The Philadelphia Flyers are shedding some of their weight, sending a young winger to unrestricted free agency.
According to multiple reports, the Flyers will not be sending 24-year-old winger Jakob Pelletier a qualifying offer. He was set to be a restricted free agent this summer and was seeking a new contract to stay with the Flyers, but by not receiving a qualifying offer, he will now become an unrestricted free agent, free to sign with any team.
Told from team source that Flyers are "likely not" qualifying Jakob Pelletier.
— Kevin Kurz (@KKurzNHL) June 30, 2025
Bit of a surprise. Briere said previously they planned on qualifying all their RFAs. Pelletier gave them decent minutes late in the season, too.
Pelletier was acquired by the Flyers in the middle of last season as part of the trade with the Calgary Flames that saw Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee head out west. At the time of the trade, the Flyers’ front office was on record saying that the young winger was someone that they have had their eyes on for a bit, and were excited to see if they could bring out some untapped potential.
Unfortunately, Pelletier had John Tortorella as his coach the majority of his time in Philadelphia. The now-former Flyers coach was not a fan of the 5-foot-9 winger and kept his minutes extremely limited, leading to a massive decrease in production. That was until some people publicly questioned him for being so hesitant to playing Pelletier, a skilled player in his own right, higher up in the lineup, and Tortorella put him on the third line. After that promotion, Pelletier had a solid hot streak. From right before Tortorella was eventually fired, to just before the season ended (when the Flyers truly started to stink), Pelletier had about six points in seven games on a bad team that lost a lot of hockey games.
During his time with the Flyers, Pelletier scored three goals and eight points in 25 games.
He looked fine, but we’re afraid that this move to cut Pelletier loose is a numbers game. The Flyers have their top tier of wingers in Michkov, Konecny, Foerster, and Tippett; and then the next tier down with Bobby Brink and fourth-line player Garnet Hathaway. That’s six of the eight available spots already taken up. Then we have to make room for the rumored Maxim Shabanov signing that the Flyers are going to potentially unveil this week — and signing a 5-foot-8 Russian winger and already having a 5-foot-9 winger on the roster doesn’t really spell out Rick Tocchet Hockey. And then, that final spot will be left up for the taking for several prospects coming to training camp like Alex Bump, Nikita Grebenkin, and then even the outside chance of Porter Martone cracking the roster just months after being drafted.
Pelletier was a solid player for the Flyers and should have received more minutes than he did, but unfortunately he plays the one position of strength that this team has. Hopefully, some team will sign him and play him in a deserved middle-six role — or, at least, try him out there.
While the sheer number of wingers is a reason to not add more bloat to the position by keeping Pelletier around, it isn’t out of the question that Pelletier stays in the organization. One reason why some players are not sent qualifying offers is to have a more flexible contract. If Pelletier was re-signed as a restricted free agent, he would be eligible for arbitration this summer. The Flyers and player could possibly want to avoid this and still come to terms as an unrestricted free agent. We’ll see how it plays out this week.
Free agency will open up Tuesday and while the Flyers most likely aren’t going to be big players for the top available players, they are expected to address goaltending and maybe even add a depth center.
