At the beginning of this past season it was thought that the Flyers would struggle. As they are a rebuilding team look for a new direction under the leadership of newly appointed General Manager Danny Briere and President Keith Jones. But after a strong middle of the season the Flyers found themselves in a playoff spot for the majority of the season. Until it all fell apart in the last month of the season. The major question for this offseason is where does the team go from here.
The Flyers do not have that many players who are going to become free agents on July 1st. As the Flyers signed many of their pending free agents during the last month of the season including Ivan Fedotov, Nick Seeler, Ryan Poehling, and Owen Tippett. While Denis Gurianov and Erik Johnson who were picked up at the trade deadline as rentals are in the last year of their contract and are not expected to return next season. Marc Stall is also expected to not resign for next season. While the biggest names left are Bobby Brink, Yegor Zamula, and Adam Ginnings who are all restricted free agents and are expected to re-sign. While other minor league players like Adam Brooks, Tanner Laczynski, Will Zmolek, Mason Millman and Victor Mete who all spent the majority of last season with the Phantoms are free agents once July rolls around. One main question would be if goaltender Felix Sandstrom will re-sign as he is an unrestricted free agent in a messy goaltender room with Sam Ersson, Cal Petersen, Ivan Fedotov, Aleksei Kolosov, and Carsin Bjarnason (the last two recently signed their entry level deal). Defenseman Hunter McDonald and forward Massimo Rizzo have also singed entry level contract and will be joining the organization this upcoming season.
Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen has undergone surgery to repair a ruptured triceps tendon which kept him out of the lineup for the last few games of the season. He will be fully recovered in three months just in time for the start of the next season. The Lehigh Valley Phantoms won their first round matchup against the Wilks-Barre Scranton Penguins two games to none. They will not face-off against the defending Calder Cup Champion Hershey Bears in a five game series.
YONG KIM / The Philadelphia Inquirer
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