The Philadelphia Flyers solidified their goaltending for the upcoming season with a little Sunday morning trade. They sent netminder Ivan Fedotov off to the Columbus Blue Jackets and in return got actually something: A 2026 sixth-round pick. And maybe the best part of this whole transaction? The Flyers didn’t retain any salary.
That’s right. Fedotov’s entire $3.25-million cap hit is going over to Ohio and there will be not even a mention of the 28-year-old goalie in Philadelphia’s books for the 2025-26 season. It will be a beautiful sight. But, how does this move affect the Flyers’ salary cap this season and going forward?
As it stands right now, according to PuckPedia, the Flyers have a total of $2.695 million in cap space after sending Fedotov to Columbus. That is how they have the roster set up currently. A total of 23 players on the roster, but that also includes forward Rodrigo Abols, and defensemen Noah Juulsen and Dennis Gilbert.
While it isn’t totally out of question that the Flyers would go into the season carrying 13 forwards and eight defensemen, this exact combination would be surprising. PuckPedia quickly promoted winger Alex Bump up from the AHL roster after Fedotov was traded — we’ll take that as just filling a hole and not any confirmation that he’s made the team even before training camp starts.
So, what are the initial benefits financially to this deal?
Staying out of the LTIR business, Michkov’s bonuses
The Flyers have made it extremely obvious that they do not want to even think about using Long-Term Injured Reserve on defenseman Ryan Ellis to go above the salary cap this season. Especially in a season where they aren’t slated to be competitive, forcing them in that situation wouldn’t make sense.
In the most simplest language possible, why the Flyers don’t want to do this is because of Matvei Michkov’s (and other rookies) potential bonuses on his entry-level contract and if they are using LTIR, then those bonuses would carry over to the next season and would limit them cap-wise. If Michkov hits all criteria for his performance bonuses, that’s an extra $3.3 million on the Flyers’ salary cap (wow, such a coincidence that it’s almost identical to Fedotov’s own cap hit). If the Flyers were using LTIR all season long, which they might have had to even if Fedotov was demoted in the AHL, that would then massively hinder the Flyers’ ability to be a big player next summer to improve this team.
So, that would essentially just cause a gigantic mess and the Flyers want to avoid that from happening. Even if they could technically exceed the salary cap (in the regular season) by $6.25 million using Ellis’s contract, not doing it is the best course of action.
And that’s just Michkov’s bonuses. Alex Bump has no performance bonuses on his deal this season, but Jett Luchanko could hit his bonuses for another $400,000 lumped into next year’s cap. If the Flyers make it easy and think ahead, all of those bonuses can then retroactively count against the current season and not affect the following year at all.
Any future moves are now a whole lot easier
While not having to use LTIR and how it might affect the future salary cap, is the largest reason, the general idea of having more cap space is never a bad thing. Even if the Flyers have a full roster — no matter who is with the Flyers because the veterans in Juulsen, Gilbert, and Abols have practically the same cap hit as the rookies like Bump, Luchanko, and Grebenkin — they will have a good portion of room on their books.
And as it stands, with a full 23-man roster, the Flyers are slotted to have over $12 million in deadline cap space. And that is even before they potentially move someone like Rasmus Ristolainen and his $5.1-million AAV (or someone else with a substantial contract) in the middle of the season and increase that number by a whole lot.
The Flyers are not going to be significant buyers at the trade deadline even if they are slated to make the playoffs, but that extra room could mean a couple of moves could be made. Whether that is taking on a big contract to make something else work (like they did with Ryan Johansen and getting a first-round pick for Sean Walker a couple of years ago) or maybe taking on an unfavorable deal for a player that is still pretty good, like the Minnesota Wild did with trading for Vladimir Tarasenko for future considerations this summer.
Everything just becomes so much easier when there’s more cap space available and by moving on from Ivan Fedotov, the Flyers have opened up some more possibilities in the next several months.
