Daniel Briere has made his first official free-agent signing as general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Flyers have signed forward Ryan Poehling to a one-year, $1.4 million contract, the team announced on Saturday afternoon.
Poehling, 24, is a two-way forward that has spent time with the Montreal Canadiens and Pittsburgh Penguins in his young career. The left-shot forward stands at 6-foot-2 and 196 pounds. He’s primarily played center in his career but has a paltry 45.6% success rate on 922 career faceoffs.
He had seven goals – including two shorthanded – and seven assists for 14 points in 53 games last season in Pittsburgh. He’s averaged just under 12 minutes a game for his career which falls in line with his 11:46 last year.
Poehling isn’t a big splash in free agency, but that’s not what the Flyers need. He’s a younger player with some pedigree that could play well under John Tortorella.
The 25th overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, Poehling was taken two turns ahead of Morgan Frost, who Ron Hextall traded up to select. Hextall traded for Poehling as an add-on in the Jeff Petry – Mike Matheson swap last year in Pittsburgh.
Poehling was touted as a strong two-way center with great hockey sense heading into his draft. He started his NHL career off with a bang, scoring a hat trick in the 2019 season finale with the Canadiens. However, it’s been a rocky road since then.
The Minnesota native is now on his third team and is looking for a fresh start. In a way, I could see Poehling as a Scott Laughton-type of player. He was written off earlier in his career after some lackluster NHL play but worked hard to find his niche and eventually worked his way up the lineup.
Laughton had 27 points through his first 109 NHL games across four seasons. Poehling has 36 points in 138 career games, including 22 through his first three seasons (85 games).
Briere spoke highly of Poehling’s upside and ability to play both at the wing and center position. The young forward can jump right into the Flyers’ rebuild.
“It’s very exciting to get a chance to add a guy like that. Usually in free agency you’re, for the most part, adding older players and maybe one day we’ll be there, but at the stage that we’re at, it was a nice added bonus that he’s a young man,” Briere said. “He’s known for his character. We talked about what we’re trying to do with the culture with the standard we’re trying to put in place here. It’s a no-brainer to bring in a guy like Ryan Poehling. A guy who wants to prove himself, who’s willing to put in the work and bet on himself on a one-year deal.”
Poehling ultimately isn’t going to swing the Flyers in one direction or another, but he could be a strong depth piece with some upside. That’s all the Orange and Black should be looking for right now in the early stages of a rebuild.
Joseph DeMarini
