Flyers add another center in offseason by agreeing to terms with Dvorak originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Flyers opened Day 1 of NHL free agency Tuesday by agreeing to terms with Christian Dvorak on a one-year, $5.4 million contract.
The 29-year-old center is coming off a season in which he played all 82 games for the Canadiens, putting up 12 goals and 21 assists.
A little over a week ago, the Flyers started their addition down the middle by trading for 24-year-old Trevor Zegras.
Center has been a position of need for the Flyers. Dvorak gives the Flyers a solid bottom-six boost after they lost Ryan Poehling in the Zegras trade.
Dvorak, a 6-foot-1, 190-pounder, won 55.2 percent of his faceoffs over four seasons with Montreal. Last season, he started in the defensive zone a career-high 69 percent of the time, so he’s a center who can be trusted in tough spots.
In 2019-20, playing under Rick Tocchet with the Coyotes, Dvorak put up career highs in goals (18) and points (38). In the playoffs last season with the Canadiens, he had a pair of goals over five games.
The Flyers have to like the one-year commitment to Dvorak. It shouldn’t block anyone and it gives the Flyers a good look at if Dvorak will be a fit.
Right now, the Flyers’ competition at center includes Dvorak, Zegras, Sean Couturier, Noah Cates, Jett Luchanko, Rodrigo Abols and Karsen Dorwart.
With the trade of Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost, Tony DeAngelo, Andrei Kuzmenko, Cal Petersen and Jakob Pelletier coming off the books and the NHL salary cap rising, the Flyers had some room to spend this offseason.
They opened free agency with $15.14 million in cap space, according to PuckPedia.com. They ended up adding Dvorak, goaltender Dan Vladar and defensemen Noah Juulsen and Dennis Gilbert. They still need to re-sign restricted free agent defenseman Cam York.
“There’s a little bit of a window to add from the outside,” general manager Danny Briere said about free agency in April. “We’re not going to be able to fix every problem, but it would be nice to be able to, if the situation is right, add a player or two to come in and help on that front. That also should help taking a step forward.”
The Flyers have not changed their rebuilding plans, but they do need and want to get better this season. They hit “rock bottom” last season and the 2025-26 campaign will be Year 3 under Briere and president of hockey operations Keith Jones.
The club also added a depth center by agreeing to terms with Lane Pederson on a one-year, two-way, $775,00 contract. The 27-year-old is projected to open this season with AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley.
(More coming…)