When Will Morgan Frost And The Flyers Reach A Deal?
We are at the end of July and Flyers center Morgan Frost still does not have a contract for the upcoming season. So what exactly is the holdup here and why hasn’t a deal been made yet?
I feel like I'm in the middle on Morgan Frost, which is a weird place given how annoying his biggest fans/fiercest detractors are on this site.
I didn't think Torts' treatment of him early was fair, & I felt any late-season praise Torts gave him was unfairly begrudging. (1/2)
— Charlie O'Connor (@charlieo_conn) July 25, 2023
The biggest hold up appears to be the length of the deal and the Flyers not being fully committed to Frost long term just yet. The 24 year old has had an interesting start to his NHL career. He has shown flashes of his potential but has not yet developed into the player we had hoped he would be.
Now, his first two season its tough to fault him as he only played in 20 games his first year in 19-20 then only 2 NHL games in 20-21. His last two seasons he has gotten more of a look and again has shown signs of what he can do but has not done it at the consistent level you want out of a top 6 forward.
Only 16 points in 55 games in 21-22 coming off the shoulder injury from the year before so I’m sure that could have played a factor in his performance. However, this past season he appeared in 81 of 82 games and put up 19 goals and 27 assist for 46 points.
After scoring two goals in the opening game against the Devils we were thinking this was going to be the year he finally breaks out and lights up the scoresheet. He would go 17 games without scoring a goal after that.
He really didn’t get into a consistent flow with putting up points throughout the year but his play really started coming together more towards the end of the season. Obviously we would have liked to see more point production but my biggest takeaway was that he was at least noticeable out on the ice trying to make an impact.
I do believe that with another full camp under Torts and finally hopefully having more confidence in his game this season could be his best yet. But a deal needs to get done first.
With the cap projected to go up in the next couple of seasons I can understand why Frost camp would be looking for a shorter term deal. Obviously, the Flyers would prefer to lock him up for a little bit longer at a not so steep price.
When will this deal get done? It could happen any day and I do think it will be a bridge deal around 3 years probably with an AAV of around $3.3M. I think that would be a fair deal for Frost based on his performance and his potential. Plus it take him to a time where at the end of the contact he would be a UFA and could explore the market for a longer more expensive deal.
Either way within that time frame the Flyers will know if he is a guy that is worth paying to continue being a part of the team. By the time Frost is 27 the rebuild the Flyers are going through should be turning the corner and they should hopefully be competing for a Stanley Cup.
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-Walsh