June 12, 2026
Matt Blewett/Imagn Images
Vladimir Tarasenko can still bring decent offensive production to a team heading into his 15th NHL season.
Two years ago, this was supposed to be the big summer.
The Flyers were set on their rebuild path. They were going to spend a while stripping down the roster, stocking up on prospects, and trying to develop a young team that could last for the long haul.
By the time they had, hopefully, made some decent progress, a lot of dead money– by way of contract buyouts and retained salaries – would be coming off the books.
They would, finally, have money to spend under the salary cap again, and based on the initial free-agent projections back then, it looked like they would've had the opportunity to make a major free-agent splash after a star, for an on-the-rise team that should've been ready to take the next step by then.
Of course, it didn't quite work out that way.
The Flyers arrived to this once long-awaited summer mostly as expected. They're young, they're getting better (having just broken into the playoffs), and they have cash (a projected $37.5 million, according to PuckPedia).
But the free-agent market didn't. Stars like Edmonton's Connor McDavid, Minnesota's Kirill Kaprizov, and Vegas' Mitch Marner (though he had his rights traded when he was set to hit the market the year before) were all taken care of before they so much as sniffed free agency.
And what's left now, with free agency's opening on July 1 quickly approaching, is rather underwhelming.
So here's the deal: The Flyers' roster is pretty much set as it is right now. It's flush with a lot of promising skaters in their early-mid 20s, and a solid mix of veterans to guide them along.
The highlights of this offseason for the team are going to be new contracts for Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, and Dan Vladar, who are already here, and maybe just a trade that shakes the picture up a bit, but only if general manager Danny Brière sees it as a clear, worthwhile upgrade.
It's tough to see any other, realistic dent to make, definitely not with this 2026 free-agent class.
That said, there are a few names of note to consider for the Flyers in free agency, each at varying levels of feasibility.
Here's a rundown...
Next season will be Tarasenko's 15th in the NHL. In December, he'll turn 35. And at this point, he's seen and done it all.
He was a goal-scoring star for the St. Louis Blues. Then, as he aged into his 30s, he adapted to skating further down the lineup, taking on various and more hyper-defined roles across a handful of teams that needed an extra layer of depth for one reason or another.
He can still give a team some decent production on the ice, as he was a 23-goal scorer for Minnesota this past season, and can probably help with what's been a continuously anemic power play, too.
But in the locker room, he might just be invaluable for a young and developing group, because he's been there.
Tarasenko won the Stanley Cup twice, and each time in a different way – as a core piece to the Blues in 2019, and then as a trade acquisition for the Florida Panthers' run in 2024, where in the celebration after, head coach Paul Maurice cited Tarasenko as a guy who had felt like he had already been with the team for 10 years.
That kind of presence can make a difference for a mostly very young group of forwards who are still trying to find their way in the NHL, to have someone who knows how much it actually takes to win it all, and not once but twice.
A veteran in the room like Tarasenko might be especially beneficial for Matvei Michkov, who has gotten better adapted to the U.S. after two years, but even so, he's still just 21 and still learning to navigate life in a new country.
Just having an older and well-accomplished fellow Russian around could give Michkov someone easier to bounce off of and clear a lot of day-to-day hurdles that most wouldn't otherwise have to worry about.
The Flyers are pretty crowded at each wing right now, sure, but Tarasenko a) wouldn't cost much since he's been moving around on short-term deals for the past several years, and b) at this stage in his career, can probably be sold on a reduced role that allows the youth to flourish, but still allosws him to see the ice in crucial spots like the playoffs.
Carlson appeared on the free-agent rumor mill and was covered last week, but just to reiterate: He does make sense.
He's 36, but showed this past season with the Capitals and then the Ducks that he's still a productive right-shot defenseman, who can also still quarterback a power play, which is especially a point of interest for the Flyers.
Carlson, in theory, would fit right in on a manageable 1-2 year deal, starting somewhere in the top-four, and then likely sliding back as defensive prospects Oliver Bonk, Hunter McDonald, and/or David Jiříček, hopefully, make it up and start to earn their keep.
Carlson only fits, though, if it means Ramus Ristolainen or Emil Andrae or both are on their way out. Otherwise, the Flyers' defensive depth going into next season would be Travis Sanheim, Ristolainen, Drysdale, Cam York, Nick Seeler, Carlson, Andrae, and then Bonk, McDonald, Jiříček, and Ty Murchison each on the bubble.
They're not all going to play, so space has to be opened up somehow.
John Carlson would make sense in a different orange uniform.
Gary A. Vasquez/Imagn Images
The unexpected headliner of the 2026 free-agent class, but the headliner nonetheless.
Raddysh turned in a huge contract year for the Tampa Bay Lightning, with the kind of production that, maybe at any other time, would've had the Flyers of old sprinting to the front of the line for him.
He scored a by far career-best 22 goals and 70 points, at a plus-21 clip, while skating an average of 22:42 a night.
And he also skated as a top-pairing right shot who excelled on the power play, with 10 of his goals and then 16 of his assists getting tallied while the Lightning were on a man advantage.
That reads like a fit for the Flyers' blue line – well, for any team, really – and it's almost certain to get Raddysh paid this offseason...But probably, and pretty rationally, not by the Flyers.
Again, their defensive depth is crowded and is largely skewing pretty young, which Brière probably wants to keep that way for the foreseeable future, outside of guys like Sanheim and Seeler.
Raddysh is 30, and while his season was definitely nothing to dismiss, it is a massive outlier compared to what he's done previously, which comes with the questioning of whether that was a one-off and if it was a byproduct of the Lightning playing pretty stellar hockey across the board.
The Flyers can't shut the door on the idea entirely, but they probably won't be the ones to give Raddysh his big deal, because while the player might fit immediately, in the greater long-term picture, he doesn't, and that's where the Flyers' focus still is.
Darren Raddysh was a highly productive defenseman for the Lightning in his contract year.
Just seeing or saying the name will make a Flyers fan turn their head, so he has to be listed here.
It'd be a nice story, too: The former captain of the previous generation coming back one last time to help the new one forward.
And while he's not the prime Giroux who captained the Flyers for years and sometimes dragged them kicking and screaming into the playoffs largely on his own, he can still win faceoffs, can slide out to the wing, can slip into a more focused checking role, and can still score a nifty goal once in a while.
For the past couple of years, he's been that for his hometown Ottawa Senators, plus a key veteran presence for another young team that had been trying to establish itself.
The Senators made the playoffs the last two seasons, and they may be in a spot now where they have to figure out a different path toward what's next for them.
Giroux, meanwhile, is slated for free agency again and is 38 years old. He can still play, and from what he's shown, can still bring value to a team. But he's much closer to the end now, and seems pretty happy in Ottawa ever since he first signed on with the Sens in 2022.
So while a victory lap with the Flyers would be nice, and while he'd probably be flexible enough of a player to fit into a serviceable role for them – like on a line with Sean Couturier again – it's probably unlikely to happen.
Chances are, he'll re-up with the Sens on a reasonable contract for one more year, then go from there.
Claude Giroux has been a valuable vet for the Sens over the past few years.
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