The Philadelphia Flyers have gotten some business done today, finalizing an extension with one of their restricted free agents: Isaac Ratcliffe. Per a team announcement, Ratcliffe has signed a one-year, two-way contract carrying a $813K cap hit.
Ratcliffe, 23, spent most of last season with the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, and got ten games in with the main Flyers squad. Ratcliffe had his most productive professional season yet, scoring 11 goals and 28 points in 59 AHL games, a total that ranked fourth among Phantoms forwards. The six-foot-six, 200-pound winger is a former top prospect who was drafted 35th overall at the 2017 draft.
Ratcliffe was drafted so high thanks in part to his prolific scoring numbers in junior hockey. In his draft year, Ratcliffe scored 28 goals and 54 points, and followed that season up with a successful final year in the OHL, scoring 50 goals and 82 points. Ratcliffe has struggled to translate his goal-scoring prowess from juniors to the pro ranks, and his issues as a skater have largely been to blame.
Per The Athletic’s Charlie O’Connor, Ratcliffe will be in a position to contend for a fourth-line role on the Flyers in training camp, and this one-year extension indicates that 2022-23 will be a do-or-die year for Ratcliffe and his future as a developmental project in the Flyers organization.
In his media availability following free agency, Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher alluded to 2022-23 being an “important” year for many of the team’s young players to prove they still had NHL potential, and it’s likely that Ratcliffe is one of those young players who needs a strong season to remain in the organization’s long-term plans.
Another guy they buried deep in the AHL with no light