This offseason was a blockbuster one for the Flyers. During the free agency period, they signed forwards Ryan Poehling (one year, $1.4 million), Rhett Gardiner (two year, $775,000 AAV), and Garnet Hathaway (two year, $2.375 million AAV). They also signed defensemen Marc Staal (one year, $1.1 million) and Victor Mete (one year, $775,000). I think the main takeaway from all of these trades is that they got a couple of important players from important teams.  Marc Staal came from the Panthers, who just got off of a pretty successful playoff run, and he had worked under John Tortorella in the past. This is a big plus for the defensive game, and for rookies who are new to John Tortorella’s coaching will now have some guidance to his coaching style. He was also a +10 defenseman with the Panthers last season, and is +50 in his entire career. Defense is something that the Flyers desperately need. 

Garnet Hathaway came from Boston and, as we already know, Boston had a record-setting season in all of the NHL. He only played 25 games and came out with six points. However, since 2016, he has played 457 games. In those 457 games, he was a +53. That’s a big change for the Flyers because a lot of their players were consistent between -20 and -22 , especially defensemen.