- Flyers sign Jamie Drysdale to a four-year, $26M extension at $6.5M per season
- Drysdale passes Travis Sanheim as Philadelphia’s highest-paid defenseman
- Read below for Danny Briere’s take and the arbitration date they beat
The Flyers locked up Jamie Drysdale on Friday, and the deal hands him a title nobody in Philadelphia saw coming two years ago.
Philadelphia signed the restricted free agent to a four-year extension worth $6.5 million per season, the team announced. That $26 million total nudges him past Travis Sanheim’s $6.25 million cap hit and makes Drysdale the highest-paid defenseman on the roster, plus the fourth-highest-paid Flyer for 2026-27.
Elliotte Friedman had the terms out a few minutes before the club made it official:
Drysdale had an arbitration hearing on the books for Monday. Getting it done Friday keeps both sides out of that room.
General manager Danny Briere was asked about what Drysdale has turned into since the trade that brought him over.
“Since we acquired him, Jamie has worked extremely hard and taken big steps in his development and has established himself as a reliable piece on our back end with the ability to impact the game in all situations. We believe his best hockey is still ahead of him, and he’s going to play an important role in strengthening our blue line as we continue to build.”
David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period had this one coming back at the start of the month, pegging it as a multi-year deal somewhere around $6 million:
He earned the raise. Drysdale matched a career high with 32 points last season, though he did it in 78 games with eight goals and 24 assists, and he kept it rolling into the playoffs with four points in 10 games.
Rick Tocchet used him as the No. 3 defenseman and handed him more power play time than any other Flyers blueliner. His 21:33 a night ranked third on the team and set a personal best.
Philadelphia grabbed the 24-year-old from Anaheim in January 2024, the deal that shipped Cutter Gauthier the other way after Gauthier asked out. Drysdale went sixth overall in 2020 and was supposed to be the puck-moving answer on the back end. He hasn’t fully gotten there, but the arrow keeps pointing up.
The contract eats two of his unrestricted free agency years and runs out when he turns 28, which sets him up to hit the open market again in 2030 if he wants it.
It’s the second big restricted free agent Briere has cleared off the board this week, coming two days after Trevor Zegras signed his own four-year deal.
Nikita Grebenkin and Hunter McDonald are the two RFAs still on the list, and Briere has roughly $13.9 million in cap space left to sort them out.
