The Philadelphia Flyers were the one team that won as much as it lost on Day 1 of NHL Free Agency.
Entering free agency with three needs - a goalie, a center, and a seventh defenseman - the Flyers got to work and took care of business in record time, but at what cost?
Forward Christian Dvorak, expected to take over as the fourth-line center for at least one year, agreed to a one-year deal worth an egregious $5.4 million, making him the fifth-highest-paid forward on the Flyers' roster behind only Trevor Zegras, Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, and Owen Tippett.
Now, term was a big part of the deal for the Flyers so as to avoid locking themselves into undesirable future roadblocks for younger players, which drove Dvorak's price upwards, as well as bids from other teams.
But other centers with NHL experience, such as Curtis Lazar, Philipp Kurashev, and Lars Eller, all signed one-year deals with new teams worth no more than $1.25 million.
Lazar, like Dvorak, has played for Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet before. Injuries and adapting to a new coach limited Lazar to just five points in 48 games with New Jersey this season, but last year, he had 25 points in 71 games.
For his efforts, the 30-year-old, a prime bounce-back candidate, signed with Edmonton for one-year and $775k.
Piggybacking off that, new Flyers goalie Dan Vladar was by far the most expensive netminder to come off the market Tuesday, signing a two-year, $6.7 million ($3.35 million AAV) with Philadelphia that included an eight-team no-trade list in both years.
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Veteran Anton Forsberg, who signed with Los Angeles for two years at $2.25 million a year, was 11-12-3 last season with a 2.72 GAA, a .901 save percentage, and three shutouts. He was also the only goalie, other than Vladar, to pull in a cap hit north of $1.5 million.
Vladar was comparatively similar but slightly worse, going 12-11-6 with a 2.80 GAA, a .898 save percentage, and two shutouts.
Vladar is 27 and younger than the 32-year-old Forsberg, but does that make up the $1 million difference in cap hit? And, if Vladar isn't a long-term option as a starter or backup, does the age matter at all?
Indeed, much of this is insignificant with the Flyers being a fringe playoff team at best next season, but what is significant is that they have $4.6 million to find a solution to re-sign Cam York, be it a long-term deal or short.
The Flyers insist on not using LTIR to create emergency cap space for themselves, but with Tyson Foerster's status up in the air for opening night, they are pushing the envelope to the fullest, especially in the event further injuries occur during the season.
Speaking of defensemen, journeymen Noah Juulsen and Dennis Gilbert give the Flyers, including York and excluding Rasmus Ristolainen, eight defensemen on the active roster.
One of those eight won't make the roster, and this doesn't account for someone like Helge Grans or Oliver Bonk, who will both be pushing for spots to fill in for Ristolainen.
Looking ahead, the Flyers have one retention slot open to hold onto some salary, with Andrei Kuzmenko off their books and Kevin Hayes and Scott Laughton still on for one more year.
If they want to use that slot to its maximum potential, either in a three-team deal (i.e. Noah Hanifin trade) or retaining salary on one of their own players, they'll have to manage the salary cap extra carefully until Foerster and/or Ristolainen return.
And just imagine how complicated things would have been if they landed Maxim Shabanov.
These free agency signings all address the needs to the Flyers sought out to address, but the relatively poor value of these signings puts the Flyers at high risk of finding themselves in adverse positions for what they want to do later in the season.
