The Philadelphia Flyers’ lone domino in the line of restricted free agents has fallen as defenseman Cam York has signed a five-year contract that carries a $5.15 million AAV.
Maher Media’s Chris Maher was the first to report the signing early Monday morning before Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman followed up and alerted the rest of the hockey world.
Notably, the contract does not include any trade protection, according to The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz.
York was the only restricted free agent tendered a qualifying offer by the Flyers back on June 30th as Jakob Pelletier, Elliot Desnoyers, and Zayde Wisdom were not qualified and allowed to reach unrestricted free agency.
York’s signing comes less than a day after the deadline for teams to file for salary arbitration passed, and the Flyers obviously didn’t go that route. Saturday was the deadline for players to file, in which York’s camp elected not to. As both parties didn’t file, it sure seemed like a deal was on the horizon and now that has become a reality.
York had a tumultuous 2024-25 season, to say the least. In 66 games, he recorded 4 goals, 13 assists, 126 blocked shots, 60 hits, and was -8 while averaging 20:47 of ice time per game. He was out for a month of action – 13 games in total – after suffering an upper-body injury on October 23rd in a 6-3 loss at Washington.
York then notoriously butted heads with former head coach John Tortorella after the Flyers’ 7-2 loss at Toronto on March 25th, which saw Tortorella fired shortly afterwards and York stapled to the bench for the entirety of their next game.
Prior to the Toronto game, York was healthy scratched on March 8th, which became a 4-1 loss to Seattle. The 2019 first-round pick voiced his displeasure with the decision and lack of communication with his now ex-bench boss.
“Whatever he thinks, I don’t know,” said York. “If there was communication, then maybe I would understand. But I’m just not sure, really. I’m going to play as hard as I can here. This last little stretch of games here, just want to play some of the best hockey that I can.”
At his end-of-year press conference, York mentioned that it took some time to get back into form after his injury and that he was looking forward to a healthy offseason.
“Maybe two-ish weeks, I would say,” said York. “For a little bit there, I was probably not 100 percent or where I needed to be physically. And it kind of sucks, just the timing of it, because maybe the first 10 games you’re kind of getting your body ramped up for the season and getting your legs under yourself, and you know, I felt like I was just playing catch up after that. But our training staff did a good job and throughout the year it was something that we were kind of working on. So yeah, I’m excited to go into the offseason on a healthy note and have a good offseason of training and come into camp 100 percent.”
York will look to regain his prior form and help bolster the Philadelphia blueline once again. In 235 games with the Flyers, the 24-year-old has racked up 19 goals, 58 assists, 411 blocked shots, and 201 hits while averaging 20:56 of ice time per game. His 2023-24 campaign saw him post career-highs across the board in goals (10), assists (20), points (30), blocked shots (174), hits (76), and average ice time (22:37).
