Flyers Sign Noah Cates To Four-Year Extension
The Flyers have signed forward Noah Cates to a four-year, $16MM extension, according to a team announcement. The deal is worth $4MM against the cap and runs from the 2025-26 to 2028-29 campaigns. There’s no trade protection in the deal, reports Kevin Kurz of The Athletic. His year-by-year breakdown is as follows, per PuckPedia:
2025-26: $3.75MM base salary, $1.25MM signing bonus ($5MM total)
2026-27: $3MM base salary, $1MM signing bonus ($4MM total)
2027-28: $4MM base salary
2028-29: $3MM base salary
Cates, 26, was set to be an arbitration-eligible RFA this summer with a $2.625MM qualifying offer – equal to his previous cap hit. His new deal, which takes him through his age-30 season and will cover most of his prime, comes in well north of that at a roughly 50% increase.
It’s a worthy raise for Cates, though. Coming off his third full NHL season, he did well to re-establish himself as a middle-six shutdown forward after a difficult sophomore campaign. While a natural center, faceoffs have been an issue for Cates since the beginning, and while he’s improved since his rookie year, he’s still at a 44.6% win rate for a career-high, set this past season. That’s led to increased deployment on the wing, although he did spend a good portion of 2024-25 centering a unit with Bobby Brink and Tyson Foerster.
The 2017 fifth-round pick has averaged a 14-22–36 scoring line per 82 games in parts of four NHL seasons. He slightly outpaced those totals this year, finishing fifth on the team in goals (16), seventh in assists (21), and seventh in points (37) while logging 78 games played. His four absences were healthy scratches in a five-game window to begin the season. He also ended the year with eight points in his last eight games.
Cates finished 15th in Selke Trophy voting as a rookie in 2022-23 but had a brutal follow-up campaign, posting 18 points and a minus-eight rating in 59 showings last year. This season’s offensive rebound also included resurgent defensive and two-way impacts. The Flyers controlled 58.3% of expected goals with the Foerster-Cates-Brink line on the ice at 5-on-5, according to MoneyPuck. Philly also allowed just 2.26 goals against per 60 minutes with Cates on the ice at 5-on-5, the lowest mark of any Flyers skater with at least 250 minutes of ice time, per Natural Stat Trick.
While Cates plays more of a middle-six role at even strength, he averaged nearly 16 minutes per game this season due to fringe power play and routine penalty kill deployment. He averaged 1:33 per game shorthanded, the most among any Flyers forward who ended the season with the club.
That all makes his four-by-four extension come across as a rather reasonable one for a quality third-line contributor with some upward mobility in the lineup in his prime years. After getting extensions done with Cates and Foerster in the past few days, general manager Daniel Brière has a shade under $19MM in cap space to fill just four roster spots, according to PuckPedia. The team’s lone notable pending free agents, both restricted, are Jakob Pelletier and Cameron York.
Cates is the fifth Flyer signed through the 2028-29 season, joining Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim, and Owen Tippett. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent when his deal expires.
Image courtesy of Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images.
Flyers Sign Helge Grans To Two-Year Extension
The Flyers announced they’ve re-signed defenseman Helge Grans to a two-year extension. The deal carries a cap hit of $787,500 and is a two-way contract in 2025-26 before becoming a one-way deal in 2026-27, the team said. Grans was a pending restricted free agent after completing his entry-level contract.
Philadelphia acquired Grans, 23, from the Kings in 2023’s three-team deal that sent Ivan Provorov to the Blue Jackets. Los Angeles had selected him early in the second round of the 2020 draft, 35th overall, due to what they thought was a projectable skillset as a fringe top-four piece with a well-rounded game.
It didn’t quite work out that way. Grans had a good first impression in North America in his first AHL season in 2021-22, posting 24 points and a plus-seven rating in 56 games with the Ontario Reign. Grans had just nine points in 59 games the following year, though, and then scored eight in 56 games in 2023-24 after moving to the Flyers’ affiliate in Lehigh Valley.
The 6’3″, 205-lb righty got off to a much better start in 2024-25. He finished the year with 23 points and a minus-two rating in 66 AHL games and climbed up the Philadelphia depth chart, earning his first NHL recall in November. It was the only one he got all year long, but he recorded an assist, five blocks, and four hits in six appearances while averaging 14:28 per game. His possession results weren’t particularly promising, though. He only controlled 44.4% of shot attempts at 5-on-5 despite starting over 60% of his shifts in the offensive zone.
