The Philadelphia Flyers might not be very active when it comes to older, experienced unrestricted free agents on Monday, but could they be interested in some younger reclamation projects?
A handful of players that would normally be restricted free agents, were not sent qualifying offers by their teams and are thrown into the pool of unrestricted free agents that could sign with any team they want on July 1. It happens every year — some former first-rounder is suddenly 24 years old and not really worth the contract spot anymore, or a team doesn’t want to deal with a contract negotiation or him just being on their roster.
But, one NHL team’s trash is another NHL team’s treasure. It happened for the Flyers just last season. Ryan Poehling was one of those younger players not sent a qualifying offer and now he’s the team’s third-line center who could potentially sneak up even higher in the depth chart. And he earned himself a contract extension for his efforts.
Could someone this year be the next Poehling, or even better? More importantly, what are the holes the Flyers really need to fill, realistically?
No matter the reach of potential with some key development, the fit has to make sense. The Flyers are not going to sign a new, young player to develop and nurture and hopefully unlock something new, unless they have the actual room on the roster for it.
Before July 1 hits (which should be fairly quiet in Philadelphia anyways), the Flyers stand with mostly a full roster, honestly. Travis Konecny, Matvei Michkov, Bobby Brink, and Garnet Hathaway on the right wing; Tyson Foerster, Owen Tippett, Joel Farabee, and Noah Cates on the left; and Sean Couturier, Morgan Frost, Scott Laughton, and Ryan Poehling down the middle to wrap up the entire forward group.
Now, could the Flyers trade one or two of these players when every team’s cap opens up? Sure. Most likely it will be Laughton that could be moved with no player returning the other way, so that opens up a bottom-six forward spot, potentially.
On the blue line, Cam York, Travis Sanheim, Nick Seeler, and Jamie Drysdale are a cemented top four, with Rasmus Ristolainen as the fifth defensemen. Egor Zamula is a restricted free agent, but he been so hit-or-miss for the team that that feels like an open spot for competition.
The Flyers might opt for more of an internal competition for these spots. Adam Ginning and Emil Andrae are strong contenders on the blue line, and if Laughton is shipped out, the Flyers have Olle Lycksell or someone like newcomers Rodrigo Abols and Oscar Eklind, to compete for a forward spot. But, if they don’t decide to do that and want even more, young competition to be fighting for these potential openings, there are options that are suddenly in the open market thanks to their teams not sending them qualifying offers.
Calen Addison, RHD
Calen Addison is just one of those players who, when they are on, they are on, but if there is even a millisecond of not caring or low work ethic, then their entire game can slip away from them. It’s frustrating but the award can be sweet.
As someone who regularly watched the early Kirill Kaprizov Era of the Minnesota Wild — because I also wrote about that team — Addison was one player that had the entire fan base begging for a call up and to give an opportunity to. The 24-year-old blueliner would produce all of these points in the minors, and then so immense flashes of insane high-level skill that just has you wanting even more.
And sometimes, it would happen with the Wild’s own star Russian winger on the ice. Well, the Flyers have one of those.
Addison (No. 2) is just able to weave through opponents and set teammates up like it is nothing, at times. But he has a really bad flaw that if he is not doing that and has a clear idea what is going on in the offensive zone, that he doesn’t bring anything good to the team.
Defensively, he is just bad. Whether it is a lack of care or effort or just not having that talent to read the other side of the puck, Addison’s results have just been poor when it comes to defense. Hell, former Wild coach Dean Evason even put him on the wing for a stretch of games just because they needed a guy. Brent Burns, he was not.
If the Flyers believe they need high-end skill on the blue line, and can teach any sort of player how to play defense — like they did with one Rasmus Ristolainen and some others — then Addison can certainly be someone they bring in this summer.
Right now, it feels very make-or-break and Philadelphia might just be somewhere where given the right opportunity to flourish in all three zones, he can make it work. You don’t put up almost half a point-per-game — Addison scored three goals and 29 points in 62 games — during your rookie season just out of pure luck. Maybe Minnesota is just stupid because after that, he played just 12 more games for the Wild and then was sent off to the San Jose Sharks for nothing.
Jesper Boqvist, C/LW
Jesper Boqvist has been hanging around for a while. Somehow, despite playing 236 NHL games, he is still just 25 years old. But, unfortunately, his first trip outside of New Jersey, as he played for the Boston Bruins last season, left him without a qualifying offer and is heading to the open market.
