The Philadelphia Flyers made a lot of subtle additions to their roster this offseason. Well, Trevor Zegras potentially filling a hole in the top six wasn’t very subtle but aside from that, signing free agents like Christian Dvorak and Dan Vladar should treat them well and addressed concerns we all had about this team heading into the upcoming season. But, even though it’s August, that doesn’t mean the Flyers should be done thinking about additions.
There is always the possibility of teams bringing one or two players to their training camps on a professional try-out and considering there are still several unrestricted free agents worth a damn who do not have a contract just over a month until NHL training camps start — could the Flyers be one of those teams? The roster is pretty jampacked. The crease is pretty much decided, the blue line is crowded, and upfront a couple young prospects have an opportunity to try and make the team. But, again, there’s always room for competition and more bodies.
Let’s look at some possible names that the Flyers could bring to Voorhees next month.
Tyler Motte, LW/C
Tyler Motte was unfortunately on the 2024-25 Detroit Red Wings so he essentially was trapped in wormhole for several months where no one cared about him or what he did on the ice. But before that poor decision, Motte was seen as a very reliable and consistent bottom-six forward for some good teams. On the Vancouver Canucks he was a fan favorite — so much that Connor Bedard said Motte was his favorite player — and for the last few years he has hopped around trying to contribute positively for some very good teams like the 2022-23 New York Rangers and the 2023-24 Tampa Bay Lightning. He’s essentially been cheap depth forever.
So, still an unrestricted free agent, Motte feels like someone that the Flyers should at least have a look at in case someone like Garnet Hathaway is unavailable in the season. If Motte somehow finds his way in the Flyers organization, he could be someone the team recalls in case of injury and to play over someone like Nic Deslauriers.
Sure, Nikita Grebenkin, Karsen Dorwart, Rodrigo Abols, Jacob Gaucher, and Anthony Richard are all players who could be on a fourth line and not look out of place, but Motte brings more NHL experience than all of them combined. It could get messy adding another forward, but what’s another, reliable body?
Just bring him in to have a look.
Matt Grzelcyk, LD
If you told people who paid attention to underlying numbers and find analytics to be at least somewhat useful, that defenseman Matt Grzelcyk is an unrestricted free agent on August 11 and there are zero rumors about him signing anywhere, they would be shocked. When Grzelcyk was on the Boston Bruins, he was seen as a real playdriver and an underrated contributor offensively. The Bruins were just always better than their opponents when he was on the ice. Now, just a couple years later and after one, single year with the very bad Pittsburgh Penguins, Grzelcyk might not even have an NHL job to start the season.
To make it a little bit more awkward, Grzelcyk just had a career year in points, scoring one goal and 40 points while playing in all 82 games for the terrible hockey team. Maybe it’s just trying to get the stink of Pittsburgh off of him, but he was used in the same way he was in Boston but ended up scoring more. That sounds like someone whose production wasn’t a fluke.
Now, the Flyers already have some talented left-handed defensemen who are under 6-foot tall (Grzelcyk is 5-foot-10), but that might mean it makes even more sense to invite the 31-year-old blueliner to training camp.
Cam York just signed a long-term contract so his job isn’t at risk, but pushing him to show something more because there is someone with a similar profile fighting for a job, wouldn’t be bad. And then there’s Emil Andrae — who was very good and impressive for a couple of months last season but after spending time back down in the AHL, his second stint with the Flyers was underwhelming and his AHL playoffs weren’t all that good either. That is someone that should feel some heat and if there’s a veteran who, again, plays similar to him, then that’s a lot of pressure.
Even when it comes to someone like Egor Zamula, bringing in Grzelcyk would be a useful benchmark to see if there are players even worth a roster spot. Grzelcyk has the potential to show off in training camp and be better than the collection of defensemen like Andrae, Zamula, and the newly signed Noah Juulsen and Dennis Gilbert. Of course, those latter two were signed to do the same thing — provide a clear benchmark for younger defensemen to clear — but Grzelcyk’s offensive potential and to be an actual top four contributor, raises that benchmark even higher.
We know that it probably won’t happen because of the crowd that has already formed on the blue line, but we wouldn’t be shocked if in a hypothetical world where Grzelcyk was on this Flyers team, that he would fit seamlessly in an actual contributing role and be better than a whole lot of current options.
Cam Atkinson, RW
Okay, this one would just be a fun situation. Has any team had a player at training camp after buying them out? There is a mandatory one-year waiting period to reacquire any player a team buys out, and that is obviously up for the Flyers and Cam Atkinson.
The 36-year-old winger would essentially be just a guy to hang out at training camp and maybe try to compete with the likes of Alex Bump and — like the other free agents we’ve named — push players who might be thinking they have a guaranteed spot on this roster.
We can’t picture a world where Atkinson is signed to an actual contract, since he essentially already had a season serving as the Flyers’ 13th forward, but to rejoin the Flyers and maybe, if he wants to hang up his skates, get hired as someone in player development, could be an interesting scenario.
Again, probably not happening but could be fun to think about.