Dvorak, Flyers link up for 5 more years with contract extension originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
It’s safe to say Christian Dvorak and the Flyers won each other over.
The all-around center agreed to a five-year, $25.75 million contract extension with the club Monday night. The deal has an average annual value of $5.15 million. He’s now under contract through the 2030-31 season.
According to PuckPedia.com, Dvorak’s new deal has a no-trade clause for the first two seasons, a modified no-trade clause for the third and fourth seasons and no trade protection for the fifth season.
Dvorak, who turns 30 years old next month, signed with the Flyers last summer to a one-year, $5.4 million contract. He has quietly turned into one of the Flyers’ most impactful forwards. He’s definitely up there among the team’s best offseason moves.
With 25 points (nine goals, 16 assists) in 39 games, Dvorak is on pace to blow past his career high of 38 from 2019-20, when he played for the Coyotes under Rick Tocchet.
“I think he’s a really good player,” Travis Sanheim said during the preseason. “He’s a guy that can play at both ends of the ice, wins draws and is pretty creative and can make plays. I think he’s going to fit in well.”
Dvorak has taken advantage of opportunity with the Flyers after he played all played 82 games for a playoff team last season in the Canadiens. With Montreal, he was deployed primarily in a defensive role.
This season, he has been centering Trevor Zegras and Travis Konecny on the Flyers’ top line. In 17:06 minutes per game, Dvorak has won 54 percent of his faceoffs and has a plus-8 rating. The Flyers also believe there’s some power play upside in his game.
Come the trade deadline in March, Dvorak would have been a really intriguing chip for general manager Danny Briere. Teams covet players like him on expiring deals. But the Flyers made it clear before the season that they did not want to be in selling mode unless they had to be.
“In the previous two years, we would be quick to make changes in order to get better for the future,” president of hockey operations Keith Jones said in September. “Now it would be about staying on course, which is advancing; it’s not about moving back.”
(More coming…)