Nonetheless, doling out a one-way structure in the second year of his extension indicates the Flyers anticipate Grans being more of an everyday NHL contributor in the near future. The righty could make the opening night roster next fall in lieu of Rasmus Ristolainen, who’ll likely miss the first few weeks of the campaign while recovering from triceps surgery. Philadelphia is light on other righties in their system outside of Jamie Drysdale and 2023 first-rounder Oliver Bonk, who could also get a look out of the gate with Ristolainen sidelined.
Grans will be a restricted free agent upon expiry. Unlike this summer if he remained unsigned, he’ll have arbitration rights in 2027.
Flyers Sign Tyson Foerster To Two-Year Extension
2:16 p.m.: Foester’s two-year extension is official as reported, the club announced Thursday afternoon.
12:13 p.m.: The Flyers are closing in on a two-year extension with pending RFA winger Tyson Foerster, according to Anthony Di Marco of Daily Faceoff. It’s a $7.5MM contract worth $3.75MM per season, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. Foerster will earn $3.5MM in base salary next season and $4MM in 2026-27 with no signing bonuses, per Kevin Kurz of The Athletic.
Philadelphia’s decision to bridge Foerster instead of giving him a long-term deal is an interesting one that bucks the league-wide trend. Foerster, 23, just finished a strong sophomore season after an impressive rookie campaign, particularly considering his defensive play. The right-shot winger posted 33 points, an even rating, and 102 hits for the Flyers in 77 games in his first year, placing him seventh in Calder Trophy voting for the league’s top rookie and even earning him some outside consideration for the Selke Trophy as the league’s top defensive forward. He got heavy deployment, averaging over 17 minutes per game, and controlled 54.1% of shot attempts at even strength – this after recording seven points through his first eight NHL games the year prior.
Things only improved for him in 2024-25. He was healthy scratched once early in the season by former head coach John Tortorella after a slow start, but quickly regained his top-nine role and didn’t miss a game the rest of the way. He scored 25 goals and 43 points in 81 appearances, the former of which ranked second on the team behind star rookie Matvei Michkov‘s 26 tallies. While his possession numbers took a small hit, his on-ice shot suppression impacts were still third on the team at 24.19 SA/60 at 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Foerster had not accrued enough NHL experience to be eligible for salary arbitration if he didn’t have a new deal by July. His deal comes across as slightly shorter and a tad pricier per season than the three-year, $3.3MM AAV deal AFP Analytics projected him to receive. The 2020 23rd overall pick will be an RFA again with one year of team control left when his extension expires in 2027.
The Philadelphia forward group remains lacking outside of the high-end offensive upside that Michkov, Travis Konecny, and, to some degree, Owen Tippett offer. Strong two-way play from their secondary forwards has always been a hallmark of the club’s identity, though, and it’ll presumably stay that way with head coach Rick Tocchet now at the helm. Foerster fits that bill expertly with an above-average finishing touch as well, and he’s also one of their stockier forwards at 6’2″ and 214 lbs.
Bridging Foerster does leave some more financial flexibility for the Flyers now to be aggressive on the trade and free agency markets in an effort to end their five-year playoff drought. The club still has nearly $23MM in cap space after Foerster’s deal, per PuckPedia, but there are still notable RFAs to sign in Noah Cates, Jakob Pelletier, and Cameron York.
Image courtesy of Jeff Curry-Imagn Images.
Multiple Teams Showing Interest In Marco Rossi
The Blackhawks, Kraken, Flyers, Penguins, and Sabres are among the teams that have shown interest in acquiring Wild pending restricted free agent center Marco Rossi, according to RG’s James Murphy. While general manager Bill Guerin has refuted trade speculation surrounding the 2020 ninth overall pick in the past, there hasn’t been much noise around progress in contract talks so far this offseason, especially after he had his minutes slashed in the playoffs by head coach John Hynes.
