The Philadelphia Flyers announced they’re extending qualifying offers to four players. Meanwhile there are six other players in the organization they haven’t. As a result, those six players will become unrestricted free agents.
Although the team made the announcement prior to the 5 p.m. Eastern deadline, reports indicated the following players weren’t receiving qualifying offers: Karsen Dorwart, Christian Kyrou, Tucker Robertson, Brett Harrison, Artem Guryev, and Phil Tomasino. As a result, it appears that Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, Nikita Grebenkin, and Hunter McDonald have received such offers from the Flyers. The deadline to give qualifying offers to restricted free agents was at 5 p.m. Eastern. The qualifying offer is often a mere formality for most teams, but the player can’t accept the qualifying offer until after July 1.
Without getting too far into the minutiae of the offers, if you’ve played 60 games last season in the National Hockey League, played 180 games in the previous three seasons, and didn’t clear waivers between the start and finish of last year, then the qualifying offer is one-way. If the salary is under $1 million per season, then the offer has to be 105 per cent of the previous season’s salary up to $1 million. Anything over that amount and the offer is 100 per cent assuming the contract was signed before July 2020. If the contract was signed after July 2020 then the qualifying offer is either 120 per cent of the cap hit or 100 per cent of the most recent salary according to Puckpedia, whichever figure is less.
Not much of an impact for the Flyers
The half dozen players not receiving qualifying offers didn’t make much of a dent with the Flyers. Forward Karsen Dorwart, who Philadelphia signed on March 30, 2025, played only five games in 2024-25 for the club and didn’t register a point. He spent all of 2025-26 with Lehigh Valley, scoring 10 goals and ending up with 24 points in 70 games. Meanwhile, Christian Kyrou never played a game for Philadelphia after being acquired in a trade with Dallas which sent Sami Tuomaala to the Stars last October. Kyrou had 10 goals and 24 assists for 34 points in 55 games for the Phantoms on the blueline.
Meanwhile, Tucker Robertson was acquired by Philadelphia from Seattle in exchange for J.R. Avon last September but didn’t really distance himself from other players in Lehigh Valley. With 13 goals and 28 points over 63 games, the forward was low on the depth chart and, unless the Flyers ran into a ridiculous rash of injuries, he probably was a long shot to crack the Flyers lineup at any point this coming season. As for forward Brett Harrison, he was acquired at this year’s trade deadline from Boston alongside Jackson Edward in exchange for Philadelphia sending Alexis Gendron and Massimo Rizzo. In a dozen games for the Phantoms, Harrison had a pair of goals and assists for four points.
Finally, Artem Guryev will be part of trivia as he was one of the pieces the San Jose Sharks shipped off along with Carl Grundstrom to Philadelphia. The Flyers sent off a sixth-round draft pick in 2026 as well as Ryan Ellis and his contract. Guryev, a defenseman, had six games with the Phantoms but spent most of his time in the ECHL with Reading. Again, a bit piece that never really found his way or had a chance to move up in the pipeline. And Phil Tomasino was acquired on New Year’s Eve from Pittsburgh in exchange for Egor Zamula. Tomasino played 38 games with the Phantoms, scoring seven goals and 19 assists for 26 points.
Again, while not qualifying Kyrou might be a bit of a head-scratcher to some, the other five would have had to show something to stick with the organization. Otherwise they would be blocking some other youngsters coming up through the pipeline.
Stats courtesy of Hockeydb.com
