Flyers GM Danny Briere Hoping Michael Bunting Can Bring 'Spunk' To Struggling Lineup

Michael Bunting doesn't fill the Flyers' biggest need — a true No. 1 center — but the veteran winger gives Philadelphia a feisty player who has a knack for finding the net and being productive on the power play.

Those are parts of the game the Flyers have lacked while opening the season with four straight losses.

On Tuesday, the Flyers signed Bunting, a 31-year-old unrestricted free agent, to a one-year, $1.2-million contract. They hope he can spark a team that has gotten off to an 0-2-2 start while being outscored 17-5 and outshot 158-76.

The minus-82 shot differential through four games is the second-worst in the NHL since 1959-60.

So, yes, general manager Danny Briere started to feel the urgency to make an early move.

"We hope he brings a little spunk to our team and helps us get things on track," Briere said in a statement to The Hockey News on Wednesday.      

Bunting, now with his seventh team, won't solve all the Flyers' problems. But he will give the team some much-needed offense and more physicality.

In a corresponding move, the Flyers sent 22-year-old winger Alex Bump to the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Wednesday.

It wouldn't be surprising if Bunting, assuming he's in good shape, played on the third line and on the second power-play unit. He has collected 66 (36 goals, 30 assists) of his 256 career points on the power play.

The Flyers are 0-for-11 with the man-advantage through four games.

Bunting has played on power-play units with such explosive players as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews and William Nylander, so his numbers with the Flyers won't be as high.

Still, he seems like a reasonable gamble. When you start out winless in your first four games for the first time since 2015-16, well, something was bound to happen.

Bunting had his best season as a rookie in 2021-22 with the Toronto Maple Leafs, collecting 63 points (23 goals, 40 assists). He finished third in the Calder Trophy voting for the rookie of the year that season. Moritz Seider won the award while Trevor Zegras, now with the Flyers, finished second. 

Drafted by Arizona in the fourth round in 2014, Bunting also scored 23 goals in his second season but hasn’t surpassed 14 goals since then.

Last season, Bunting had 33 points, including 14 goals, in 74 combined games with the Nashville Predators and Dallas Stars.

Flyers coach Rick Tocchet is familiar with Bunting. At the start of his career, the winger scored 11 goals in 26 games for the Tocchet-coached Coyotes, and that type of production probably had Tocchet giving favorable reports to Briere before the signing. 

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