Even after the acquisition of Trevor Zegras, the Philadelphia Flyers are fairly shallow down the middle. When it comes to center depth this season, the Flyers really only have Sean Couturier, Noah Cates, and the aforementioned Zegras as sure-fire NHL talents. And even when it comes to that trio, Cates might be better and more effective on the wing, and there are still questions about Zegras playing center, especially under Rick Tocchet.
The large elephant in the room is whether or not Jett Luchanko could make the Flyers out of camp again, but stay in the NHL this time. Given that he has to either play for the OHL’s Guelph Storm or the Flyers, there is a tough choice ahead and it may end up just being the safer option to go captain his OHL team as they try to push for the playoffs after a brutal season.
All of this is to say that the Flyers are strong contenders to go and sign a center in free agency when it opens up on July 1.
There are some centers still available — even with the high-end players like Matt Duchene and John Tavares re-signing with their respective teams — but we don’t expect the Flyers to really throw a whole lot of money at a center like a playoff contender would. Philadelphia is in a position to still sign a center but potentially someone younger with potential to be a bargain add, or someone that fits their identity perfectly.
With that in mind, we came up with five names we could see the Flyers pursuing in free agency.
Pius Suter
While this is not a ranking, Pius Suter has to be the first center mentioned because it feels like the most logical conclusion. The 29-year-old center is coming off of a career year in Vancouver and it’s no secret that he was sort of a pet favorite of Rick Tocchet’s. While it was largely because of extended injuries and absences to both J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson this season, Suter averaged a career-high 17:21 TOI per game and also scored a career-high 25 goals and 46 points because of it.
Now, to not expect him to regularly get up to those totals. A hearty 18.1 shooting percentage got him to score 10 more goals than he ever has in an NHL season before, but Suter is a career 13.1 percent shooter so it’s not like he just wrote a wild rave of percentages working in his favor.
The major question that comes to mind when thinking about the Flyers signing Suter is: What does he provide that other current Flyers can’t? The 29-year-old Swiss center is 5-foot-11, so he’s not providing some sort of size that the Flyers do not have down the middle. He is not great in the faceoff circle with a career 46 percent win rate at the dot. He is better defensively than offensively, but the Flyers don’t really need a whole lot of that right now, especially as their major free agency acquisition.
Basically, is signing Suter in free agency just getting another Noah Cates to potentially bump Noah Cates down to the fourth line or potentially to Suter’s wing?
While the connections with Tocchet and the general profile makes sense, it is not the most inspiring signing — especially when Evolving-Hockey has Suter’s most likely contract as a four-year deal with a $4.65-million AAV. That’s a big chunk of change.
We could totally see the Flyers doubling-down and signing Suter this week and we wouldn’t dislike the acquisition, but we would be wondering hard about what his role would be in the lineup.
Lars Eller
If Suter’s role is undefined, one player that would have possibly the most defined role on the entire roster would be Lars Eller. The journeyman Dane is the definition of a solid bottom-six center. The 36-year-old is a center that won’t give you many points — his career year was all the way back in the 2019-20 season where he scored a whopping 16 goals and 39 points for the Washington Capitals — but will be more than solid in every other area of the game.
Since the Flyers are in need of someone to play down the middle, they could go the veteran route and given that Eller has spent eight and a half of his last nine seasons in the Metropolitan Division with either the Pittsburgh Penguins or the Capitals, we might see a strong possibility that he could sign on the dotted line for Philadelphia.
Eller would be a wonderful stop-gap center to just place on the fourth line and never think about again. While he’s not the Poehling-esque signing of a young free agent just trying to stay on one team for a full season, Eller would be more than upgrade to what the Flyers have right now and given his age, he would most likely sign for just one year and almost certainly for under $2 million.
A stop-gap among stop-gaps.
Cody Glass
Last week, news got out that the New Jersey Devils will not be sending center Cody Glass a qualifying offer, making the 26-year-old an unrestricted free agent. While his best ever year came all the way back in the 2022-23 season, when he scored 14 goals and 35 points in 72 games, there seems to be some commotion around his name as a center option in free agency for several teams.
It might be the undying desire to try to unlock something in a former top-10 draft pick that hockey executives have, but Glass has had a very strong season split between the Penguins and the Devils. While on the ice for both teams this season, Glass has a 54.9 percent of the shot attempt share at 5-on-5 and in the 14 games with New Jersey after being a deadline acquisition, the Devils outscored opponents 9-5 with him on the ice at 5-on-5 and had significant advantages in all underlying metrics. Plus, he finished the year with seven points in those 14 Devils games he appeared in. Not bad at all.
Glass is maybe the sturdiest of options for “young” unrestricted free agents and is someone that the Flyers will face a lot of competition for, but it does feel like he could be a great middle-six center to just see what he can do for the next year.
Joe Veleno
On Sunday afternoon, reports got out that the Seattle Kraken are going to buyout the remainder of Joe Veleno’s contract after trading him in a straight swap for overpaid winger Andre Burakovsky earlier this month. Veleno is a very interesting option as a center. He’s not a productive player, but his overall tools have been solid enough to potentially make it work under Tocchet. Physical, can get mean, his skating is a plus skill, and has a career shooting percentage over 11 percent. It feels like the right team and an increased opportunity is desperately needed for Veleno to continue playing in the NHL. Are the Flyers that team?
It’s tough to say if Veleno would be able to carve out a role on this Flyers team. Could he be the fourth-line center and chalk it up to (potentially) Garnet Hathaway and Jakob Pelletier, creating this trio of energetic forwards to forecheck and grind out some teams into dust? Possibly. That might be his ceiling — although getting a replacement for Ryan Poehling to be a lesser skater but slightly more physical, might just be what the Flyers want.
Philipp Kurashev
If the Flyers want a high potential of scoring touch to go with more of a risky signing, we could certainly see them targeting Philipp Kurashev. The Blackhawks are reportedly not going to send the Swiss center a qualifying offer and he will become an unrestricted free agent before turning 26 years old this October.
The one thing Kurashev has over all of these players is evidence of production. As a 24-year-old in the 2023-24 season for Chicago, the 6-foot centerman scored 18 goals and 54 points. Now, there may be other factors as to why he had that anomaly season. Kurashev was averaging over 19 minutes of ice-time a night and played over 766 of his 1,096 minutes with rookie sensation Connor Bedard. That’s a nice bit of skill to help you set a career-high in points.
Kurashev would be the big, massive swing signing for the Flyers. He most likely wouldn’t be offered anything above a one-year contract under $2 million in salary, so the risk is limited, but it would be betting on speed and skill above some defensive deficiencies that he has.