Flyers Have $30 Million in Cap Space. Will Zegras and Drysdale Get Paid Before Arbitration?

Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale have both filed for arbitration. Their hearings are set for late July. But the Flyers don’t expect either guy to actually show up to one.

Bill Meltzer, a Philly-based reporter, said Tuesday that two organizational sources told him the team expects both contracts to get hammered out beforehand. He wrote that they don’t anticipate either case going to a hearing. That lines up with what Kevin Kurz of The Athletic reported a few days earlier — a team source told Kurz he doesn’t expect those cases to be necessary, though the team is preparing as if they will be. Kurz also noted that as of last week, nothing was imminent on either front.

So there’s no panic in Philadelphia. But there is a deadline. Zegras’ hearing is set for July 22, and Drysdale’s is a couple days earlier on July 20. That gives Danny Briere and the front office roughly two weeks to get this done.

Why the Flyers Can Afford to Be Patient

The cap room is the big story here. According to PuckPedia, the Flyers have just under $30 million in space. That’s a lot of breathing room, especially after the Ducks matched that offer sheet for Leo Carlsson and his $18 million AAV didn’t land on Philly’s books. So Briere can be aggressive if he wants, or he can play it cool. Either way, the money is there.

Zegras had a monster season in 2025-26 — career highs in goals (26) and points (67) over 81 games. He’s become one of the team’s most important forwards. Drysdale, meanwhile, logged over 21 minutes a night as the team’s No. 3 defenseman behind Travis Sanheim and Cam York. He finished with 32 points in 78 games, tying his career-high from his Ducks days back in 2021-22.

CapWages and AFP Analytics have projected Zegras for a five-year, $41 million extension. Drysdale’s projection is a bit bigger: six years at just over $43 million. If those numbers hold, the Flyers would still have about $15 million left to keep tinkering with the roster before camp opens.

But that’s the projections doing the talking. Not the team. And not the agents. Until ink hits paper, this is all just math on a spreadsheet.

Arbitration is a weird process. It can get tense. It can get personal. But the Flyers seem confident they can avoid that drama and get both players locked into longer deals instead of one-year awards. That would be the smarter play for a team that’s flush with cap space and trying to build something real around a young core.