It’s been a busy week for the Philadelphia Flyers’ front office. Not long after signing forward Owen Tippett to a massive 8 year extension, the club announced that they’d come to terms with forward Ryan Poehling on a new 2 year deal as well.
The contract, which avoids seeing the 25 year old reach RFA status at season’s end, is valued at $3.8M and will carry and AAV of $1.9M per season. In his first season with the team, Poehling has registered 14 points (5G, 9A) across 44 contests after joining the club from the Pittsburgh Penguins in the offseason.
The Lakeville, MN native has represented the US internationally at several junior events, capturing silver at the 2019 U20 World Juniors with the American side. Not known for his offense, Poehling is a versatile bottom six forward who can be deployed in a variety of situations. He’s currently averaging a career high 13:31 worth of ice time per contest with the Flyers in 2023-24.
Originally selected 25th overall by the Montreal Canadiens, the 6″2″ centre was playing on a 1 year, $1.4M “prove it” deal with Philadelphia this season. Evidently however, his penalty killing and checking line play has impressed the Flyers coaching staff and front office enough to want to get a deal across the finish line prior to the NHL trade deadline.
The Flyers penalty kill currently ranks 2nd in the NHL at 85.9% trailing only the Los Angeles Kings at the moment. Poehling is entering a line featuring Noah Cates and Tyson Foerster at the moment, but has displayed an ability to move and up and down the lineup as needed in the past.
The Flyers are next in action on Tuesday, February 6th against the Florida Panthers as the NHL takes it’s annual midseason pause for the All-Star Game.
Photo: Jenn G. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.