The Philadelphia Flyers' 2016-17 season ended quietly on Sunday night with a 4-3 home shootout loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.
And because this season, unlike head coach Dave Hakstol's first year at the helm, ended after 82 games and without a trip to the postseason, Flyers fans will get a jump start on the offseason, one that should prove interesting as the team decides whether to take another shot with the current core or to shift focus to their younger players and begin building around them.
- MORE FLYERS COVERAGE
- Flyers announce year-end award winners, including a first-time MVP
- Flyers reporter Sarah Baicker blessed and skating on from Philadelphia
- Giroux says he's 'not leaving' Philly, but admits 'anything is possible'
There's still some time before free agency and the draft, but before general manager Ron Hextall can add any players – and, yes, we realize that's where the real fun starts – he's going to need to make room for them on the roster. The Flyers have a decent amount of free agents, both restricted and unrestricted, so Hextall will some of that much sought-after optionality.
Unfortunately, the unrestricted free agent class isn't that great this summer, but as Dave Isaac of The Courier Post points out, that may not matter all that much because for the first time in a while, the Flyers are going to be able to fill most of their holes with players already in the organization, from the late-season call-ups we saw this season to others like Oskar Lindblom and Cole Bardreau.
That's good news, but it doesn't change the fact that there needs to be some roster turnover in order for the organization's top prospects to make the jump to the NHL.
With that in mind, let's take a look at the current state of the roster, including which players are going to be free agents this summer:
| POS | AGE | 2016-17 STATS | 2016-17 $$/PT* |
2017-18 CAP HIT* |
|
| P.E. Bellemare | LW | 31 | 4 G, 4 A, 8 PT | $89,062 |
$1.45M |
| N. Cousins | C | 23 | 6 G, 10 A, 16 PT | $52,500 |
RFA |
| S. Couturier | C | 24 | 14 G, 20 A, 34 PT | $127,451 |
$4.33M |
| M. Del Zotto | D | 26 | 6 G, 12 A, 18 PT | $215,278 |
UFA |
| V. Filppula | C | 32 | 5 G, 3 A, 8 PT | $119,048 |
$5M |
| C. Giroux | C | 29 | 14 G, 44 A, 58 PT | $142,672 |
$8.275M |
| B. Gordon | C | 33 | 1 G, 0 A, 1 PT | $950,000 |
UFA |
| S. Gostisbehere | D | 23 | 7 G, 32 A, 39 PT | $23,718 |
RFA |
| R. Gudas | D | 26 | 6 G, 17 A, 23 PT | $145,652 |
$3.35M |
| R. Hagg | D | 21 | 0 G, 0 A, 0 PT | --- | $894K |
| T. Konecny |
C | 19 | 11 G, 17 A, 28 PT | $31,935 |
$894K |
| S. Laughton | C | 22 | 0 G, 0 A, 0 PT | --- | RFA |
| T. Leier | LW | 22 | 1 G, 1 A, 2 PT | $389,808 |
RFA |
| R. Lyubimov | LW | 25 | 4 G, 2 A, 6 PT | --- | RFA |
| A. MacDonald | D | 30 | 2 G, 16 A, 18 PT | $277,778 |
$5M |
| B. Manning | D | 26 | 3 G, 9 A, 12 PT | $81,250 |
$975K |
| S. Mason | G | 28 | 26-21-8, 2.66 GAA | --- | UFA |
| C. McDonald | C | 32 | 1 G, 0 A, 1 PT | --- | $638K |
| S. Morin | D | 21 | 0 G, 0 A, 0 PT | --- | $863K |
| M. Neuvirth | G | 28 | 11-11-1, 2.82 GAA | --- | $2.5M |
| I. Provorov | D | 20 | 6 G, 24 A, 30 PT | $29,806 |
$894K |
| M. Raffl | LW | 28 | 8 G, 3 A, 11 PT | $213,636 |
$2.35M |
| M. Read | RW | 30 | 10 G, 9 A, 19 PT | $190,789 |
$3.625M |
| B. Schenn | C | 25 | 25 G, 30 A, 55 PT | $93,182 |
$5.125M |
| N. Schultz | D | 34 | 0 G, 4 A, 4 PT | $562,500 |
UFA |
| W. Simmonds | RW | 28 | 31 G, 23 A, 54 PT | $73,611 |
$3.975M |
| A. Stolarz | G | 23 | 2-1-1, 2.07 GAA | --- | RFA |
| C. VandeVelde | C | 29 | 6 G, 9 A, 15 PT | $47,500 |
UFA |
| M. Vecchione | RW | 23 | 0 G, 0 A, 0 PT | --- | RFA |
| J. Voracek | RW | 27 | 20 G, 41 A, 61 PT | $135,246 |
$8.25M |
| J. Weal | C | 24 | 8 G, 4 A, 12 PT | $54,167 |
UFA |
| D. Weise | RW | 28 | 8 G, 7 A, 15 PT | $156,667 |
$2.35M |
* Dollars per point (via capfriendly.com)
And now that you've seen their numbers and costs side-by-side, we invite you to go through the roster one player at a time and tell us whether or not you think that player should be back for the 2017-18 season in our annual Flyers Stay or Go poll:
We'll leave the voting open and provide you with an update of the results in a week or two.
Follow Matt on Twitter: @matt_mullin
Like our new PhillyVoice Sports Facebook page.