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Latest On Availability Of Sean Couturier, Cam Atkinson, Ryan Ellis

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Philadelphia Flyers president of hockey operations Keith Jones addressed the health and availability of three of his organization’s bigger-name players to NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman today. He spoke on Flyers number-one center Sean Couturier, veteran goal scorer Cam Atkinson, and defenseman Ryan Ellis.

On Couturier and Atkinson, Jones said that both are expected to be healthy and on the ice for the start of Flyers training camp next month. That’s not only major news for each player but also the Flyers organization at large, as the team’s offensive attack has suffered tremendously in the absence of two of the team’s most experienced players.

Couturier, 30, is arguably the Flyers’ best player. Couturier hasn’t played an NHL game since December 2021 and has had two back surgeries since that point.

Kimelman notes that Couturier “Couturier was practicing before the end of last season and had been hoping to get into a game,” but the Flyers made the decision not to rush Couturier back into what was a lost season, preferring to afford him the more extended timeline of a full offseason of training leading up to his first game back.

When healthy, Couturier is a top-of-the-line two-way center who is capable of scoring at a near-point-per-game rate. (he has crossed the 75-point plateau twice in his career) The 2019-20 Selke Trophy winner could very well compete for more Selke trophies when healthy, especially now that Patrice Bergeron has retired.

With the Flyers intensely interested in developing their young talent and providing young players with prime opportunities to succeed in the NHL, having Couturier healthy is a huge asset. For young wingers such as Tyson Foerster or Bobby Brink, players the Flyers desperately want to succeed in the NHL, having the chance to play on a line centered by Couturier could do wonders in easing their adjustment to the NHL.

As for Atkinson, as a 34-year-old under contract only through the 2024-25 season he is unlikely to be with the Flyers by the time they enter their next competitive phase. That’s unlike Couturier, who is signed to a long-term, $7.75MM AAV contract through the end of the decade. Atkinson is a favorite of head coach John Tortorella but missed all of last season after undergoing neck surgery.

The fact that the Flyers’ next playoff run will likely happen outside of Atkinson’s contract doesn’t mean he can’t provide value to the Flyers for the rest of his deal. The former 41-goal scorer returning to full health could improve the developmental environment in Philadelphia, just as having a healthy Couturier would.

Atkinson is a widely respected veteran who can capably score 20 goals and 50 points in a full season. For a young center the Flyers wish to see continue to develop, such as Morgan Frost or Noah Cates, having an accomplished veteran winger to play with and help the line succeed offensively could be genuinely helpful.

The key to the right developmental environment for a rebuilding club is to provide the right mix of young players and established talent, rather than just stocking a roster with as many unproven youngsters as possible. The issue for the Flyers has been that so many of the team’s key veteran forwards have been injured (such as Couturier and Atkinson) or a poor fit with Tortorella. (Kevin Hayes)

Getting both Atkinson and Couturier back from their season-long injuries not only helps the Flyers win more games in the immediate term, but it should also yield real benefits for the development of the Flyers’ young talent.

As for Ellis, Jones told Kimelman that the defenseman is unlikely to “be able to continue his playing career because of a torn psoas muscle in his back.” Jones added that Ellis is “exhausting everything that he can in order to play” but that the injury is simply making his return to the ice impossible.

Ellis, 32, was a high-end defenseman for the Nashville Predators for 562 games before he was dealt to Philadelphia in the summer of 2021 in exchange for Philippe Myers and 2017 number-two pick Nolan Patrick.

Ellis only managed to play in four games for the Flyers, scoring five points, before injuries knocked him out of the lineup. As long as this injury keeps Ellis from being able to play he will likely remain on the Flyers’ long-term injured reserve list in order for the team to receive cap relief for Ellis’ $6.25MM AAV contract, a deal that runs through 2026-27.

While Ellis appears to have every desire to return to the ice and continue his career, based on Jones comments it appears that expecting Ellis to ever suit up for another NHL game would be a mistake. While the organization must be happy to have Atkinson and Couturier back for training camp, the seemingly permanent absence of Ellis is undoubtedly unfortunate for both the Flyers and Ellis himself.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. 

Lehigh Valley Phantoms Sign Evan Polei to AHL Contract

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  • A former fifth-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers, defenseman Wyatte Wylie has reached a one-year AHL agreement with the Ontario Reign. Appearing as a solid prospect after his last season with the Everett Silvertips of the WHL, Wylie hasn’t been able to transfer his puck-moving ability to the AHL up to this point. In 131 games played, all for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, Wylie has scored nine goals and 26 assists in total. Although not much came of it in the long run, Wylie was finally able to appear in a Calder Cup playoff race for the first time in three seasons, going scoreless in three games.

