Arbitration Hearing Dates Set for Drysdale, Zegras

Late on Sunday, the hearing dates for the restricted free agents who elected for arbitration were revealed by PuckPedia, which included Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale and forward Trevor Zegras.

Drysdale will be the first RFA to have his hearing, which will be set for the 20th of July, whereas Zegras will be the third just a couple days later on the 22nd. There will be 15 hearings in total that will run from the 20th of July to the 1st of August.

At one point in time it seemed like a foregone conclusion that both players would be re-signed in quick order, but the Flyers were a bit preoccupied when the off-season began, sending a lucrative offer sheet for Anaheim Ducks centre Leo Carlsson that was ultimately matched.

Drysdale and Zegras elected for arbitration, which made them exempt from offer sheets. They can still come to terms on an extension up until their hearings, which gives the Flyers about a week to get their business in order.

While the Flyers won’t be losing either player, arbitration is the last thing they would want to entertain, since it usually entails the team to find reasons as to why the player in question isn’t worth the money they’re fighting for.

Arbitration isn’t viewed upon so highly around the NHL, which is why players usually tend to get contracts signed beforehand. For example, last year none of the players that filed for arbitration made it to their hearings, which is something the Flyers would like to mimic this year.

If they can’t come to terms on a contract before the hearing, it will then go through a third-party arbitrator, who will rule on the player’s final value. Once he comes up with his decision, the Flyers will then choose between a one or two-year contract, since it was a player-elected arbitration and not the other way around.

There were rumours heading into the draft that Drysdale was on the verge of signing a 4-year contract extension worth upwards of $6 million. It remains to be seen if the Carlsson offer sheet led to a stalemate or not, but it will be interesting to see if that has any correlation.

With upwards of $29 million in cap space remaining, both players should fit comfortably under that threshold, but what was destined to be about $14 million-$15 million could now become a little bit more than the Flyers had hoped for.

Carlsson’s $18 million AAV completely changed the landscape of RFA contracts, and since the Flyers didn’t get deals done for their own RFAs before the offer sheet was signed, you would have to think it changed the negotiations for both Drysdale and Zegras.

If it does get to arbitration it could be seen as malpractice, especially when considering how quickly the Flyers worked to get extensions done for other players. Christian Dvorak signed his 5-year contract on January 5th, just a few days after he was eligible for one, Dan Vladař signed a long-term extension when first eligible on July 1st, and Tyson Foerster signed an 8-year deal on the same day as well.

Foerster, who was set to become an RFA in 2027, had his extension announced as soon as the clock turned to noon on July 1st. The Flyers clearly felt he was an integral part of the organization and got to work as soon as possible, which was something that didn’t happen with Drysdale or Zegras.

Their situations were a little different in that they both needed to show their worth after Drysdale had a middling half-season in Philadelphia following his trade and Zegras was acquired before the draft on an expiring contract.

However, it became pretty clear that both players were integral to the Flyers’ success in 2025-26, and many had insinuated that extensions were going to come easy. Now we have just a week left until their arbitration meetings and there’s been no word on any extension talks.

What could be helpful in this situation is that things don’t tend to leak out of the Flyers front office. For the most part, their transactions are surprises to the entire NHL, with the exception of the Vladař extension. So don’t be surprised if they both get deals done at a random time on Wednesday afternoon.

Zegras finished second on the team in scoring with 67 points in 81 games, which included 26 goals and 10 tallies on the power play. The 25-year-old also led the team in scoring during the post-season with 2 goals and 6 points in 10 games.

Drysdale quietly had a great defensive season while also chipping in with 8 goals and 32 points in 78 games. He averaged 21:33 TOI, which was the highest of his career, and he added 9 power play points as the team’s top unit quarterback.

With the Carlsson saga now behind them, the Flyers will now have to shift all their attention towards Drysdale and Zegras as they look to avoid arbitration altogether and get their extensions dealt with within the next week.