VOORHEES, N.J. — Unlike too many free agent commencements in recent years, Flyers general manager Danny Briere had a very busy July 1 workday.
Whether or not he had a productive one remains to be seen.
Not long after the lunchtime bell rang tolling the opening of the NHL’s free agency sweepstakes, the Flyers made a quick move, then two, to try to shore up their defense. Or, at least fill out the roster when they need to.
First, word leaked out that they signed defenseman Noah Juulsen to a one-year contract for $900,000.
Not such a surprise, since the 6-2, 201-pound defender played for new Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet in parts of the past three years in Vancouver. Juulsen played 35 games there last season and managed not to score one point in any of them. But he was a minus-12.
That’s something.
The Flyers then made a move to get AHL/NHL bubble defender Dennis Gilbert, late of the Ottawa Senators where he only played four games after getting traded there at the deadline last spring.
He’s had stays with the Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche (only three games), Calgary Flames and, last season, with both the Buffalo Sabres and Senators.
Moves of greater interest came next as the Flyers signed another Tocchet-wish player in center Christian Dvorak, who played under Tocchet at the start of his career in Arizona. One year and $5.4 million for him, though that contract might reflect more of what his resume says than his current skills.
But they also went out and got a desperately needed backup goalie in Dan Vladar, who signed a two-year deal worth $6.7 million, and over the past two years has played 100 games. Which means he’s a career-long backup.
To finish Day 1 of the free agency period, Briere sought out some veteran help up front for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, getting Lane Pederson for a one-year deal at the NHL minimum of $750,000. He’s a nine-year, mostly AHL vet, who has managed to squeeze 71 NHL games into the mix.
So that was Day 1, but more important than any of those signings by far was whether or not Briere has made any inroads to the player he’d trade all these other signees and half of the rest of his team to get, a guy that has never played in North America at all.
That would be Maxim V. Shabanov, a Russian wunderkind winger who’s small (of course he is), but supposedly can score in bunches. Indicative of that is what Shabanov did in his third full season in the KHL in 2024-25, scoring 23 goals with 67 points in 65 games. You average a point per game in that conservative hockey league, you might be a pretty special player.
Shabanov was third overall in points, and second overall in points per game (1.03) there last season. The only guy to beat him out in that category was Joshua Leivo, a 32-year-old Canadian.
Anyway, the always evolving rumors about KHL players coming over have the Flyers as one of four teams in the mix to sign him up for a brilliant career here. The talk has the Rangers with the inside track, probably because of financial reasons. But Danny Briere, still a bit conservative when it comes to signing people … has his fingers crossed.
But thankfully not his tongue.
“I’m like you guys, I read the stories,” Briere said Tuesday. “I get excited when I’m being told that he’s signed with the Flyers. It just hasn’t happened yet.”
Consider that the most exciting thing to happen to the Flyers … well, at least since Matvei Michkov found a way to escape that mess over there and find his way to blooming popularity with a bad team here last season. Imagine the two of them together on a line in their sub-6-foot glory. Yeah, they’d need a big guy on that line, but interesting to think about the overdue impact it would have for a team that has lost its mojo.
Meanwhile, back to free agent reality …
Vladar is a career backup who will make more than twice the salary this year than alleged starter Sam Ersson ($1.6 million salary, $1.45M cap hit). How’s that for a shot of confidence to the holdover goalie’s back?
But for one of the worst goals-against teams in the league, with the likes of Ersson, Ivan Fedotov and Aleksei Kolosov (still?) listed as goalies, you don’t mind paying a lot more than a going backup rate for someone who can actually be a backup, no? Of course, here, all backup bets are off.
“How many teams go with only two goalies?” Briere said. “Not too many of them. You need three, four goalies. So my message to them is, it doesn’t matter where you slot in right now. Come in, be ready, and when it’s your turn, you’ve got to perform.”
Meanwhile, Dvorak was an impact youth on the ice for Tocchet with the Coyotes. Throw out a 2018-19 season in which he only played 20 games and registered but five points, and Dvorak averaged about 16 goals over the other four seasons.
Over the last four years in Montreal, however, his numbers have dropped precipitously, and over 534 NHL games he has 105 goals and 249 points.
But hey, when you’re a team that needs help at the pivot position … you spend money optimistically. That’s something the Flyers haven’t done for too long a time.
“It’s no secret that we’re pretty thin in the middle,” Briere said. “(Sean) Couturier and (Noah) Cates really are the only two (centers) for sure. We hope that (Trevor) Zegras can play center as well, but there’s opportunities there for (Dvorak). Probably more than he would have seen somewhere else.”
Either way, there’s going to be a few new faces on the ice for the Flyers come September, and for now, there’s a cross-fingered hope that one of them belongs to a talented Russian kid.
Contact Rob Parent at rparent@delcotimes.com
Source: Berkshire mont