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Philadelphia Flyers Submit Ivan Fedotov’s Contract Should Be Tolled

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TSN hockey insider Darren Dreger is reporting that the Philadelphia Flyers and the NHL have submitted to the International Ice Hockey Federation that goaltender Ivan Fedotov’s contract with the Flyers should be tolled since he missed this past season to complete military service in Russia. The Flyers along with the league are arguing that because he missed the entire season, the original one-year contract he signed in May 2022 should not be considered expired until next July, since he never fulfilled the agreement. The IIHF is presently considering the submission. The word tolled is a legal term written into many sports contracts that allows for the pausing or delaying of the running of the period of time set forth by a contract.

It’s been quite the saga for the 26-year-old netminder that began over a year ago. Fedotov was arrested in Russia two months after signing his contract with the Flyers. He served a year of military service and on June 14th of this year, the Flyers announced that the one-year deal would be applied this upcoming season and they would retain his NHL rights. Shortly after that in early July, the KHL announced a two-year deal for the netminder with CSKA that was recognized by the league because they believed that Fedotov did not have a valid and binding contract with an NHL club for next year.

While Fedotov is stuck between two leagues wondering what his future will be, CAA Sports’ JP Barry issued a statement today saying that he had spoken with Fedotov and that the young netminder would abide by the IIHF’s ruling that will decide which of the two contracts is valid. It’s an unusual and difficult situation for a player that has said that he just wants to get back to playing hockey. Fedotov has stated publicly that he was able to play hockey twice a week during his military service, but that the hockey in the army wasn’t very good. Fedotov has also defended his decision to sign was CSKA saying that they are a top club and would give him an opportunity to return to form before fulfilling his dream of playing in the NHL.

From the Flyers’ perspective, they would obviously welcome the addition of Fedotov to their goaltending depth chart. The club made Fedotov their seventh-round pick back in 2015, and while it has been almost a decade since they drafted him, they’d seen enough from him to warrant an entry-level contract last year. Now, the Flyers and the league are in a battle that could set a precedent going forward since the KHL and NHL don’t currently have any kind of Memorandum of Understanding. The two leagues did have such an agreement up until last year which kept teams from poaching signed players out of the other league, however, the NHL suspended the agreement.

Latest On Cutter Gauthier

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Philadelphia Flyers prospect Cutter Gauthier made some headlines earlier this summer when he was absent for the Flyers’ development camp shortly after the 2023 NHL draft. Gauthier offered some explanation for his choice today, telling NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman that he had played “a little bit too much hockey” after his college season and representing the United States at the IIHF Men’s World Championships. Gauthier added that he “wanted time with the family,” and although it wasn’t Flyers GM Danny Briere’s “favorite thing” Gauthier felt it was the right option.

Although Gauthier is no longer the Flyers’ number-one prospect due to the team drafting Matvei Michkov seventh overall at this year’s draft, Gauthier remains their best prospect who has a chance to play center. His absence at development camp shouldn’t be cause for any Flyers fan to worry that Gauthier will play out his college eligibility and hit free agency as other players, such as Adam Fox, have in the past, though. Gauthier told Kimelman that it’s “definitely the plan” to play for Philadelphia at the end of Boston College’s upcoming season, and after scoring 16 goals and 37 points last season Gauthier is expected to be one of college hockey’s top players on a Boston team that is set to see significant talent arrive in the fall, such as top 2023 picks Will Smith, Ryan Leonard, and Gabe Perreault.

Flyers Sign Alexis Gendron To Entry-Level Contract

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The Philadelphia Flyers announced they’ve signed forward Alexis Gendron, a seventh-round pick from their 2022 draft class. The team did not disclose the financial terms of Gendron’s contract, although CapFriendly reports it’s a three-year contract worth $860K per season. Gendron will earn $775K in the NHL, an $85K signing bonus, and an $82.5K salary in the minors in each season.

Selected six spots before the draft concluded, Gendron is the first member of Philadelphia’s 2022 draft class to sign his entry-level contract. The team’s top prospect from that year, fifth-overall pick Cutter Gauthier, is expected to return to Boston College for his sophomore season in 2023-24 and remains unsigned. Philadelphia acquired the 220th overall pick used to select Gendron and the signing rights to defenseman Tony DeAngelo, whom they bought out earlier this month, from the Carolina Hurricanes.

Gendron, 19, can play both right wing and center and was selected out of the QMJHL from the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada. Amidst a strong post-draft season in the Q, he was dealt to the Gatineau Olympiques in December 2022, and he went on to post the most postseason goals of any QMJHLer in this year’s playoffs with 14 in just 13 games.

