Watch: Trevor Zegras on video
The Philadelphia Flyers will open the NHL’s salary arbitration season. Jamie Drysdale‘s hearing is scheduled for July 20, the first day on the league’s docket, with Trevor Zegras to follow on July 22, according to the hearing schedule PuckPedia obtained Sunday and Pro Hockey Rumors’ Brian La Rose relayed. Fourteen of the 15 players who filed for arbitration earlier this month remain unsigned.
The placement was Philadelphia’s call. Teams can request where their cases land on the docket, and as La Rose notes, the Flyers chose to go early — the opposite of clubs like Montreal and Buffalo, which pushed their cases toward the back of the calendar to leave more time for negotiation. Going first means Philadelphia will have cost certainty on two of its young regulars by the last week of July, one way or another.
Why it matters
The mechanics still leave room for a deal. Either player can settle at any point before his hearing begins. If a case goes the distance, the arbitrator’s decision arrives within 48 hours of the hearing closing, the award can only cover one or two years, and Philadelphia, as the non-electing side, picks the term. The league’s walk-away threshold sits at $4.9508 million; an award above that number would let the Flyers decline it, though walking away from either player would be a surprise given how much of the roster’s future is built around their age group.
The scheduling fits how this front office has operated all month. Philadelphia lost its bid for Leo Carlsson when Anaheim matched the five-year, $90 million offer sheet last week, and general manager Danny Briere is still expected to chase a young No. 1 center by whatever route remains open. Settling Drysdale and Zegras quickly, by negotiation or by award, tells Briere exactly what cap space he has to work with before August. A rebuild runs on cost certainty as much as on draft picks.
For fantasy purposes, the hearings matter less than the term that comes out of them. One- or two-year outcomes would put both players back on the restricted free agent clock quickly, but neither result changes the 2026-27 picture: Zegras stays in the top six and Drysdale keeps his power-play deployment regardless of the number. Dynasty managers should treat settlement news as noise unless it arrives with term beyond two years, which would signal Philadelphia views the player as core.
