The Philadelphia Flyers were one of the busiest teams in the NHL as free agency opened up. General manager Danny Briere put pen to paper for five unrestricted free agents in the first hours of free agency, and some of them will probably actually make an impact on the NHL team.

But, according to one report, we could be seeing some more additions. And those additions would come in the form of an offer sheet to a restricted free agent.

The Inquirer’s Jackie Spiegel very casually quotetweeted a report of the new draft pick compensation for offer sheets this summer, with the new salary cap in the NHL, right before free agency opened Tuesday at noon, saying that she has “a feeling” that we could see the Flyers offer sheet a player this summer. While the one comment isn’t enough for us to go run rampant on, Spiegel would not let the idea of an offer sheet cool down.

After the Flyers signed players to sizeable dollar figures, that limited their available cap room, Spiegel mentioned that Philadelphia could put defenseman Ryan Ellis on Long-Term Injured Reserve and exceed the $95.5 million cap ceiling by $6.25 million, and will most likely be putting goaltender Ivan Fedotov down in the AHL, which would add another $1.05 million in space for the Flyers. And even after that, another tweet mentioning that an offer sheet wouldn’t happen today but could happen later this week or next week.

That quick series of online posts had us elevate from eye-rolling about an inflated possibility of something that never happens, happening; all the way to thinking there really is something to do. And it’s not like it’s from a nothing source, either.

So, we think this is a true possibility, even with the Flyers filling a lot of the holes on their roster on July 1. We know that this team would still happily add a center of note, and are looking for a big, left-handed defenseman to be a long-term solution next to Jamie Drysdale, or just to balance out the size on the blue line.

Maybe the most important thing to note is that right now, we can’t see the Flyers wanting to part ways with their 2026 first-round pick. Sure, maybe if for some reason they convince Gabe Vilardi or think Mason McTavish has something more to show; then they would be comfortable just handing over the unprotected pick that could be the Gavin McKenna selection. But, for obvious reasons, we doubt it.

With that assumption locked in, it means that any offer sheet the Flyers send will have a maximum AAV of $4.68 million.

Now, who are some players that we could see sign for less than that and could be willing to entertain an offer sheet to leave their current team? We came up with three.

Jack McBain, C

McBain is probably everything the Flyers want in a center that wouldn’t break the bank. The 25-year-old is a 6-foot-4 forward that doesn’t score a whole lot — has averaged 12 goals and 28 points in his three NHL seasons — but is a smart, physical player that actually drives play in his team’s favor. Plus, he’s not slow either and can actually move his feet — according to NHL Edge tracking data, McBain is above league average in every skating category, including speed bursts, top skating speed, and skating distance.

While he does all of that for his current team, the Utah Mammoth, he hasn’t averaged more than 14 minutes of ice-time in a full season. With his age and on-ice impact, we could see more production come from his stick, if he was just given more of a middle-six opportunity than being a pure depth player in Salt Lake City.

Evolving-Hockey has McBain’s new contract projected as a three-year deal with a $2.895 million AAV, if he were to sign with a different team. Even if you increase that salary, it will most likely fall in the $2.34 million to $4.68 million threshold, which would mean the Flyers sending their 2026 second-round pick to Utah. Would it be too much? Maybe in a vacuum but to get a center that ticks a whole lot of their boxes and if they believe he can be elevated to be so much more, and maybe even a second-line center for the time being, it should be more than worth it.

Dmitri Voronkov, C/LW

This would be much more of a dream acquisition and easily the most unlikely to actually go through and not be the easiest match of an offer sheet in NHL history. Dmitri Voronkov is a very large center (big surprise) standing at 6-foot-5 and weighing 227 pounds, who is going to turn 25 years old before the season started, but had a bit of a breakout 2024-25 campaign for the Columbus Blue Jackets. With 23 goals and 47 points in 73 games, he is getting noticed a whole lot more and he should be on the Flyers’ radar.

Voronkov did play primarily left wing last season, but it was for good reason. As a center during his rookie season in 2023-24, he didn’t get as high up in the lineup and had is minutes limited. But, it wasn’t for a lack of talent it was just Columbus already having centers like Boone Jenner and Adam Fantilli in the lineup. To get his first steps in the NHL as a third-line center, that’s no problem but he still was too good to be used in that way, so he went to the wing of either Fantilli or Sean Monahan in the Blue Jacket’s top six last season.

In Philadelphia, if he were to move for some reason, he would be handed over a top-six center spot and given the true opportunity to flourish down the middle.

Evolving-Hockey has Voronkov coming in as a bit more expensive than McBain but still under the right threshold, with a projected contract of three years at a $4.58 million AAV, just $10,000 under the limit of an offer sheet that would cost a second-round pick.

The Blue Jackets do have $19.65 million in cap space after July 1 and Voronkov is the only notable restricted free agent they need to sign. Barring a strict internal salary cap ceiling or really needing as much space as possible to sign Adam Fantilli to his post-ELC contract starting in the 2026-27 season, Columbus should easily match any contract in that range for Voronkov. But, we can dream.

Dylan Samberg, LD

The one non-center option we have on our list, is an interesting one. We know that the Flyers want a big, left-handed defenseman (as noted earlier) for their long-term outlook of the blue line. Dylan Samberg is a 26-year-old, 6-foot-4 rearguard that can skate very well for his size. He isn’t the most physical player in the world, but he is still capable of using his physical presence to the benefit of his team. And it’s a little freaky, but think of having a Travis Sanheim that trading in some skating ability to be slightly more physical, and that is Samberg. Now think if the Flyers can have that but just two years younger and be set for the next several years.

The one hurdle the Flyers would need to clear is the Jets having oodles of cap space. With over $21 million in space available to them right now and basically just Samberg and Gabe Vilardi as restricted free agents, and potentially adding someone to replace Nikolaj Ehlers on the roster, it’s possible for Winnipeg to keep their core in-tact and would love a team to take the burden of negotiating a contract with Samberg away from them, so they could just match it and carry on.

Evolving-Hockey has Samberg’s most likely contract if he were to sign with a different team, as a four-year deal with a $4.4 million AAV. Again, under that threshold and would cost the Flyers just their 2026 second-round pick and that is more than worth it for Samberg.

In our gut, an offer sheet doesn’t feel likely, but there is some smoke and these are the players that would fit the financial and on-ice mold that the Flyers would want to target.