The undersized forward relies on his creativity to generate offense, and he’s got a distinctive eye for plays such as bank and stretch passes. He obviously has decent shooting acumen, too, and while he’s not a defensive liability, he likely won’t be tasked with much penalty-killing responsibility in the NHL at just 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds.

Gendron will likely return to Gatineau in 2023-24 for his final season in juniors, although due to his 20th birthday falling before January 1, he’s not eligible for an entry-level slide, and the Flyers will burn the first year of his contract regardless of how many NHL games he plays. Gendron is eligible for assignment to the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, however, another unusual quirk because of his late December birthday.

Philadelphia Flyers Loan Aleksei Kolosov To KHL

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The Philadelphia Flyers signed prospect Aleksei Kolosov to a three-year entry-level contract last week after he spent last season playing for Minsk Dynamo in the KHL. Now with the 21-year-old netminder under contract, the Flyers have officially announced that they’ve lent Kolosov back to Minsk for next season. The Belarus-born goaltender has spent his entire KHL career with Minsk dressing in 79 games and putting up a 28-39-7 record with a 2.73 GAA and a .909 save percentage.

Last season, Kolosov had much better numbers than his KHL career average as he went 13-21-5 with a 2.55 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage. His numbers aren’t exactly sparkling, however at 21 years old he has been playing professional hockey against men for the better part of three seasons and has shown himself to be formidable.

The 2021 third-round pick has NHL potential but will be an undersized netminder at just 6’0” and 185 pounds. In today’s NHL the average goaltender is generally at least 6’2” and 200 pounds, although in recent seasons undersized goaltenders have become much more of a norm. Juuse Saros stands just 5’11” and weighs 180 pounds showing that small netminders can put up elite numbers in the NHL.

Given that Kolosov will be spending his fourth season in the KHL, it’s not unreasonable to think he could be pushing for a job with the Flyers before his entry-level contract expires in 2025-26. His likeliest path will be to play out the year in Minsk before graduating to the Flyers AHL affiliate in year two of his contract.

Philadelphia Flyers Waive Tony DeAngelo For Purposes Of Buyout

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Saturday: DeAngelo has cleared waivers, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports, paving the way for the buyout to be completed.

Friday: It appears the rumored trade between the Philadelphia Flyers and Carolina Hurricanes won’t be happening after all. Today, the Flyers placed defenseman Tony DeAngelo on unconditional waivers, which CapFriendly initially clarified is for the purpose of contract termination. The Athletic’s Charlie O’Connor later contradicted CapFriendly’s initial report, claiming DeAngelo’s waiver placement is for the purposes of a buyout, which was later confirmed.

After the Flyers acquired DeAngelo’s negotiating rights from the Hurricanes last summer and promptly signed him to a two-year, $10MM deal, his relationship with head coach John Tortorella became tenuous, culminating in a string of healthy scratches to end the season. Reporting suggested the Flyers and Hurricanes had worked out a deal to send DeAngelo back to Raleigh this offseason, which would have involved the Flyers retaining half of DeAngelo’s $5MM cap hit on the final season of his contract and receiving center prospect Massimo Rizzo in return. However, the league blocked the trade at the time, claiming it circumvented the salary cap, and didn’t permit the deal to go through until July 8, 2023, exactly one year after the initial trade, which sent DeAngelo’s rights to Philadelphia.

The trade never actually went through, though, and now DeAngelo will find himself free to sign with any team that will have him – including Carolina. The buyout option became available to the Flyers after settling with forward Noah Cates before his arbitration hearing.

The buyout will cost the Flyers $1.67MM against the cap for the next two seasons compared to a one-time $2.5MM cap hit next year via salary retention. While the team is in the throes of a rebuild and doesn’t anticipate spending to the salary cap, the decision to buy DeAngelo out rather than trade him does offer slightly more short-term financial relief.

DeAngelo is an elite offensive-minded defender but a rather significant defensive liability, which chiefly contributed to his fallout with Tortorella in Philadelphia. When taking into consideration he’s played on three teams in the past three seasons and has now been bought out twice in that time frame, it seems unlikely he’ll find any long-term commitments on the open market.

Moving on from DeAngelo will certainly shift more point-producing burden onto youngster Cam York, who looked quite capable last season with 20 points in 54 games. The 22-year-old signed a two-year, $3.2MM extension with the Flyers earlier this week.

DeAngelo, 27, led Flyers defensemen in scoring last season with 42 points in 70 games. It was his third straight full season posting more than 40 points – he played just six games in 2020-21 before getting involved in a post-game altercation with then-teammate Alexandar Georgiev, which resulted in a waiver placement and assignment to the team’s taxi squad for the remainder of the season.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Philadelphia Flyers Sign Olle Lycksell

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The Philadelphia Flyers have signed restricted free agent forward Olle Lycksell to a two-year, two-way contract, per a team announcement. The deal is worth $1.575MM and carries an average annual value of $787.5K.

