What the Farabee, Frost trade does for Flyers’ cap this summer
The Flyers’ front office has preached patience when it comes to the rebuild. The trio of coach John Tortorella, general manager Danny Briere, and president of hockey operations Keith Jones have often pointed to getting a handful of retained contracts and buyouts off the books in 2026, as that will be the window when things open up and they can start dishing out some more cash. But the removal of Morgan Frost and (more importantly) Joel Farabee from the Flyers’ salary cap should make the situation this summer in terms of the cap a bit more flexible than it was 24 hours ago.
As it’s obvious now, the Flyers were not going to re-sign Morgan Frost to a contract extension that would’ve taken an unfavorable amount of cap space for next season, and possibly would have walked him right to unrestricted free agency. So, without the 25-year-old center on the books, Philadelphia is out from whatever dollar figure they would’ve signed him too. No matter what, Frost would have to be getting a raise, and the Flyers are probably happy to have that extra $3-4 million this summer.
Joel Farabee’s contract was for another three seasons after this current one at $5 million per season. The Flyers thankfully didn’t retain any salary on Farabee. Nor was Calgary keen on sweetening their deal to possibly a first-round pick in order for the Flyers to retain some portion of Farabee’s contract. So, the simple math for now is $7.1 million went off the books for this season, but for future seasons, it means much more.
What’s coming in? Well, Andrei Kuzmenko’s contract is $5.5 million but he becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of 2024-25. As well, Jakob Pelletier has a two-way contract for $800,000 which also expires at the end of this year. Unlike Kuzmenko, who is days away from turning 29, Pelletier is 23 and will be a restricted free agent (and arbitration eligible) after this current season. Add both salaries and as of Friday morning $6.3 million came back for some basic, short-term math.
So, in layman’s terms, the Flyers have shed for the time being at least $800,000 off their cap. If Kuzmenko and Matvei Michkov develop some immediate chemistry that sees them both becoming point-producing monsters, the Flyers may look at possibly re-signing Kuzmenko. It’s not a given though. If not, then that’s his $5.5 million off the books and available for the Flyers to spend this summer. Assuming Pelletier is re-signed this offseason, it’s most likely not going to be a large increase from what he’s getting now which is $800,000. Would something like a new and shiny contract carrying a $1.1-million cap hit suffice? Possibly.
Depending on how the Flyers use this new (and possibly sizeable) cap space, they could have far more flexibility to do things this summer, particularly looking at acquiring a top-line, high-end talented center. With the buyout of current Islander Tony DeAngelo ($1.67 million) coming off this summer, plus Erik Johnson’s $1 million contract as well as Cal Petersen’s $5 million (actually being in with Lehigh Valley puts the current cap hit at $3.85 million), that’s another $7.67 million removed. Add this with possibly Kuzmenko not re-signing and you have about $13 million no longer locked in for players on this team. This does not include the jump in the salary cap (which is expected to go at least to $92.4 or a bit higher for 2025-26). So another $4.4 million from the current $88 million cap would give the Flyers $17 million plus to play with. That’s some serious cash but there are some players who need new contracts.
The Flyers didn’t solve much in terms of upcoming restricted free agents besides moving Frost. As they now have Cam York, Noah Cates, Tyson Foerster and now Jakob Pelletier to deal with this summer. So, depending on how those deals pan out, obviously some of that extra $17 million will be spoken for. The one big addition which will also eat into that amount is $3.25 million which is the annual raise in Travis Konecny’s contract extension which kicks in next year ($5.5 million to $8.75 million). The slight bump in Garnet Hathway’s two-year contract extension (an almost negligible $25,000) is the only other known increase.
Per PuckPedia, as it stands the Flyers have approximately $17.8 million in cap space for the 2025-26, and that is not including the new salary cap ceiling which could add at least another $4 million on top of that. How much of that will be claimed by the young restricted free agents? Possibly a whole lot.
After all that, the Flyers now find themselves with the window this coming summer a bit more open than it was earlier this week. Whether that results in landing a big-name, high-end center who happens to be playing for the Canucks and isn’t J.T. Miller remains to be seen. But the Flyers have given themselves more flexibility with this deal. It also currently sheds some additional cap space (albeit small) which could result in landing an extra pick or two as part of a three-way deal at the trade deadline. Ideally, retaining a small amount of a pending UFA’s contract for five or six weeks until season’s end.
What’s clear is that the Flyers needed to change something both on and off the ice. If Kuzmenko turns into a version of his rookie year where he scored 39 goals then it’s a bonus. Especially given neither Frost nor Farabee scored 39 goals combined in any given season the two were with Philadelphia. The Flyers might not be huge buyers this summer, but this week’s trade certainly doesn’t put them out of the conversation for landing someone that can help. ...
Want the trending hockey news in your inbox daily?.
Just add your email, and we'll start sending you the most important hockey news of the day.