If Laughton is gone from Philadelphia, Boqvist feels like a perfect low-floor type of player that could be added one a league-minimum player to adequately replace everything that he would bring on the ice and more. The center regularly featured down the middle in the Bruins’ bottom six this past season but with not a whole lot of minutes — averaging 11:09 time-on-ice, to be exact — he scored just six goals and 14 points in 47 appearances. Still, not too shabby at all.
When it comes to the fit with the Flyers, this feels almost something that would make too much sense. The Flyers want speed up the middle. They want to attack on the rush and counterattack and press hard enough that they can win possession back in a flash and head down the ice. Boqvist can do almost everything Laughton did this season defensively but with so much more speed. The 25-year-old center, according to NHL EDGE, had a 73rd percentile of top skating speed and 64th percentile in speed bursts over 20 miles-per-hour. Essentially, he was well in the top half of NHL skaters for how dang fast they are.
This just feels like a match made in heaven. Someone who can keep up with the Flyers, but is sound in all three zones and still young enough to maybe hang around a couple more years. Really, he is like bringing in another, more European, Ryan Poehling.
Nils Lundkvist, RHD
The team that signs Nils Lundkvist is buying into the hype. Less than two years after the Dallas Stars handed the New York Rangers a first-round pick for the young Swedish blueliner, they do not send him a qualifying offer and dump his butt. Whether it was maybe the player just begging them to let him go and explore more options elsewhere so he can play more than 14 minutes a night, or the team actually feeling this way about him, it was done.
Lundkvist was a former first-round pick himself and is a speedy, offensively charged defenseman. He showed immense potential in his draft year and while developing, but he has not been able to hit that next stride.
While we don’t fully believe the Flyers are really going to want another 5-foot-11, well-skating defenseman, there could be a fit here in the sense to just develop the player’s defensive skills and just see if he can adapt and play well enough within a structure to see if something is there.
Lundkvist has not showed much at all at the NHL level, but he just feels like a nut someone is going to crack eventually and let him flourish. Maybe it will be in Philadelphia, but probably not.
Erik Brannstrom, LHD
It is not really surprising that Brannstrom is on his way out of Ottawa. Ever since being part of the return of Mark Stone from the Vegas Golden Knights, the Senators have just seemingly hated having to play him. For the last few years, he has survived trade rumors and benchings and the team just not really liking him being on their roster.
He is free now. Spread your wings, Erik. Maybe, you can then land in Philadelphia.
Brannstrom is still a hell of a player. He is just 24 years old, and impacts play in a way that most defensemen dream of. Maybe it is just because the Sens have stunk, but compared to his teammates and with all the context and equations in the world to determine what Brannstrom specifically brings to the table, he rocked last season.
Essentially, those numbers describe a top-pairing defenseman. So with the caveat that Brannstrom averaged just 16:35 time-on-ice last season, we can just comfortably say that he an offensive weapon as a fourth or fifth defenseman. And the Senators just tossed him aside since they have the left side locked down with Thomas Chabot, Jakob Chychrun, and Jake Sanderson on the team.
For the Flyers, couldn’t you just imagine this guy excelling next to Ristolainen, for example? Brannstrom has more NHL experience than any one he would compete with for that last left-side spot on the blue line, and really has a much higher ceiling. Hell, he could probably play in the top four and have Nick Seeler drop from where he is projected to go.
The only thing that is truly holding him back is being 5-foot-10 and not a physical player. That might be enough for the Flyers to not want him as a defenseman, but there is a real opportunity to potentially try a very good player out and not even have to do with Zamula hitting or missing. And it’s not like the team would be sacrificing age or anything. Zamula is a whole six months younger than Brannstrom, so there is still a long runway for him as a player in the NHL.
Hopefully it’s with the Flyers, but we also understand why they don’t want to solidify anything quite yet. We also understand it from Brannstrom’s point of view — that he doesn’t want to end up in the same situation he was in with the Senators, but in a different city. Regardless, he feels like a safe bet to make as a solid, young blueliner who is available for free.
Are the Flyers going to get another reclamation project? It feels less likely than last year but is still a possibility and these four names are ones to look out for.
