The following morning, after signing Flyers forward Trevor Zegras to a four-year, $36.5 million contract, Philadelphia general manager Danny Briere says he’s hoping for the winger/center to take much more of a “leadership” role over the course of the next four years.
“It’s a nice feeling,” Briere said Thursday in a presser regarding both the contract extension to Zegras as well as the offer sheet to Anaheim center Leo Carlsson. “Obviously Trevor is a big part of our team, a big part of our future as well. Since we’ve acquired him it’s been extremely positive. The way he carries himself, he’s lively in our locker room and he’s a big part of the locker room but he’s also a big part of the community. People love him. So I’m glad it’s don. It’s much nicer (with) a long-term deal done, rather than going through arbitration.”
The contract will see Zegras, who registered 67 points last season including 26 goals, become an unrestricted free agent when he’s 29 at the end of the 2029-30 season. When asked if the team was eager to see the term stretched out a few more years, Briere said the negotiations hit a balance at four years between both team and player.
“When we negotiated with Trevor — and I’m not negotiating by myself — there’s someone on the other side, and they have priorities and things that they want. So it’s a give and take. We looked at everything from one to eight years going back and forth. Four seemed to be the sweet spot that we had and an understanding we were close. So there was some give and take on both sides. Yes I would’ve preferred staying away from that, but they gave us some things that were more in our favor on a four-year deal. There’s a lot of details that go into a negotiation, that’s where we ended up with four. There was more traction at that number in this case.”
As well, Briere alluded to the discussion Zegras — who Briere said carries a certain “swagger” to him — had before the season with head coach Rick Tocchet. Tocchet didn’t pull punches with Zegras, asking whether the player desired winning over being a social media darling. It’s something Briere said Zegras responded to as well as you could’ve asked for.
“I was really excited to see the way Trevor reacted to that because not everybody takes it the same way,” the general manager said. “He really took it the right way, he wanted to prove to Tocchet and to everybody in the organization that he’s more than that. He’s about winning, he cares about this team. Even in this negotiation he took charge, he was the one that said I want to be in Philly, I love it here, I want to stay there. So there’s a big reason why this contract was done, this extension was done, was because Trevor was really involved and Trevor was adamant that he wanted to be in Philly.
“I got to give him a lot of credit for how he carried himself last year and how he wants to prove to everybody that it’s not just about the clicks. He’s a leader and that’s what we expect too from signing this extension. He’s going to have to take a bigger part of the leadership process on this team. So I’m really excited about him and how he’s grown as an individual in the last year with us. But it goes way back, he’s gone through a lot in his career, some ups and downs that weren’t always easy. I think that makes you stronger in the long run. We’re fortunate that we’re the team benefiting from that.”
A few more details emerged this morning regarding the contract which carries a $9.125 average annual value. There is a 10-team no-trade list Zegras will give the Flyers in the third year of the deal. That list decreases to a six-team list in the fourth and final year of the deal. As well, the contract comes with a $6 million signing bonus in each of the first two years. Zegras’ base salary will be $4.5 million the first two years, $8 million in year three, and $7.5 million in the final year of the four-year contract.
Briere says he hopes Zegras continues to make strides in his game and builds off his rather impressive debut season with the Flyers.
“As far as his play, the reality is we worked hard the last few years to add playmakers, to add guys with high-end skill,” Briere said. “And that’s one thing he does bring. One of the reason why on our end we wanted to keep him. Those guys are tough to find and we waited a long time to add a player like him. So we’re ecstatic that he wanted to stay here and willing to sign a long-term deal to sign in Philly.”
Carlsson offer sheet and the after effects
Although the presser was to ask about the Zegras deal, naturally some questions centered on the Leo Carlsson offer sheet of five years and $90 million. While Briere said it’s up to Zegras to prove he might be capable of being a center — and possibly a top-line center — the offer sheet and the Zegras negotiations were independent of each other. “We wanted both on the team at the time that we made the offer sheet,” he said.
However, on the other hand, by negotiating with restricted free agents and getting deals that aren’t exorbitant cap hits, the Flyers have enabled themselves to have a rather healthy stash of cap space available if the opportunity arises to catch one of the league’s proverbial bigger fish. Briere didn’t come out and suggest that, but didn’t ignore the inference eiher.
“You’re trying to read in between the lines, you might not be far off,” he said in response. “Look, we’re trying to do some things. There’s things that we’re constantly looking at and trying to improve. We worked hard to get this cap space. You remember three years ago we were in really bad shape there. We worked hard. And we want to make sure that we can use it in a proper manner where it’s going to help the team moving forward. That’s part of the reason and yes we’re looking at trying to do different things. I’m not saying it’s going to work but there’s different things we’re looking at that might eat up at our salary cap.”
Zegras, Vladar signings keep Flyers with a bevy of cap space
Briere also dismissed suggestions that the Carlsson offer sheet affected the Flyers current negotiations with Zegras and what appears to be ongoing talks with Jamie Drysdale. The general manager said the $90 million offered to Carlsson affected a handful of players in their early twenties and late teens. Without naming names, Briere was citing the likes of Chicago’s Connor Bedard, Adam Fantilli of Columbus, and San Jose’s Macklin Celebrini as those in that salary “stratosphere.” However, with the rising cap, new contracts and extensions around the league are affecting the marketplace, from third-pairing blueliners to depth forwards to backup goaltenders.
“There are deals that affect the marketplace,” Briere said. “Those deals have changed. In Trevor’s case for example, when we were working on it three months ago and six months ago, the marketplace was totally different than it was last night when we were talking. So not necessarily the offer sheet, but every other deal was affecting our negotiations.”
The Flyers have three restricted free agents left to deal with: Drysdale, forward Nikita Grebenkin, and defenseman Hunter McDonald. Briere says he would be comfortable with the roster the way it is if things didn’t change between now and September. But, given the cap space, he wouldn’t be averse to improving the club if it made sense.
“Yeah if we have the chance,” he said. “And it’s nice to have that luxury. You use it in certain cases like we did on the offer sheet case. It gives you the option to do that if there’s something that makes sense that in the future can really help this team take the next step. And that was a big part of the reason we wanted to show our players and our fans that with what the players did last year, we wanted to support them and we’re still looking if we have the chance to improve the team.”
Flyers made inroads around the NHL
Finally, Briere said he tried to improve the club in other ways without mentioning names. Obviously, Philadelphia was in the running for Darnell Nurse who ended up in San Jose and John Carlsson who went to the Lightning. Nonetheless, the Carlsson offer sheet and recent contract extensions suggest to the Flyer players and the league that Philadelphia is trying to get its foot in the door when it comes to being a perennial contender.
“It’s starting to come,” Briere said. “The cool thing that we’re seeing is the guys that are here realize how they’re being treated and where the team is going. Because that’s a big part too, to attract players you have to have a winning team. Or at least a team that is trending to become a contender. So I think more and more from the outside we’re starting to see more players being involved. But we realize that it’s far from being a done deal and we still have a lot of work to do. In the offer sheet process there are many teams to choose from and he selected us which was a good sign I guess.”
