It’s been a busy opening to free agency for the Flyers, and while they knocked out their big bits of business earlier in the day — locking down key players in Dan Vladar and Tyson Foerster to long-term extensions — they closed out the day with an announcement of a handful of moves to bring a bit of added depth and stability to their AHL squad.
The Flyers confirmed the two moves already announced by the players’ agent, signing winger Danil Klimovich to a one-year, two-way contract, and forward Zach Aston-Reese to a two-year contract. On top of that, they’ve also added center-wing pivot Jack Studnicka to a two-year, two-way contract, and defenseman Cam Dineen to a two-year, two-way contract as well. Got all that?
Klimovich comes in as a nice shot taken on a younger player (at just 23) who wasn’t qualified by the Canucks when his last contract expired, and makes for a nice addition to the growing group of very young forwards that the team already has assembled down in Lehigh Valley.
For the most part, though, these additions work to fill the gaps left by some of the team’s departing veteran players (like Lane Pederson signing in LA and Anthony Richard heading overseas). It’s a group that’s slightly older — Studnicka is 27, Dineen 28, and Aston-Reese 31 — but they still bring some good jump, and a wealth of experience both with the AHL game, but also with the NHL game, as Studnicka has split five of the last six seasons between the two leagues, and Aston-Reese had a lengthy run as an NHL lineup mainstay, before transitioning into more of an organizational depth role over the last couple of years.
Combining that with the return of Zayde Wisdom announced last month, and Grundstrom’s extension, and the Flyers have pulled together a pretty robust group of AHL veterans to support the cast of younger players still looking to find their footing in that league, before hopefully graduating up.
And this is, while not the flashiest collection of moves, was pretty desperately needed.
The Phantoms had a pretty challenging second half of the season last year, one which saw many of their younger players struggling under the style and grind of a long AHL season, and a spot in the playoffs slip away from them as a result. Through that rough stretch, their most consistent contributors were their veterans, the members of the lineup more familiar with the grind and, as cliche as it sounds, what it takes to play winning hockey down the stretch. The young skilled players can certainly bring a nice bit of flash, but they’re also going to struggle at points in this league, and the Phantoms learned quickly last season how things can go off the rails when those struggles begin to pile up and they don’t have enough experienced players in the lineup to keep the whole operation afloat.
The objective of this team is, largely, development, and while the Phantoms certainly accomplished quite a bit of that even with some of the rough patches they faced this season, but there’s still another gear left to be found. There’s quite a bit of value to be found in these prospects getting experience in the Calder Cup playoffs, and the coaching staff has proven that they can build a system that works when everyone is executing on it, so the onus then shifts to the front office to construct a more balanced team to help them round out a push back into the playoff mix.
We’ll see before too long how these pieces all fit together in practice, but on paper at least, this roster is indeed looking a good bit more balanced.
