According to Sam Carchidi of Philly.com, the Philadelphia Flyers have extended qualifying offers to the following restricted free agents: Alex Lyon, Robert Hagg, Taylor Leier, Anthony Stolarz, Reece Willcox, Danick Martel, and Tyrell Goulbourne. Carchidi also says the team did not extend a qualifying offer to goaltender Petr Mrazek, which was expected.
Expected news, but each one of these offers (and non-offers) makes sense. Not extending an offer to Mrazek, who played poorly since his arrival to Philly and would only crowd the crease next season, allows General Manager Ron Hextall to keep his 2019 third round pick, which was a conditional pick in the deal with the Detroit Red Wings. With Brian Elliott and Michal Neuvirth slated to return to the Orange and Black for the 2018-19 campaign, Lyon (7-4-2, .905 save percentage, 2.75 goals against average) could take part in a handful of NHL games again if one of those two is injured. He didn’t have a stellar or consistent season, but the 25-year-old did show flashes of promise and could grow with more experience in the NHL.
Stolarz has dealt with some seriously bad injury luck over the last 15 months, but Hextall isn’t giving up on him. The 6’6” netminder played great in the seven games he saw in 2016-17 (including a 28-save shutout in a 1-0 overtime win in Detroit), but didn’t see NHL action this year due to injuries. He only played in one AHL game and three ECHL games this season.
