What a capper to the year for Jamie Drysdale.
After posting a career-best season, the 24-year-old blueliner signed a four-year, $26 million extension on Friday with a $6.5 million average annual value to stay with the Flyers. According to a team source, the contract comes with very limited trade protections in the final two years, and per Puckpedia, it is a six-team no-trade list in Year 3 and a four-team no-trade list in Year 4.
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Drysdale became a restricted free agent on July 1 and filed for salary arbitration July 5, two days after the Flyers tendered a five-year, $90 million offer sheet to Leo Carlsson that the Anaheim Ducks matched. Drysdale’s arbitration hearing was scheduled for Monday.
The signing comes two days after the Flyers inked Trevor Zegras to a four-year, $36.5 million contract. Drysdale is now the highest-paid defenseman on the Flyers in AAV. The core of Drysdale, Cam York, and Sanheim is locked up for several seasons, with Sanheim signed through 2030-31 and York’s contract expiring at the same time as Drysdale’s, after the 2029-30 season. The final member of the top-four blueliners, Rasmus Ristolainen, is in the final year of his contract.
“I love it here,” Drysdale said on locker cleanout day. “I’ve made that very clear, kind of the second that I got here. Everyone’s treated me amazingly since I’ve gotten here.”
Acquired for Cutter Gauthier from the Anaheim Ducks in January 2024, alongside a second-round pick that the Flyers eventually used to select forward Jack Murtagh, Drysdale struggled early on to find his footing in Philadelphia. But there’s a reason why his teammates awarded the defenseman the Pelle Lindbergh Memorial Trophy in April as the team’s most improved player.
“We’re excited to have Jamie remain a key part of our organization for years to come,” Flyers general manager Danny Brière said in the team’s press release.
“Since we acquired him, Jamie has worked extremely hard and taken big steps in his development, and has established himself as a reliable piece on our back end with the ability to impact the game in all situations. We believe his best hockey is still ahead of him, and he’s going to play an important role in strengthening our blue line as we continue to build.”
After several injury-plagued seasons, Drysdale skated in 78 games this past season, missing three games due to an upper-body injury from a blindside hit in January, and the last game of the regular season to rest. It was the most he’s played since skating in 81 during his second NHL season of 2021-22.
He averaged a career-high 21 minutes, 33 seconds per night, set a new mark in goals (eight), and tied his previous best in points (32). According to Natural Stat Trick, the Flyers had a 50.5% goal share with Drysdale on the ice.
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“I think I took a few steps this year,” he said. “The biggest step, I think, was just confidence level. That might not be like an actual hockey thing, but I think just coming to the rink and believing that I was a good player and could make an impact. That was probably the biggest kind of shift for me. And I guess that kind of carries all over the ice.”
Maybe that confidence played a role in his biggest improvement: his plus-minus. It still isn’t in the positives, but it jumped from minus-32 in 2024-25 to minus-3 this season.
“I saw some guys take a big step, Jamie, especially in the way that he defends,” alternate captain Travis Sanheim said at locker cleanout day. “It was awesome to see from my point of view, and the way that he may continue to get better and better with more minutes and harder competition. I’m excited to see where his game gets to as we move this thing along.”
In the first postseason appearance of his career, Drysdale posted two goals, tying him for the team lead with several players, and two assists. His goal in Game 1 against the Pittsburgh Penguins was the first playoff goal by a Flyer since Ivan Provorov’s overtime winner against the New York Islanders in Game 6 of the second round of the 2020 bubble.
But the blueliner knows that lastseason was just one chapter in his hockey story. He’s heading off for the summer to work on his game because, while happy with his season, he thinks he can bring a lot more to the table.
“I think just puck play, to be honest with you, that’s kind of the biggest thing,” he said when asked what he wants to improve on. “With that, obviously, shot, shooting it, things like that.
“And then, just hanging onto pucks, making more plays in the offensive zone. And I think that’s just something that I can work on, something that I will work on. Just taking guys on, maybe more one-on-one, things like that, just making more plays overall is the thing that I’ll focus on and lean into.”
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