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Why The Flyers Could Benefit Most From NHL Salary Cap Increase

Keith Jones established a clear priority when he began as the President of Hockey Operations for the Philadelphia Flyers. The new front office needed to clean up a salary cap mess left over from the previous regime. Jones’ entire playing career came before the salary cap era when Ed Snider outspent mistakes with an advantage not many teams had. Times have changed. “We can't quick fix things with money.” -Keith Jones on 97.5 The Fanatic However, the NHL’s inflating post-pandemic salary cap and a recent trade by Danny Briere could help lighten the sentence in salary cap jail and help Philadelphia’s rebuilding timeline along quicker than expected. Flyers in Salary Cap Jail Chuck Fletcher inherited salary cap flexibility when he began his tenure as Flyers general manager in December 2018. He overspent on Kevin Hayes as his first major acquisition, and one successful season in 2019-20 still left a roster in need of significant upgrades. Aggressive summers of 2021 and 2022 sent the Flyers into their current predicament with money owed to players like Cam Atkinson, Ryan Ellis, and Tony DeAngelo who won’t make contributions to the NHL roster this season. Briere has since acquired Cal Petersen and Ryan Johansen with no expectations for them to contribute at the NHL level as part of salary cap gymnastics during the rebuild. Flyers Salary Capvia PuckPediaAnnual Cap ChargeOff the booksfor the FlyersGames Played with Flyers in 2024-25Kevin Hayes$3.57 millionAfter 2025-26 season0Tony DeAngelo$1.67 millionAfter 2024-25 season0Cam Atkinson$2.36 million ($1.76 million in 2025-26)After 2025-26 season0Ryan Ellis (LTIR)$6.25 millionAfter 2026-27 season0Cal Petersen$3.85 millionAfter 2024-25 season0Ryan JohansenTBDTBD0 Unfavorable contracts for players like Ilya Bryzgalov, Vinny Lecavalier, R.J. Umberger, and Andrew MacDonald soured the likelihood for Stanley Cup contention during the prime seasons of Claude Giroux. Fletcher created a similar problem just a few years later with financial mismanagement that made Philadelphia's current long-term rebuild an inevitability. The new front office publicly pinpointed the summer of 2026 as an estimated timeline for better financial flexibility that allows a more aggressive approach in free agency. “We want to build it from the inside, and then we want to have some cap availability to recruit. That’s something the Flyers have always been able to do prior to the salary cap was bring in players. It’s a spot that's desirable to play in. We need room to do that. We need the cap space, and that’s going to be a few years down the road.” -Keith Jones on 97.5 The Fanatic (May 2023) Changing Tides NHL GMs worked with handcuffs on during the flat cap stretch immediately following the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the league appears to be entering a new era. The NHL will increase its salary cap by $7.5 million next season, an additional $8.5 million the following season, and an additional $9.5 million for 2027-28. NHL Salary Cap for the 2024-25 season: $88 million NHL Salary Cap for the 2025-26 season: $95.5 million NHL Salary Cap for the 2026-27 season: $104 million NHL Salary Cap for the 2027-28 season: $113.5 million The budget adjustments will create a disadvantage for franchises in smaller markets who won't spend toward the cap ceiling. Ownership with deep pockets in large markets, like Comcast in Philadelphia, will have more chances to open their checkbooks freely and price out other franchises. A rebuilding team like the Flyers could pounce on the opportunity to fill their void of top-end talent with an expensive acquisition sooner than most people expected when the rebuild began. Briere’s decision to send Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost to the Calgary Flames created additional cap flexibility. The Flyers will operate without Farabee’s $5 million annual cap hit through 2028 and the need to extend Frost, an impending restricted free agent (RFA) due for a raise this summer. Travis Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen entered the season with long-term contracts that seemed to overpay for their value on the ice. However, both defensemen have made their cap hits look much more reasonable with strong efforts in 2024-25. Sean Couturier will count for $7.75 million against the cap annually through 2030, but the aging captain’s steep contract suddenly might be the only long-term wart Briere has to deal with. The 2025 NHL Offseason The Flyers are unlikely to make a major addition before the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline on March 7. However, when NHL GMs make trades that subtract from their rosters mainly for the sake of salary cap flexibility, they must make ensuing moves. Briere himself acknowledged the “glaring need” at center within the organization even before losing Frost. “We're trying and we're looking at what's out there. The reality is there's not a lot of high-end centermen in this league. When teams have them, they want to keep them, or the price is crazy. We're not willing to give up on our future at this point. Yes, I realize that it's a glaring need that we'd like to upgrade, but it has to make sense.” -Danny Briere Tage Thompson and Elias Pettersson appear unlikely to leave their current teams despite hopeful Flyers fans dreaming of a blockbuster trade. Top free agent Mikko Rantanen is a better fit on the wing. Trevor Zegras and Cole Perfetti could be more reasonable trade targets if the Flyers want to pursue a talented young center who could benefit from a change of scenery. The most intriguing possibility of the newly-found cap flexibility is the potential for Briere to weaponize the offer sheet and steal away another team’s restricted free agent. Mason McTavish and Trevor Zegras of the Anaheim Ducks The Flyers could target pending RFA centers Mason MacTavish, Wyatt Johnston, or Marco Rossi with a contract their respective teams can’t match. Landing a player with an offer sheet requires a team to pay draft pick compensation proportional to the newly-signed contract, and the rebuilding Flyers have stocked their draft capital in recent years to allow for a big move.  The rumors will continue to swirl around Philadelphia’s search for a center to feed budding superstar Matvei Michkov as a centerpiece of the rebuild. Flyers fans might see those rumors come to fruition a little bit sooner than they initially thought.

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