The Philadelphia Flyers have turned to the free-agent market for a quick lift, signing winger Michael Bunting to a one-year contract worth $1.2 million after opening the 2026-27 season without a win.
General manager Daniel Brière confirmed the deal on Tuesday, hours after TSN’s Darren Dreger first reported it.
Bunting, 31, had been unsigned since July 1, when the three-year, $13.5 million contract he signed with Carolina in 2023 expired.
He spent the summer without a camp or a preseason and will need time to get up to speed before he can help a lineup that has already fallen behind the rest of the league.
Philadelphia is 0-2-2 and has been outscored 17-5 through four games, including a 4-1 loss at Tampa Bay on Monday.
The club has managed only a handful of goals, the power play has yet to convert in more than 10 chances, and the shot totals have been lopsided.
A year ago the Flyers reached the second round behind a defense-first group coached by Rick Tocchet. That identity has not produced enough offense this fall, and the front office decided an outside addition was preferable to rushing a prospect such as Cole Knuble out of the American Hockey League.
Bunting is a familiar, if restless, option. Originally a fourth-round pick of the Arizona Coyotes in 2014, he broke through with Toronto in 2021-22, posting 23 goals and 63 points and finishing as a Calder Trophy finalist.
He has since passed through Carolina, Pittsburgh, Nashville, and Dallas, and Philadelphia will be his seventh NHL team.
Last season, he scored 13 goals and 31 points in 61 games with the Predators, then was traded to the Stars on March 5 and managed only a goal and an assist in 13 games before injuries limited him to a single playoff appearance, in which he recorded an assist.
Across 418 career games, he has 109 goals and 252 points, including 36 on the power play.
At his best he plays with an edge and can supply secondary scoring on a middle-six line. At $1.2 million the risk is modest, especially compared with the $4.5 million average he carried on his last deal. The ceiling is more limited.
He is a floor-raiser rather than a difference-maker, and one veteran winger will not erase a drought that has already drawn comparisons to the league’s other early-season scoring problems.
Still, for a team that spent the summer chasing bigger names without fixing its attack, Bunting is a low-cost attempt to change the temperature before Thursday’s visit to Ottawa.
