Ryan Ellis wasn’t expected to be traded by the Philadelphia Flyers. Who would want him? Well, Sunday we found out that the San Jose Sharks were interested, acquiring Ellis and a sixth-round pick in the 2026 draft in exchange for defenseman Artem Guryev and forward Carl Grundstrom. But let’s look a bit deeper in what that does for the Flyers’ salary cap moving forward, and what it could also mean, given the skaters Philadelphia received in return.
First off, Ryan Ellis played all of four games for the Flyers back in 2021-22. He had a goal and four assists for five points in those four games. That’s it. The devastating, career-ending injury he suffered in that season has been essentially tied to the Flyers’ Long Term Injured Relief ever since. Ellis was slated to make $6.25 million AAV this season and also for the 2026-27 season, now it appears that entire contract has been taken by the Sharks. In short, this is a huge win in terms of the salary cap. Philadelphia will not have to worry about whether Ellis is going to be placed on the roster or not. As was previously discussed during the Fedotov trade, the Flyers were worried that any bonuses on Matvei Michkov’s entry-level contract would carry into the following season with Ellis placed on Long-Term Injured Reserve; a possible bonus of $3.3 million should Michkov hit all the bonus targets would now be paid without seeing them roll over into next year’s salary cap.
Coming back from the Sharks is Arterm Guryev, a physically imposing blueliner who is on an entry-level deal. His cap hit is $860,000 for this year, the final year of his deal with Philadelphia retaining his rights on the next contract. Given his track record — the whole of his last season played in the ECHL with Wichita — it feels safe to assume that he will begin playing for Lehigh Valley in the American Hockey League, if not back in the ECHL with Reading. As for forward Carl Grundstrom, he’s on the final year of a two-year, $3.6 million deal which will see him be a $1.8 million cap hit this season before he becomes an Unrestricted Free Agent. So the $6.25 million goes off the books thanks to Ellis, and $2.66 million is put back on the books if by some strange happenstance Guryev and Grundstrom are both on the Flyers’ roster. That’s an immediate savings of $3.59 million with the removal of Ellis off the books.
Should both Grundstrom and Guryev both spend most of the season in the minors — and again this is the surer scenario — that is a much bigger savings for Philadelphia as it would be the full $6.25 million previously paid to Ellis off the books. Shortly after the trade, Grundstrom was placed on waivers by Philadelphia. Should he clear waivers, it gives the Flyers the option to send him down to Lehigh Valley. So, in layman’s terms, no matter how the return pieces fall, should Michkov hit all the bonus targets worth $3.3 million, nothing will be rolling into the following year in terms of overages. All of it would be accounted for in 2025-26.
Opens things up a lot more
The fact the Flyers now have this $6.25 million off the cap it should open the door a bit more to lure or entice Unrestricted Free Agents. It almost seemed a certainty that Ryan Ellis would continue being a member of the Flyers organization until the conclusion of his contract. Now that he’s gone, combined with the fact additional buyouts (Cam Atkinson) and retained salaries (Kevin Hayes, Scott Laughton) will be off the books, it should give Philadelphia a lot more cash to entertain some of the bigger fish in the National Hockey League pond. That is assuming those big fish (or some of them) even get to free agency without first agreeing to terms with their current respective clubs before July 1 (but that’s a can of worms to open another day). As it stands, according to capwages, the Flyers currently have roughly $39.5 million of cap space looking at the 2026-27 season.
Looking before July 1, the Flyers also have six restricted free agents they will need to resign at the end of this season. So those funds from the Ellis deal — as well as the rising salary cap — could also be allotted to sign Trevor Zegras, Nikita Grebenkin, Jamie Drysdale, Bobby Brink, Egor Zamula, and goaltender Sam Ersson, and of course there’s also the fact that Matvei Michkov could be looking at contract extension as early as next July 1 as well, when he will be in the final year of his three-year entry-level deal. That’s not to say that money from the Ellis trade will be used specifically for those signings, but it just makes things a little less hectic or cumbersome for Flyers general manager Danny Briere.
Worst case scenario?
Although there’s absolutely no report to suggest otherwise, it’s expected that defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen is slated to be healthy and return to the team sometime in November, possibly early in the month or in the middle of the month. However, if the injury which has nagged Ristolainen the last few seasons carries on into this season, it’s possible he might have to be placed on Injured Reserve or, in a nightmare scenario, Long-Term Injured Reserve. If that was to happen (and that’s a big if), then this Ellis move would essentially be seeing the Flyers remove one financial headache replaced with a slightly cheaper but still expensive headache (the difference between the Ellis contract and Ristolainen’s in terms of AAV is a mere $1.15 million). It would be at least getting rid of a huge problem having both Ellis and Ristolainen on LTIR regarding the situation with Michkov’s performance bonuses as mentioned above. But it would still be a problem for this season and next, unless of course Briere was able to make a similar deal with another club and send Ristolainen (who has no clauses regarding trade destinations or movement) elsewhere. However, again, there is no indication that Ristolainen is going to be delayed in returning to the Flyers and be able to play in roughly four to six weeks.
But for now, it looks like the Flyers can breathe a little easier knowing that Ryan Ellis and his $6.25 million is off the books as of today and not sometime in the spring of 2027. That in itself is a huge win! And it gives the Flyers approximately $7 million to play with as they have that much space under the cap with this trade. Briere looks very good both in the short-term and the long-term with this trade.