The Philadelphia Flyers have locked up a core piece of their roster for the foreseeable future, inking Owen Tippett to an 8 year, $49.6M contract extension the club announced. His new deal will carry an AAV of $6.2M per season.
Tippett was previously playing out the final year of a 2 year, $3M pact and was slated to become a restricted free agent at season’s end. The 24 year old is coming off his most productive season as a pro in 2022-23, scoring 27 goals and adding 22 assists across 77 games. His 0.64 points per game were easily a career best, and he’s picked up right where he left off this season posting 28 points (17G, 11A) across 45 contests for a 0.62 PPG pace.
Originally drafted 10th overall in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft by the Florida Panthers, the 6’1″ winger was acquired by the Flyers prior to the 2022 trade deadline as part of the Claude Giroux trade.
“We’re very confident with what we’ve seen, and that’s why we were willing to make that commitment to Owen,” Flyers general manager Daniel Briere said. “He’s part of the core, and we’re excited.”
“I think we saw it lately, in the last probably month, month and a half how it feels at times he’s just starting to realize how good he can be,” Briere said. “The other thing, too, when you look, is power forwards like him are tough to find. Power forwards that can score and create on their own, even tougher. So we think there’s more there, we think he’s going to keep improving, he works hard. But the combination of power, scoring ability, leadership, the way he carries himself, all of that, is what made us feel like it was something we were willing and ready to come into.”
This season, Tippett leads The NHL in 5-on-5 shots per 60 with 13.4 amongst qualifying skaters. He also sits in the 84th percentile of NHL forwards in high danger shots on goal and the 95th percentile for goals from mid-range.
While those stats will help keep the analytics community happy, the Peterborough, ON native has also impressed head coach John Tortorella with his revamped play and commitment to finishing checks this year. His 68 hits are 4th best on the team, while his offensive points shares place him 3rd on the Flyers. This continued production, despite playing 2 less minutes per contest from his career high in 2022-23 is all the more reason for Philadelphia fans to be excited about his future with the club.
Tippett was placed on Injured Reserve earlier this week with a lower body injury, meaning he’ll be ineligible to return to the lineup until February 6th at the earliest. The injury isn’t believed to be a long term issue however. In a corresponding move the club recalled Cal Petersen from their AHL affiliate in Lehigh Valley.
After missing the playoffs in each of the last 3 years, Philadelphia currently sits 3rd in the Metropolitan Division with a 25-18-6 record. The Flyers are next in action Saturday against the Boston Bruins in a 12:30pm ET affair.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Jenn G. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.