The dust has settled from the Travis Konecny extension that was announced last week. The contract carries an $8.75-million AAV across eight years, plus a full No-Move Clause in the first six years and a Modified No-Trade Clause in the final two. It’s a big contract — one of the largest ever signed by the Flyers and the largest in the salary cap era — and should see Konecny finish his career in Philadelphia.

Reactions to that contract have been…mixed, to put it nicely. Online, it’s been apocalyptic: the Flyers have given up on the rebuild, they’ve thrown away cap space to a player who’s too old, and general manager Danny Briere clearly has no idea what he’s doing. Offline, it’s been a different story: as an anecdote, I was at a bar the evening of the extension, and a group of people walked in and loudly proclaimed how excited they were Konecny was staying and had a big ol’ cheers to celebrate the new contract.

There’s merit to both sides here, but the cap hit is far less of an issue in the future than many seem to think. For starters, the only players of any consequence signed beyond the 2026-27 season are Konecny, Travis Sanheim, Sean Couturier, and Owen Tippett — plus one more year of Joel Farabee (we’re not counting Nick Seeler as a “player of consequence” here, but he would have one year left at that point as well).

That’s it: five players. Sure, there are going to be some extensions hitting the books — Matvei Michkov, Cam York, Jamie Drysdale, Tyson Foerster, and maybe a Bobby Brink or Morgan Frost — and hopefully a few ELCs for Oliver Bonk and Jett Luchanko. Outside of Michkov, none of these players are likely to warrant massive extensions barring breakout seasons. Add in the rising cap and dead money/contracts falling off the books, and the Flyers’ cap outlook is solid for when they want to contend.