While the Philadelphia Flyers may have already taken care of their most pressing pieces of offseason business, re-signing a number of restricted free agents, headlined by Trevor Zegras, they could get a jump on next summer’s plans if they really wanted to.
Having already signed Tyson Foerster to a lucrative eight-year extension, the Flyers have three players left on their roster eligible for contract extensions.
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They are defensemen Rasmus Ristolainen and Simon Benoit, and franchise winger Matvei Michkov.
It’s plausible that Ristolainen and Benoit, both veteran defensemen who play a physical brand of hockey, earn extensions from the Flyers, but from a player development standpoint, a lot would have to go wrong for that to happen.
Foerster’s case is unique in that he is a young player still under contract, and he signed an eight-year extension–the longest allowable under the current CBA.
If the Flyers want to do the same with Michkov, who has been far more productive offensively without two arm injuries in the same season, they will need to act quickly.
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As of Sept. 16, just over a month from now, players will only be eligible to sign seven-year contract extensions with their respective teams, meaning that the Flyers will soon lose the ability to sign Michkov to an eight-year deal.
Aside from the Flyers already doing this with Foerster, other teams around the NHL have taken notice and have acted accordingly.
The most notable example of this is up north across the border with the Montreal Canadiens, who signed their own Russian starlet, Ivan Demidov, to an eight-year, $73.2 million contract extension ($9.15 million AAV) on July 1.
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Demidov, 20, just played his first full NHL season, scoring 19 goals, 43 assists, and 62 points in 82 games, while adding three goals, six assists, and nine points in the Habs’ 19-game playoff run this year.
Comparatively, Michkov, 21, scored 26 goals and 63 points in his first NHL season with the Flyers in 2024-25, before regressing to a still-respectable 20 goals and 51 points under new head coach Rick Tocchet this past season.
Michkov, with just one assist in eight playoff games, was even less effective than Demidov in the postseason, but 51 points in a sophomore season where everything that could have went wrong for him did go wrong is still admirable.
The 2023 No. 7 overall pick has worked hard this summer to improve his physical condition on the back of criticism he received throughout last year, including from Tocchet, and he is more established than Demidov.
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Should Michkov reach his full potential, or even come close to it, signing a contract that carries a cap hit similar to Demidov’s $9.15 million would be a major steal for the Flyers.
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On top of Michkov himself, another benefit for the Flyers is that, by locking up another core piece, they will know exactly how much room they’ll have to operate with if they want to pursue another massive move, like they did earlier this summer with the Leo Carlsson offer sheet.
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Porter Martone will be eligible for a contract extension starting next July 1, so the Flyers have nothing pressing aside from Michkov between then and now.
Conversely, if the Flyers choose to wait it out, Michkov will have the opportunity to earn himself even more money with a strong performance during the season, on top of losing one potential contractual year due to the CBA changes next month.
Fortune favors the bold, and the Flyers have an important choice to make in the next five weeks.