For a team considering parting ways with a young player, it’s never a good sign when virtually every club with a need at the position with the assets to make an appealing trade work steps up to the plate. Minnesota’s deployment of Rossi, particularly this season, has been puzzling. The Austrian pivot finished sixth in Calder Trophy voting in 2023-24 and took strides in 2024-25 to prove his floor as a second-line center, notching a 24-36–60 scoring line in all 82 games despite missing star wingman Kirill Kaprizov for most of the campaign. He averaged north of 18 minutes per game in the regular season but played just 11 minutes per night in the playoffs, although that didn’t stop him from still contributing a pair of goals and an assist in the Wild’s first-round elimination at the hands of the Golden Knights.
With Rossi posting those point totals on a bottom-10 offensive team, it’s easy to see why many clubs are optimistic about his ability to slot into their top-six immediately and, at worst, replicate his performance from last year. From Minnesota’s standpoint, assuming their internal projection of him is as pessimistic as his late-season role reduction indicates, it makes sense they wouldn’t want to commit to a long-term deal that will likely cost north of $7MM per season. For Rossi, it makes little sense for him to sign a bridge deal in Minnesota if he feels he won’t get the minutes there to maximize his earning potential a few years down the line.
If the Wild can’t work out a trade for Rossi, an offer sheet threat looms. A long-term deal for Rossi will likely end up at seven years at around $7.4MM per season, AFP Analytics projects. That would require a team to surrender their 2026 first, second, and third-round pick as compensation if the Wild decline to match. As such, they’ll likely set their price around there in trade talks, at least in terms of comparable value. Considering their increased salary cap flexibility this summer and intact core, it makes sense they’d rather pursue trade options to land a more NHL-ready asset in place of a return largely centered around draft picks.
Of the five teams mentioned by Murphy as having interest in Rossi, all but the Sabres have the picks to acquire Rossi in the $7.02MM to $9.36MM range for an offer sheet. Buffalo would need to reacquire their 2026 second-rounder to do so. They sent it to the Senators in this year’s Dylan Cozens/Joshua Norris swap.
Kolosov Expected To Play In KHL Next Season
- After not reporting to Philadelphia’s AHL affiliate after the regular season ended, many wondered if goaltender Aleksei Kolosov could be looking to return to the KHL. Sport-Express’ Artur Khairullin recently reported that the 23-year-old is expected to return to Dynamo Minsk next season, even though he’s under contract with the Flyers through next June. Kolosov played in a dozen games with Lehigh Valley early in the year and got into 17 more games with Philadelphia the rest of the way but struggled, posting a 3.59 GAA and a .867 SV% in those outings. With Kolosov on an NHL deal next season, the logistics of Kolosov returning to the KHL will need to be worked out, either by a mutual termination if Philadelphia is willing or his deal could ultimately be tolled at the NHL level.
Flyers Retain Ian Laperriere As Hockey Operations Advisor
The Flyers announced today that Ian Laperriere will rejoin the organization as an advisor to the club’s hockey operations department.
For the last four seasons, Laperriere, 51, had served as the head coach of Philadelphia’s AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. NHL.com’s Bill Meltzer reported last week that he wouldn’t be back in the role next season, although at the time it seemed he would look elsewhere for coaching roles with an easier pathway to an NHL job.
That changed over the weekend when Anthony Di Marco of The Fourth Period said Laperriere would remain with the Flyers in an off-ice capacity. The Montreal native previously served in Philly’s front office as their director of player development in the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons before transitioning to coaching roles for the next decade.
Regardless, Laperriere extends his stay in the organization he’s called home since signing his last contract as a player with the Flyers in 2009. He retired in 2012 after spending his final two seasons under contract on long-term injured reserve due to lingering concussion symptoms and immediately transitioned into a front office role.
The Flyers have yet to name a replacement for Laperriere as Lehigh Valley’s head coach, but they said in today’s release that one will begin immediately.
“I want to thank Ian for his tireless work in Lehigh Valley for the last four seasons,” said general manager Daniel Brière. “He not only led the Phantoms in a return to the playoffs, but provided crucial development to several of our prospects. I am excited to welcome him back to the Flyers so he can continue to provide his insight in helping our team as we enter the next phase of the rebuild.”
