Future plans confirmed for Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale
Photo credit: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images
Two Flyers filed for arbitration on the same day. Only one of those negotiations is actually complicated, and it isn't the defenseman's.
Jamie Drysdale and Trevor Zegras both elected salary arbitration on July 5, with hearings set for July 20 and July 22.
This appears as routine restricted free agent business that Danny Briere will clean up before anyone reaches a hearing.
That framing hides the real story. Drysdale's number is essentially solved, while Zegras's is a fight the Carlsson saga just made harder.
Despite that, the Flyers do expect both the Zegras and Drysdale contracts to be hammered out ahead of arbitration and they don't believe either will go to a hearing.
Drysdale has a clean comparable sitting in his own room. Travis Sanheim's $6.25 million anchors him, and independent projections land within a rounding error of that, so his deal is closer to a formality.
Zegras has no comparable, only a classification
Zegras is the harder case because his value depends on a label. He split last season between center and wing, and centers are paid more, so whether Philadelphia argues him as a pivot or a winger decides millions.
He posted career highs of 26 goals and 67 points, then led the Flyers in playoff scoring. His camp, led by Pat Brisson, will push the center framing hard.
The Carlsson bid quietly armed the other side
One thread ties these two events together, and no one is pulling it.
For a full week, Briere publicly insisted a young center was worth a record $18 million and four first-round picks, tendering that offer sheet to Leo Carlsson before Anaheim matched.
That number is now a live reference point across the table from Zegras. You cannot spend a month declaring young centers priceless, then argue your own 24-year-old center should be paid like a winger.
Briere kept his picks and roughly $29.5 million in space, so the money exists.
The question is whether his own aggression reset the floor on the deal he still has to finish.
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