It ended up being a lackluster offseason for the Philadelphia Flyers, all things considered.
The Leo Carlsson offer sheet ended up being a swing and a miss by Danny Briere and the Flyers, and while perhaps fans can take some joy in forcing the Anaheim Ducks into a bind, that ultimately does nothing for the hockey team playing in Philadelphia.
After getting Matvei Michkov to North America earlier than expected in 2024, and landing Trevor Zegras in a trade last offseason — along with savvy signings of Christian Dvorak and Dan Vladar –, the Flyers’ biggest acquisition this summer has been, uh, Noel Acciari? Joseph Woll?
It’s really not that exciting for fans, who may have been hoping for the Flyers to make some key additions after making the playoffs for the first time in six years.
But raising the ceiling is going to have to wait. That’s not something that you can do every offseason, anyway, as it takes two to tango for a trade. And you can all but forget about making a huge splash in free agency as star players rarely hit the open market nowadays.
Briere has preached patience all along, and while he was unable to raise the team’s ceiling all that much this offseason, the Flyers’ floor was raised significantly.
Before you scoff and whine that raising the floor only diminishes the possibility of landing a higher draft pick, it’s a key aspect at this point in a rebuild.
The Flyers’ floor has been higher than most rebuilding teams recently anyway, since the front office wanted to keep a solid core intact with Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim (thank you, Torey Krug) leading the way alongside the veteran leadership of captain Sean Couturier.
Still, the floor has been a bit shakier in the past few years, and they were able to land a few top-10 picks. They selected Matvei Michkov seventh overall in 2023 and Porter Martone sixth overall in 2025. Both wingers have the potential to be franchise cornerstones for the next great Flyers team.
With both Michkov and Martone now in the NHL, and the team becoming relevant again, Briere made a few moves this offseson to make sure that the Flyers would remain above the water line for years to come.
Joseph Woll trade significantly upgrades Flyers’ goalie situation
The Flyers saw just how flimsy their floor was last season when Vladar missed some time due to injury. Originally expected to compete with Sam Ersson for the starting role in a tandem, Vladar ran away with the job and never looked back.
Ersson struggled mightily throughout the season, but none more so than in the dead of winter. From December 18 to January 29, the netminder went 3-7-2 with an .844 save percentage (47 goals on 301 shots) and a 3.60 goals-against average. He was particularly bad when thrust back into a starting role in the middle of January, making us wonder if his time in Philadelphia would end before the Olympic break.
Credit to Ersson for bouncing back after the break, but that abysmal stretch of play likely did ultimately end his time in Philadelphia, albiet in the offseason rather than risking Aleksei Kolosov as a full-time NHLer or making a move for another netminder.
The Flyers shipped Ersson, Emil Andrae, and a third-round pick to Toronto for Joseph Wol and Simon Benoit on June 16. The Swedish netminder ended his Flyers career with an .884 SV% in 143 games, including a career-low .870 SV% in his final season.
Woll comes to Philadelphia after spending the first five years of his NHL career with the Maple Leafs. He posted a .909 SV% and 2.73 GAA in 42 games (41 starts) in the 2024-25 season before declining — along with his team — to an .898 SV% and 3.34 GAA in 39 games (38 starts) last year.
Woll and Ersson both have some injury history, but it’s clear that the former Leafs goalie brings a solid game to Philadelphia. This last year was the worst of Woll’s career, and his numbers were still better than the best Ersson has put up in a season.
Basically, Woll’s floor is Ersson’s ceiling.
Noel Acciari replaces Garnet Hathaway to raise fourth-line floor
The fourth line of a hockey team ultimately isn’t that important, but the good teams have a trio of players that they’re able to trust to play 10 or so minutes a night and not have to worry about them getting caved in. The Flyers saw that later in the season with Sean Couturier and Luke Glendening forming a dynamic duo on the fourth line with a rotating cast of wingers.
No longer do the Flyers have to throw out Nic Deslauriers or Garnet Hathaway on the fourth line on a nightly basis. Those guys certainly served their time in Philadelphia and had their moments, but it was clearly time to move on.
Shipping Hathaway to Florida for a few late-round picks should be addition by subtraction for the Flyers. We all probably have the image of the veteran getting stripped from behind in an empty-net situation in our minds, which says a lot about Hathaway’s final season in Philadelphia.
Of course, you don’t expect a ton of points from your fourth line, but Hathaway’s stat line of three points (one goal) in 66 games is downright putrid. It was one of the worst scoring seasons by a forward in quite some time.
Hathaway’s 0.30 points per 60 at 5-on-5 were by far the lowest among Flyers forwards, with Rodrigo Abols even managing 1.18 P/60. Among forwards with at least 600 minutes at 5-on-5, Hathaway’s 0.30 is the worst in any season since Luke Glendening’s 0.27 P/60 with the Stars in the 2022-23 season. In fact, no forward had fewer than 0.40 P/60 at 5-on-5 in a season since then.
And the Flyers aren’t just replacing Hathaway with an AHLer or a forward who wouldn’t make most rosters in the NHL. Noel Acciari has proven himself in his 11-year career in Boston, Florida, St. Louis, Toronto, and the last three seasons in Pittsburgh.
Acciari had his own offensive struggles throughout that time, but his 5-on-5 P/60 never sank below 0.68 in a full season, and he even had 1.91 P/60 last year with the Penguins. It was an outlier for Acciari, though, with 25 points (13 goals) in 67 games after putting up just 12 points in 79 games the year prior.
Still, Acciari has averaged over 13:30 per game in each of the last two seasons, and he can also do something that the Flyers desperately need: win faceoffs.
Alright, I think I’ve spilled enough ink over a trade for a backup goalie and a fourth-line signing, but you get the idea. I could’ve wrote another few paragraphs on the NHL veterans they signed who should play most of the season in the AHL, but, like Carl Grundstrom, could hold their own if needed as an injury replacement.
And you can add in the fact that the Flyers should have internal improvements in pretty much every season now. Matvei Michkov is looking to bounce back, Porter Martone is here for a full season, and there are a handful of other young players who should only be getting better.
Although the Flyers were unable to land the big fish this offseason despite their best efforts, they still took care of business around the edges to solidify their floor. It’s not exciting. It’s not going to win any awards or raise any banners. But it’s a step towards that, for sure.
