Flyers general manager Danny Briere has done a lot of business this summer. Aside from the attempt to get Anaheim’s Leo Carlsson, pretty much everything else he’s done has come off looking like a win. Tyson Foerster, Dan Vladar, Trevor Zegras, and Jamie Drysdale will be with the club for the next little bit after contract extensions to the quartet. As well, he most likely upgraded the backup goaltending position with Sam Ersson leaving, and former Leafs keeper Joseph Woll arriving. Simon Benoit, part of the package with Woll, provides some depth on the back end. As if that wasn’t enough, Briere signed Noel Acciari to a two-year deal, fleshing out the fourth line and giving Sean Couturier a bit of help. It’s been a good summer thus far.
Briere said if nothing else was done, or the big swing for a high-end center never materialized, he’d be quite content entering the season with this roster. Like another other general manager, though, he is turning over every rock to see if there’s a way for the club to get better. One of those ways which is relatively risk-free is signing a player to a professional tryout (PTO). The Flyers did it a few seasons ago when they signed Finnish goaltender Eetu Makiniemi to one. Makiniemi signed a one-year deal with the Flyers but only saw five games with the Phantoms before a season-ending injury nixed any future with Philadelphia. It never panned out, but there was truly no harm in trying.
Which brings us to this current crop of unrestricted free agents still looking for a club to call home. There are reportedly 57 skaters according to Puckpedia.com that fit that description. Some of them have retired like Anze Kopitar and Jonathan Toews, so those are non-starters. Meanwhile there are others who don’t quite fit the age demographic (generally late 20s to early 30s) Briere is looking for like Ryan Reaves, defenseman Jeff Petry, and James Van Riemsdyk. All are in their late thirties and seem well past their prime. Finally, there are a handful of former Flyers who Briere let go in Kevin Hayes, Rodrigo Abols, Luke Glendening, and Yegor Zamula that won’t be coming back anytime soon.
So, with all of that, there are a few players who might be worth signing to a PTO to have a look at, kick the tires on, and see if they might find a place with the roster. We’ll take a look at five of them to see if anything sticks.
Philipp Kurashev, C
There were indications that Kurashev might be heading back to his native Switzerland to play professional hockey, but nothing has been confirmed. The forward, who signed a one-year deal last season with San Jose, didn’t receive a qualifying offer from the Sharks and was let go. A fourth-round pick of Chicago back in 2018, Kurashev hasn’t really found his footing in the National Hockey League despite having a 54-point season back in 2023-24. He has good size, but injuries limited him to just 43 games and 20 points last year with San Jose. This after just playing 51 games in 2024-25 with Chicago and generating a paltry 14 points (seven goals, seven assists).
If the Flyers want to look at every avenue to see if the center ice position can be marginally improved, it couldn’t hurt to try and see if Kurashev is a fit somewhere. Granted, he would have to come in healthy and committed to play, otherwise it would most likely be a waste of time. One thing about Briere is that he’s not afraid of seeing if a player on their second or third chance can make good in the NHL. He’s done it with David Jiricek among a few others like Andrei Kuzmenko and Denis Gurianov, and is eager to give players a test run to see what happens. If Kurashev was able to resurrect his game, he might be someone Philadelphia could give a PTO to.
Eeli Tolvanen, LW/RW
It’s not like the Flyers have cupboards that are bare of wingers. Perhaps unloading one or two of them to land a quality center might be on the horizon. For the time being, they have many. But what’s one more if the forward can contribute? Eeli Tolvanen is a small Finnish forward who had 12 goals and 36 points in 78 games with Seattle last year. In the prior season, Tolvanen scored 23 goals but only had 35 points in 81 games. The Kraken claimed Tolvanen off waivers from the Predators back in 2022 and he did a decent job in his limited minutes.
