With a year to go on his contract, Tyson Foerster could have played the 2026-27 season and waited to see if a healthy go-round would improve his bargaining power.<\/p>\n
Unnecessary, the Flyers\u2019 24-year-old winger revealed in a media Zoom call on Monday.<\/p>\n
When general manager Daniel Briere came calling recently with an eight-year, $56.8-million contract extension offer, Foerster\u2019s only reaction was, \u201cWhere do I sign?\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2020 first-round draft pick (23rd overall) not only loves the team he\u2019s playing for, but his affection carries over to the whole Philadelphia area. This, now, is home.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, I love Philadelphia,\u201d the 6-foot-2, 215-pound Foerster said. \u201cAnd I love playing with these guys. They asked me if I looked to extend this year, and it was a no-brainer. I don\u2019t play hockey for the money. It\u2019s all fun. I\u2019m just happy to help for the next nine years.\u201d<\/p>\n
What made Philadelphia a long-term destination spot for Foerster?<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything about it,\u201d Foerster said. \u201cThey picked me when I was young, went up in the ranks, Lehigh (Valley) first \u2013 just everything about it (Philadelphia), the fans, the city. It\u2019s a great spot to play and I think we\u2019re on the come-up. It\u2019s super exciting. I\u2019m happy to be here for hopefully the next nine years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foerster broke in with the Flyers in the 2022-23 season. His second year produced 20 goals in 77 games. The following season, he scored 25 goals in 81 games.<\/p>\n
The Alliston, Ontario, native suffered an upper-body injury last season that cost him 49 games. Still, he managed 13 goals in 29 games and was a plus-8.<\/p>\n
Foerster was asked what sort of offseason work he will concentrate on to prepare for what hopefully will be a full, healthy season.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously keep working on my skating,\u201d he said. \u201cEverything overall. Hopefully work on my hands a little bit. I think my shot is pretty good from a decent ways out. I think if I can get in tighter around the net, get it upstairs quick enough \u2026 little things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Flyers could use that kind of help on the power play. The team has finished last in the crucial special teams area four of the last five NHL seasons. Foerster has produced a total of nine power-play goals over the past two years, and he hopes to be able to help turn that number around.<\/p>\n
Having seen the Flyers extend a five-year, $90-million offer sheet to Anaheim\u2019s Leo Carlsson, Foerster knows Briere is committed to making his team a serious contender. The Ducks have until Friday to match the Flyers\u2019 offer or Philadelphia can have Carlsson at that price for four first-round draft picks through 2031.<\/p>\n
\u201cDanny, that\u2019s one of the reasons I signed long-term here,\u201d Foerster said. \u201cYou know he\u2019s going to push to try to make us better. I\u2019m kind of in the same boat as you guys (media) were, excited but waiting to see what\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foerster connected for only one goal in 10 playoff games last season, his first postseason experience in the NHL. Clearly, he wasn\u2019t fully himself on the road back from the injury. He\u2019s hoping to change that number the next time around.<\/p>\n
\u201cI missed a long stretch there,\u201d he conceded. \u201cRight at the peak of the season, that\u2019s where the grind really kicks in. I think the guys did a great job grinding through that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came in at the end, I thought I started off pretty well. I was doing everything I could but I think it was more mental. You miss so much time and it\u2019s like, \u2018can I still do it? Can I still do it?\u2019 I could still do it but it wasn\u2019t the way I wanted it to be. So it was more mental.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the Flyers ended a five-year playoff drought, they aren\u2019t satisfied with how last season ended. Neither is Foerster.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not satisfied with how last year went,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we got a taste and now, hopefully, next year we\u2019re right back in it. Going farther and deeper.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a year to go on his contract, Tyson Foerster could have played the 2026-27 season and waited…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4843,69,4845,71,70,726,432],"class_list":["post-237002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-nhl","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-flyers","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}