Off to the races, the Philadelphia Flyers got to a quick start by first signing defenseman Noah Juulsen, which was then followed up by forward Christian Dvorak to a one-year deal worth $5.4 million.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report the signing earlier Tuesday.
Dvorak is a former 2nd round pick of the dormant Arizona Coyotes in 2014 but found it difficult to translate his high-octane production from the London Knights to the NHL. He recorded 109 points in 66 games during his draft+1 season and left the junior level off the heels of a championship and 121 points in 59 games.
With the Coyotes, Dvorak scored 67 goals and 146 points in 302 games across 5 seasons before being moved to Montréal in 2021-22. He added 38 goals and 103 points in 232 games in the 4 years since, including 12 goals and 31 points in 82 games this past season.
He ‘s averaged a solid 16:24 TOI throughout his career, a number that never truly wavered, wherever he played as he averaged 16:31 in Arizona and 16:24 in Montreal. His ice-time did drop a little bit in recent seasons but that’s only because Montreal started playing their youth a little more.
Dvorak drastically improves the Flyers’ depth at the centre position and has always been a strong player in the faceoff dot with a career winning percentage of 53.1%. That number has dramatically gone up in recent years as he posted 57.8% in 2023-24 and 55.8% in 2024-25, where he won nearly 600 draws.
The 29-year-old is also a good source for blocked shots and hits and can play in all situations, including the penalty kill, which fell off a bit from their lofty heights in 2023-24. In 82 games last year, Dvorak saw 184.9 minutes shorthanded, which was a slight increase from the 147.7 minutes he saw in 2022-23.
Outside of an injury-ravaged 2023-24, Dvorak has consistently found the back of the net in double digit figures and has reached 30+ points in all but one season in which he played over 64 games.
Look for the newcomer to play a key role down the middle for the Flyers in 2025-26. He played under Rick Tocchet in Arizona between 2017-18 and 2020-21, where he scored 52 goals and 113 points in 224 games, averaged 16:50 TOI, won 52.9% of his draws, and added 136 blocked shots to his 195 hits.
With a cap hit of $5.4 million, the Flyers now have $4,616,905 in estimated cap space.
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