If you had placed odds on what was more likely to happen at the start of the offseason, Thursday’s events would have been the runaway favorite over Wednesday’s fanfare. One day after Matvei Michkov was introduced by the Flyers, the team’s top priority of the offseason was completed.
Travis Konecny signed an eight-year, $70 million extension with an AAV of $8.75 million. It firmly solidified Konecny’s place in the Flyers leadership group for good.
This wasn’t surprising from the Flyers perspective. This was always the goal, to negotiate a deal that certainly seems fair for both sides. Konecny was looking for the eight-year term and a hefty pay day. The Flyers wanted to have some added cap flexibility in the deal. So instead of the reported $10 million that Konecny was seeking, the cap hit came in at a friendlier number for the Flyers.
That said, much of the discourse of the offseason wasn’t about Konecny’s value. It was about the timeline. And as the offseason events – or lack thereof – unfolded, it became more of a question how a maximum extension fit the Flyers timeline without adding more high-end talent in the immediate future.
There was a case for both extending Konecny and moving on from him this offseason. It all depended on the timeline. If you are planning to finish the rebuild in the next two to three seasons, before Konecny hits 31, then you are likely looking to add a player that brings his production and makeup anyway, so keeping him makes sense. If this was a slow build, a maximum extension almost definitely doesn’t fit the timeline.
That made Konecny’s new extension, and the meaning behind it, a definitive answer on where the Flyers think the timeline is in the rebuild. Between Michkov coming over, and now the need to maximize the early years of Konecny’s extension, it shows how important the next couple of offseasons will be to go from a rebuild to a contender.
It also adds to the degree of difficulty for a successful rebuild for Danny Briere and the “new era” front office.
There is some logic to support that. Michkov has arrived two seasons earlier than expected. There is a clear core in place between Konecny, Owen Tippett, Tyson Foerster, Cam York, Travis Sanheim, Jamie Drysdale, and Michkov as the headlining piece. Each of these players has already been extended, or is likely to receive an extension in the near future. And with more money coming off the cap in the next couple of offseasons, the Flyers could be in position to address other needs through free agency.
But that’s where the counter-argument presents itself. The Flyers weren’t able to make many moves this offseason due to an abundance of dead cap. They took many of the assets they had, pushed them into 2025, and are willing to wait out this season and come back to the table all in on next offseason.
Their latest move with Konecny took approximately 40 percent of the anticipated cap space they were going to have and put it back on the books, leaving approximately $14 to $15 million in estimated cap space to sign players on expiring contracts – which next offseason includes York, Foerster, Morgan Frost, and Noah Cates – and still have significant needs to address.
Konecny remains as part of a crowded winger core. There is no clear-cut top center. There may not be a clear-cut top defenseman unless one of York, Sanheim, or Drysdale emerges and develops as such. There are questions in net after watching the team’s downfall in a playoff race last season.
What little money the Flyers have after handling things in house next offseason won’t solve that overnight. Which means more work will need to be done to keep up with the pace that they appear to anticipate this rebuild crossing the finish line.
It was already imperative that the Flyers make the most of their six draft picks in the first two rounds of the 2025 NHL Draft. Now, they can add in having important decisions to make in the trade market, and potentially adding a game-changing player in free agency over the next two seasons. That’s the latest gamble for Briere and company.
