Flyers’ Jamie Drysdale, Trevor Zegras file for salary arbitration

The NHLPA announced that 15 restricted free agents filed for salary arbitration on Sunday, including two Philadelphia Flyers players in defenseman Jamie Drysdale and forward Trevor Zegras.

Both the Flyers and each player can continue to negotiate their contracts before their arbitration hearings and can come to agreements before then. The dates of those hearings will be announced in the future, but hearings will begin on July 20th. Filing for arbitration also means that both players are ineligible for offer sheets.

Drysdale is coming off a career-best season in which he racked up 8 goals and 24 assists for 32 points in 78 games. He was just 5 points behind Travis Sanheim for the team lead in points by a defenseman in 3 less games.

Zegras finished second on the team in points (67), tied for the team-lead in assists (41) with Travis Konecny, and was third in team goals (26). He also led the team in game-winning goals (5), power play goals (10), power play assists (13), and power play points (23). Safe to say, it was the best season of Zegras’ career in his first year on Broad Street.

It will be interesting to see what the asking salaries are for each player, especially in the midst of the ongoing Leo Carlsson offer sheet saga. If the Anaheim Ducks do not match the Flyers’ offer sheet, Philadelphia will have approximately $11,565,416 in cap space to work with, per PuckPedia. However, teams can go 10 percent above the cap in the offseason until they have to turn in cap complaint rosters before the regular season begins, so the Flyers have time to figure things out.

Drysdale has been reported by Daily Faceoff’s Anthony Di Marco to earn a contract with an AAV in around $6.25 million, which would put him in the same neighborhood as Sanheim who makes $6.25 million through 2031.

Drysdale was previously making $2.3 million per year on his most recent contract. Zegras is coming off a $5.75 million AAV and could be looking for a deal in the $9 million-$10 million range per season. Travis Konecny makes $8.75 million per season as the team’s current highest-paid player on the roster.