A 2017 sixth-round pick, Lycksell is quickly climbing up the organizational depth chart after a pair of very impressive seasons in other leagues. The 23-year-old Swede posted 45 points in 53 games for the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms last season, finishing second on the team in scoring during his first campaign in North America while playing heavy minutes.

It was the season before that where he saw a real breakout, though, finishing off his Swedish pro career (for the time being) with 34 points in 47 games for SHL side Vaxjo Lakers HC while on loan from the Flyers. Now, Lycksell has some financial security for the next two seasons, during which time he’ll attempt to break through into the Flyers’ lineup full-time.

He did make his NHL debut last season, not looking entirely out of place and registering an assist in eight appearances. With some free agent additions (and a healthy Cam Atkinson and Sean Couturier) in the fold, however, the chances of him being on the Flyers’ opening night roster are slim.

That being said, he’s set to reprise a top-line role with the Phantoms and continue working toward rounding out his game. With another year of pro hockey under his belt, look for Lycksell to provide some solid value for the Flyers in the second year of this deal.

When his contract expires in 2025, he’ll be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights.

Philadelphia Flyers Sign Cam York

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The Philadelphia Flyers have a new contract to announce for one of their top young defenders. Cam York has signed a two-year, $3.2MM contract carrying a $1.6MM cap hit. CapFriendly reports the structure of his deal is as follows:

2023-24: $1.3MM salary, $300K signing bonus
2024-25: $1.6MM salary

York, 22, set a career-high in points with the Flyers in 2022-23. His 20 points in 54 games ranked fifth among Flyers defenders in total, but his 0.37 points per game put him second to only Tony DeAngelo.

The team’s 14th overall pick in 2019, York is a shoo-in to take over a full-time top-four role after the team dealt away Ivan Provorov (and, presumably, DeAngelo) this summer. It’s largely assumed the team signed veteran Marc Staal in free agency to serve as a partner/mentor for York, who did average over 19 minutes per game last season and posted rather high-end two-way results.

With Provorov out of the picture, it seems like just a matter of time until York is Philadelphia’s de facto number-one defenseman. If that happens sometime within the next two seasons, this is obviously an incredibly short-term value signing by general manager Daniel Briere.

He’s the second promising young Flyer to sign a two-year deal today, though, joining center Noah Cates. While getting Cates and York locked in until 2025 for a combined $4.225MM is a solid piece of work, they’ll likely both be due gigantic raises two summers from now, something that could be tough to negotiate even with a rising salary cap.

York will be an RFA again in 2025, and he’ll be due a $1.6MM qualifying offer. In the meantime, though, the focus rests on development for the 5-foot-11, 172-pound defenseman.

Philadelphia Flyers Re-Sign Noah Cates

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The Philadelphia Flyers have avoided arbitration with up-and-coming center Noah Cates, the team announced Monday morning. The two parties have agreed on a two-year, $5.25MM contract carrying a $2.625MM cap hit.

Cates’ new contract buys two arbitration-eligible years and makes him a restricted free agent again in 2025 when he’ll also be eligible for arbitration.

The 24-year-old burst onto the scene in a big way during his rookie season. He was one of three Flyers to skate in all 82 games last year, and he finished top-15 in both Calder Trophy and Selke Trophy voting – impressive stuff for a fifth-round pick.

Born in Stillwater, Minnesota, Cates struggled heavily in the faceoff circle (39.5 win percentage) but was a defensive dynamo everywhere else, tying for the team lead in plus/minus with a +3 rating. He added 13 goals, 25 assists and 38 points, finishing eighth on the team in total scoring.

He also took on quite heavy minutes, playing nearly 18 minutes per game and facing some tough competition. In fact, he took on much of the defensive burden created by the absence of Sean Couturier, who missed the entire season with a back injury.

After Philadelphia cleared some space on the depth chart by dealing Kevin Hayes to the St. Louis Blues, Cates (along with fellow riser Morgan Frost) is slated for top-nine minutes again in 2023-24, although Couturier’s return should ease his role somewhat.

Cates also flashed solid offensive production during a 16-game stint with the Flyers to end 2021-22 after turning pro, recording nine points in 16 games. With some decreased defensive responsibility, could he build on some already solid production and turn into a bonafide top-six center?

It shouldn’t be the expectation, especially given his draft billing, but Cates has already displayed sustainable tools to become a long-term NHL center. If he can maintain his strong play away from the puck, his sub-$3MM cap hit is a great value signing for Philadelphia and general manager Daniel Briere.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report the terms of the deal.

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