The Philadelphia Flyers and pending restricted free agent Noah Cates have come to terms on a 4-year extension worth $4 million per season, according to general manager Daniel Brière.
In a rather surprising move, the 26-year-old centre signed a longer-term extension with the club after earlier reports suggested he was willing to bet on himself this season with a 1-year deal. A longer termed contract wasn’t off the table and it looks like the Flyers were able to meet his demands.
The 26-year-old centre has become one of the more reliable 2-way forwards for the Flyers in recent years and it’s even more important considering their lack of skill down the middle. Cates finished the year with 16 goals and 37 points in 78 games with a +3, 15;53 ATOI, and 21 takeaways.
Over the course of his 4-year career, Cates has 40 goals and 102 points in 235 games with 124 takeaways to 53 giveaways, 15:50 ATOI, and a +2. Between 202-23 and 2023-24, Cates had a ridiculous 93:18 takeaway to giveaway ratio and even received Lady Byng and Selke Trophy votes for his efforts.
The former 5th round pick from the 2017 NHL Entry Draft quietly made his way through the NCAA ranks with the University of Minnesota-Duluth, where he finished the 4 years with 39 goals and 99 points in 139 games to go along with an NCAA Championship in 2019.
Cates formed a rather formidable trio with Tyson Foerster and Bobby Brink last season and finished as the second best line in all of hockey with an xGoals% of 58.3, trailing only Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and Matthew Knies by 0.1%. It wasn’t a small sample size either as they played 570.9 minutes together.
At one point during the offseason it was speculated that Cates and the Flyers could be headed to arbitration since his camp was more than likely looking for a one-year deal. Anthony Di Marco added that the Flyers valued Cates at around $3.5 million on a longer-termed deal, meaning they found some leeway in negotiations since then to get the contract done and dusted.
Cates will once again be expected to handle a top-9 role with the club regardless of the moves they make this off-season and play crucial minutes on even-strength and the penalty kill under new head coach Rick Tocchet.
Cates’ deal comes off the heels of the Flyers extending Foerster and Helge Grans to 2-year contracts. With his $4 million dollar AAV now officially in the books, Philadelphia is holding onto $18,991,905 in cap space with Cam York and Jakob Pelletier as their remaining RFAs.
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