Would a small forward go against much the big, somewhat burly mindset Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet often leans towards? Perhaps. Maybe Tolvanen, who turns 28 next April, can find some synergy on a line with Matvei Michkov and end up surprising many folks. Like any of these PTO-worthy UFAs, they would have to exceed expectations to get a contract. But given his age, and he has scored 20 goals in a season, perhaps Tolvanen gets a chance to show what he still can do with Philadelphia.
Patrik Laine, LW
Patrik Laine was the epitome of a power forward when he scored 80 goals in his first two seasons with the Jets. Three seasons of 30 or more goals in his first three years was nothing to sneeze at. It appeared that he might be looking at a lengthy career where 500 goals might be etched in stone. As we know, things change, and Laine has scored 48 goals the last four seasons combined. What’s even more concerning than the goal totals falling off a cliff is that Laine played 130 games over those same four seasons. And just five for the Canadiens last season due to surgery to resolve a core-muscle issue. Laine was in the last year of a four-year deal that saw him earn $8.7 million in average annual value.
There are 32 teams that could’ve taken a chance on Laine by now. None of them have. Whether they are incredibly worried about injury to sign him to a one-year deal or not is unclear. It does seem logical that a guy as banged up as Laine’s been of late isn’t on the top of many lists. The stats don’t lie: Laine was a high-end sniper early in his career but that has tailed off quite a bit.
Bringing in Laine to a PTO could be worthwhile. Briere and Tocchet might be more focused on working with the players they have, especially during a rather shorter exhibition season and the regular season starting in late September. Seeing if Laine is healthy, and can show signs of life now that he is 100 per cent, might be worth looking into. Especially considering the Flyers have never had a horde of snipers of late jamming up the roster.
Logan Stanley, D
At 6’7″ and 231 pounds, 28-year-old defenseman Logan Stanley had a breakout year in Winnipeg. After having a five-season consecutive goal-scoring streak (he scored a goal in each season), Stanley somehow scored nine goals last year in 59 games for the Jets. He was traded to Buffalo late in the year, and had five assists in that stretch. So he put a full season in, scored a ridiculous amount of goals compared to previous years, and remained a very imposing defenseman who was difficult to play against.
So what gives? Why wouldn’t he be signed on July 1 by some club, or at least by somebody else as July turns into August. It seems that Stanley might be holding out for a bigger payday, far bigger than a professional try out would suggest. Some reports speculate he and his camp are seeking a four-year deal in the range of $25 million.
Considering Philadelphia just drafted a giant in Maksim Sokolovskii in the first round, the organization has historically not been averse to size and physicality. Maybe Stanley doesn’t get any calls and a bevy of teams are taking a wait-and-see approach. Regardless, the fact Stanley is still available seems odd. As well, the Flyers might not be done quite yet making moves, possibly sending Rasmus Ristolainen out, and leaving a spot somewhere in the top six for Stanley to fit. It might be a long shot, but having Logan Stanley as a Plan B — at least for a PTO — wouldn’t be a bad move to make.
Pavol Regenda, LW/RW
A member of Slovakia’s Olympic team this past winter, forward Pavol Regenda played 24 games for the Sharks last season, scoring nine goals in that time. However, he also spent a portion of 2025-26 with the club’s American Hockey League’s affiliate in San Jose. Regenda is relatively low on the UFA lists, and is rarely one of the top five guys who are of interest. He hasn’t scored much, he hasn’t played much, and might be heading back to Europe to continue his career sooner than later. But Regenda bypassed heading to the World Hockey Championships in order to focus on the next chapter in his NHL career.
On the other hand, Regenda has a lot of size at 6’4″ and 216 pounds. He also turns 27 this December, meaning he still might have some runway left in his NHL career. And he can play on either wing, which might have its advantages should the Flyers run into some injury trouble and some youngsters aren’t ready. At the worst, Regenda might be a borderline NHL player who will primarily play in the minors. If Briere sees something in him that might work well for Philadelphia, it could be a situation where there’s truly nothing to lose.
