VOORHEES, NJ — The Flyers opened Day 1 of NHL free agency by adding some depth at forward.
The club is signing Ryan Poehling to a one-year, $1.4 million contract, a source confirmed Saturday.
Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek first reported the deal.
Poehling is a center who played 53 games for the Penguins last season. The 24-year-old recorded seven goals, seven assists and a minus-2 mark in 11:46 minutes per game.
The 6-foot-2, 196-pounder was drafted by the Canadiens during the first round at 25th overall in 2017. He made a bang in his NHL debut with Montreal, putting up a hat trick as the Canadiens finished the 2018-19 season. with a 6-5 shootout win over the Maple Leafs. Impressively, Poehling scored the winner in the skills competition, too.
In 2021-22, he scored a career-high 17 points (nine goals, eight assists) over 57 games for Montreal.
The rebuilding Flyers are not expected to be a major player in free agency.
“I don’t expect us to be super active,” general manager Danny Briere said Thursday after the NHL draft. “We don’t block our young guys, we want to give them the chance to play. We’re not looking for long-term contracts, either, at this point. Don’t expect too much in a couple of days on that.”
(More to come…)