Philadelphia Flyers sign Morgan Frost to two-year contract with $2.1 million AAV

The Philadelphia Flyers have re-signed restricted free agent Morgan Frost to a two-year contract with a cap hit of $2.1 million.

Hearing one of the remaining RFAs, Philadelphia’s Morgan Frost, is closing in on an extension with the Flyers. Sounds like 2 years, slightly above $2M-ish AAV.

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) September 6, 2023

Frost was one of the final RFA’s in the NHL to secure a deal for the upcoming season and beyond. Based on the up and down season the playmaker put forth, it’s not a surprise that the Flyers and Frost’s camp found it difficult to settle on a contract that worked for both parties. 

Frost scored 19 goals and had 27 assists for a total of 46 points in 81 games for the Flyers in 2022-23. When considering Frost’s usage and average time on ice per game of 16 minutes and 21 seconds this past season, he showed his creative playmaking skills with some of the opportunities he received. 

One thing to note is that Frost began this past season with inconsistency plaguing his game both offensively and defensively. This led to a healthy scratch for the center when the Flyers took on the Toronto Maple Leafs on November 1st, 2022. For Frost, this was a low point in the season because his family and friends were in attendance for the game in Toronto, as well as his father Andy Frost who was the longtime PA announcer for the Leafs. 

This healthy scratch took place during a 10-game stretch from Oct. 27 to Nov. 17 in which Frost was mainly used in a fourth-line role where he averaged only 10:52 of ice time per game. During the initial stretch of the 2022-23 regular season the forward was not scoring at a very productive rate. In the first 27 games Frost played in 2022, the center only put up six points and wasn’t a factor for the Flyers in a positive manner.

Flyers head coach John Tortorella made it known that Frost’s lack of consistency from a game to game basis was unsatisfactory. On November 29th, 2022 Tortorella specifically said, “You look at Frosty, I still think he’s up and down like a toilet seat here, as far as you see him coming, then he dips, and then you see him coming.” He also stated that “Hopefully, it levels out and keeps going in the proper direction, because he’s supposed to be a skilled guy. You can see it’s there, but it’s still very inconsistent.”

From December 11th onwards, Frost’s game began to turn around drastically. The 24-year-old center led the Flyers in points with 40 in the final 54 games of the season, while also leading all Flyers players in assists with 24 points as well. 

When taking into account Frost’s inconsistent start to the past season, it’s evident the Flyers may have been using that to their advantage in their negotiations with the forward’s camp. On the other hand, Frost scored at a 0.74 points-per-game pace with 40 points in the final 54 games of the season, which was a statistic likely brought to the forefront from the perspective of Frost’s camp while negotiating this contract. Typically players performing at such a point-per-game pace would be due for a significant increase in compensation from the $800K cap hit and salary Frost received this prior season.

Ultimately, the inconsistent season Frost had makes it easy to understand why it took the majority of the summer for general manager Daniel Briere to finalize this deal. In this situation, Frost bet on himself to perform and put up similar numbers this upcoming season and beyond, as he did throughout the final 54 games of the 2022-23 season. 

With the cap set to rise significantly in the next few seasons ahead, it only made sense for Frost to pursue a bridge deal in this scenario, as contract values should naturally begin to increase in conjunction with the salary cap. As a result, the talented center may potentially cash in on a higher salary down the line once this current contract expires.