It doesn’t matter how much Flyers are paying Christian Dvorak…yet

Heading into an already weakened July 1, where the marquee name in Mitch Marner was already spoken for by the Vegas Golden Knights, and the Florida trio of Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand, and Aaron Ekblad were all re-signed for years to come, there wasn’t all that much that the Philadelphia Flyers’ brain trust of Keith Jones and Daniel Briere could reasonably do.

Many of the players that were signed during 2025’s Free Agent Frenzy were better suited for teams that are ready to contend for a Stanley Cup immediately. Wingers Andrew Mangiapane heading to Edmonton or Gustav Nyquist going to Winnipeg are the types of around-the-edges moves that teams in the top half of the standings were in position to make when free agency opened. There weren’t really any names available that would have switched the fortunes of any fledgling franchises, and that left general managers around the league scrambling to use their cap space by any means necessary.

The Los Angeles Kings fall into that category, signing the dull quartet of Corey Perry, Brian Dumoulin, Cody Ceci, and Joel Armia to contracts that will pay them a combined $13 million per year, hoping that they can be adequate depth and not much more. It seemed less like they were making moves that they thought would really improve their ceiling, and more so that GM Rob Blake was just looking to use up some of the cap space freed up from the departures of Vladislav Gavrikov and Tanner Jeannot, among others.

And speaking of those two names, the teams that were able to scoop up their services aren’t really in much better positions, either. Gavrikov signed a hefty deal with the Rangers, but essentially just to replace K’Andre Miller who was sent to Carolina and prevent New York from taking a step back on the back end. Jeannot on the other hand, was handed a pretty puzzling five-year deal to play in the bottom six of a team that has taken significant steps back over the last year and change, the Boston Bruins.

You can quibble with the value of these moves and how they could ultimately pan out, but the fact remains that they don’t really make their respective teams that much scarier, especially when compared to some of the other bombshell moves that we’ve seen in other free agent classes.

With this reality established, and the big fish not available, there really wasn’t much that the Flyers could do except for:

Finding a potential 1B/backup for Samuel Ersson

Getting a potential third-line center on a prove-it deal

This is all that really made sense for the Flyers to pursue, especially if they didn’t want to hamstring themselves for future extensions and potential splash trades. And while you can take issue with the choice of players, they did just that in signing Dan Vladar and Christian Dvorak. In addition, there are Dennis Gilbert and Noah Juulsen, who I will not talk about until they prove that they are NHL-caliber defensemen, do something notable, or get inexplicably overplayed.

Not much to write home about here, in fact you could argue that only two of the signings will really even play regularly at the NHL level. But the most common complaint about this very unremarkable business surrounded the amount of money dished out to a player in Dvorak, who has never eclipsed 40 points, and really isn’t a top-six option. And that response isn’t totally unwarranted on the face of it; under normal circumstances giving a mediocre bottom-six center $5.4 million annually is a pretty hefty overpay. But with Dvorak, the Flyers weren’t willing to go beyond a year in length and are therefore treating this as a more traditional “prove it” deal that reunites a player with a coach in Rick Tocchet, who was with him for his most productive season in 2019-20.

And while it is an overused cliché this time of year, there simply is no such thing as a bad one year deal for the Flyers at this stage in the game. As of today, the Flyers currently possess just over $4.5 million in cap space with a full 23-man roster, a number that includes the full $6.25 million contract of Ryan Ellis that currently sits on injured reserve, the just over $5 million of retained money that they will be on the books for next season from the Kevin Hayes and Scott Laughton deals, and the $1.76 million that they still owe Cam Atkinson for buying him out prior to last season.

If you add that all up, it equals just a hair over $13 million in dead cap, and all but Ellis\'s contract will conveniently come off the books next season, freeing up several millions of the Flyers\' cap for what looks to be a much more intriguing free agent market next season .

All of this is to say that the Flyers are definitely setting themselves up to make a massive splash next year, and that no matter how much they overpay someone like Dvorak, the money is really immaterial. Getting the player and outbidding Vancouver, who was also apparently interested in his services, was paramount. Whether it was Dvorak’s relation to Tocchet, his ability to play a more 200-foot game, or his recent dominance in the faceoff circle, the Flyers clearly saw something they liked with him, and crucially, were able to get him on a one-year deal that won’t limit them when it comes time to make some bigger moves in the future.

You can quibble with the name the Flyers signed and his ultimate upside, (I personally preferred Pius Suter as an alternative option, especially given the contract he signed with the Blues ), but ultimately the money that was given out means very little when you survey the Flyers’ situation and see them still lacking true number one options in net, up the middle, and on the blueline. Those were not available in abundance this offseason, unless you believe that the Islanders were going to be happy to send Adam Pelech over to a division rival for a reasonable price, or wanted to take the ultimate gamble on someone like Thatcher Demko.

As frustrating as it may be to hear this again, this upcoming season was never going to be The One where all the chips went in. Once the Flyers traded up to get Jack Nesbitt at 12, and then continued to make the rest of their second round picks instead of dealing them for NHL-level assets, the writing was on the wall. Combine that with the reality of their cap situation getting leaps and bounds better a calendar year from now, and you find yourself in a situation where this season, at least from a management perspective, is going to be viewed as another year of experimentation and growth. The playoffs are still there for the taking, but the true splash won’t be made until later on down the line when the cap sheet clears up, and the options become more bountiful.

If Dvorak impresses and perhaps looks for an extension next season, he will need to take a haircut on AAV in order to add years onto the deal, but his willingness to take just a singular year is probably a not insignificant part of the reason why the Flyers probably felt comfortable going a little bit over the top salary wise. Maybe the other players available, like a Jeannot or a Suter, weren’t interested in the sort of one-year pact that fits the Flyers’ timeline. If that is the case, then you can see how the options would have dwindled, and why Keith Jones and Daniel Briere were willing to comfortably outbid any other potential suitors. In addition, if this year’s Scott Laughton trade showed us anything, it is that a bottom-six center with half-salary retained can actually secure you a pretty solid return, so at the very least, Dvorak’s $5.4 million can be turned into a much more palatable $2.7 million, and flipped to a desperate contender as a short-term rental.

While the money looks garish at first glance, Dvorak’s deal doesn’t prohibit the Flyers from making more moves in the future, and honestly, the only person that should really feel strongly about the AAV, is the man himself.

Talking Points