get, and the lower they draft, the players they can get have obvious strengths, as well as obvious weaknesses. That’s not a knock on those players, but it’s just the reality of team building in sports.

Starting goalie Dan Vladar, as expected, signed a five-year contract extension. Two seasons ago, it was Nick Seeler who got the contract extension. Then Garnet Hathaway landed a two-year extension, made it through one, and got traded at retained salary before the start of the next.

A few weeks after that, Travis Konecny signed his eight-year, $70 million extension that expires in 2033, when he’ll be 36.

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Last summer, the Flyers signed Christian Dvorak to a one-year deal, essentially admitting to overpaying for the one-year term to avoid blocking developing prospects, like Luchanko and Nesbitt. By January, the now-30-year-old got a five-year extension.

After years and years of trade rumors, Rasmus Ristolainen remains on the roster, despite turning 32 this upcoming October and having one year remaining on his contract at a $5.1 million cap hit.

And then this year, the Flyers signed Noel Acciari to a two-year deal, with no trade protection in Year 1, but a 10-team no-trade list in Year 2.

They were, at one point, on the right track, when they flipped Sean Walker to Colorado for a first-round pick (and Ryan Johansen) in 2024 despite being in the playoff hunt, but have otherwise completely abandoned that logic. Why not do more of that?

The Flyers have done so well with flipping older veterans for picks and prospects that better fit their true competitive timeline, like when they traded Ryan Poehling, who was found money, and a second-round pick for Trevor Zegras.

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Walker was found money and became a first-round pick, which helped yield Nesbitt.

But then Seeler stayed despite trade interest, Dvorak inked a five-year pact in a career-year, and Konecny, an aging top-six winger, got eight years.

Vladar, in an anomalous career year, also got his five years.

So, that’s the state of the Flyers.

They haven’t committed to being bad enough long enough to get a center like Leo Carlsson in the draft, so they were prepared to spend $90 million over just five years, and four first-round picks, to get him as a restricted free agent… and still came up short.

That leaves them, on the heels of a second-round playoff appearance, with a mostly unchanged roster, highlighted only by the arrivals of Acciari, backup goalie Joseph Woll, and defenseman Simon Benoit.

Metropolitan Division teams that missed the playoffs last year, like Washington and New Jersey, made wholesale changes in an effort to get their ducks back in a row.

The Devils offloaded their biggest distraction in Simon Nemec, and dumped their worst contract in Jacob Markstrom, while getting back a competent bottom-six forward in Evan Rodrigues and two future first-round picks.

The Capitals beefed up heavily, bringing back future Hall of Famer Alex Ovechkin for another year, as well as adding Jordan Kyrou, Boone Jenner, and Alex Tuch via trade and free agency.

As for the Flyers, well, they at least got a backup goalie who is demonstrably better than Sam Ersson, Aleksei Kolosov, Ivan Fedotov, Cal Petersen, and Felix Sandstrom, but the buck really stops there.

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Now that they’ve reached the Stanley Cup playoffs and raised everyone’s expectations, the big move didn’t come, and the Flyers ultimately missed out on *clears throat* Mavrik Bourque, Leo Carlsson, Darnell Nurse, John Carlson, Claude Giroux, Bowen Byram, Mason McTavish, and Zach Werenski, and probably Dylan Larkin, this offseason.

Don’t forget about Kirill Kaprizov, who never even hit the market.

And maybe the 2023-24 and 2025-26 seasons, that were okay or successful, would have been better served as dismal, uninspiring, but necessary development years to continue to acquire long-term assets while letting the young guns play big minutes.

Michkov had a great first year under John Tortorella two years ago, and Martone, Alex Bump, and Denver Barkey had phenomenal stretches to end the year, too. Even Oliver Bonk looked square to the task. Jack Berglund is looking like he’ll develop into a real force, too.

But in a few years, the pressure will be all on them to take the Flyers to the promised land, with no No. 1 center or franchise defenseman coming to help them. Zegras and Jamie Drysdale can only do so much, and Konecny, Travis Sanheim, and Owen Tippett aren’t getting any younger.

Things can always change, like if the Flyers pivoted to Adam Fantilli, but the element of surprise won’t be on their side this time.

After missing out on Leo Carlsson and doing little else of substance this offseason, the one that was meant to be the proverbial game-changer, the Flyers’ long-term plan may have to be altered.

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