Maple Leafs Showed Strong Interest In Acquiring Rasmus Ristolainen Earlier This Season
Back at the trade deadline, the Maple Leafs and Flyers made one of the bigger trades of the day with Toronto picking up center Scott Laughton. However, it appears that Laughton wasn’t the only veteran Flyer they were going after as Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch relays that Toronto also made a serious run for defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen at the deadline with a league source suggesting that the Maple Leafs made a very strong offer but were rebuffed.
The 30-year-old has been in trade speculation for the last couple of years now but he wasn’t moved at the 2024 deadline with the team still in the mix for a playoff spot. Well out of contention by then this season, Ristolainen was believed to have more of a chance of moving although it appears GM Daniel Briere set a very high asking price.
Ristolainen enjoyed a bounce-back year in 2024-25, picking up 19 points in 63 games, his second-best output over the last five seasons. More important, he upped his playing time by nearly four minutes per game compared to the year before, going from being a depth piece to one of former head coach John Tortorella’s more trusted options.
As it turns out, the deadline might have been the best time for the Flyers to move Ristolainen. Soon after the deadline, he was shut down with an upper-body injury. Then last month, he underwent triceps surgery, a procedure that carries a recovery timeline of six months, meaning that Ristolainen will miss training camp and the first couple of weeks of the regular season. Speculatively, teams will want to ensure that he has fully recovered from that before putting forth their best efforts to acquire him and the final two years left on his deal that carries a $5.1MM cap charge.
On the surface, it seems unlikely that Toronto would rekindle their interest. After failing to acquire Ristolainen, GM Brad Treliving turned his focus to acquiring defenseman Brandon Carlo to seemingly fill the same top-four role that they were likely viewing Ristolainen to fill. With their top six on the back end intact and some prominent free agents up front, reshaping the forward group will likely be Toronto’s top priority in the coming weeks. But with a relatively thin free agent market for right-shot blueliners, Briere should expect to be receiving some phone calls about Ristolainen once again this offseason.
Laperriere To Remain With Flyers In Unknown Capacity
- While Ian Laperriere will no longer be coaching the Flyers’ AHL affiliate in Lehigh Valley, his days with the organization aren’t numbered. Anthony Di Marco of The Fourth Period relays (Twitter link) that the former NHLer will remain in the organization in a different capacity. Laperriere has been with Philadelphia since 2012, spending time in player development while also coaching at the NHL and AHL levels.
Flyers May Opt To Avoid Big Name Free Agents
- Speaking of Marner, Kevin Kurz of The Athletic wrote that the Philadelphia Flyers should be in the market for forwards this offseason but added that he doesn’t see the potential Toronto free agent or any other big-name player as viable options. While GM Daniel Briere recently expressed that the organization is in a position to add key players as opposed to trade them away, making a move for a player that could receive upwards of $12 million per season may not fit into the Flyers plans. With a roster full of young, promising forwards, adding someone like Marner might accelerate the organization’s timeline prematurely.
Flyers Part Ways With AHL Head Coach Ian Laperriere
The Flyers will not have AHL head coach Ian Laperriere back with the organization next season, according to NHL.com’s Bill Meltzer.
Laperriere has been a part of the Philadelphia organization in some capacity since 2009. The Montreal native played 1,083 NHL games as a checking winger, including the final season of his career with the Flyers in their run to the 2010 Stanley Cup Final. Multiple concussions sustained during that season ended his career, though. After his contract expired following the 2011-12 season, he officially retired and joined their front office as their director of player development. He was shifted to a bench role as an assistant coach the following year and remained in that position until 2021, when Philly reassigned him to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms to serve as their head coach.
After four AHL campaigns with the Phantoms and well over a decade with the Flyers, Laperriere now moves on. He posted a 134-120-38 record in the regular season and made the Calder Cup Playoffs every year but his first. This season, he coached the Phantoms to an upset two-game sweep of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the first round before taking the defending champion Hershey Bears to a winner-take-all Game 5 in the Atlantic Division Semifinals.
Laperriere’s departure from the organization is mutual, Meltzer said, adding he “covets an NHL head coaching chance.” It’s unlikely he’ll get that in this cycle, but with Rick Tocchet signing a five-year deal to serve as the Flyers’ bench boss this month, it certainly wasn’t going to come in Philadelphia anytime soon. He’ll now look for a role in another organization with a clearer path toward being an internal promotion candidate and serving as an NHL head coach for the first time.