How Flyers' Michael Bunting Signing Changes Lineup Going Forward

Amid a winless 0-2-2 start to the season, the Philadelphia Flyers made a surprise transaction on Tuesday, signing veteran free agent winger Michael Bunting to a one-year contract worth $1.2 million. That will, however, invariably have a trickle effect on the rest of the lineup moving forward.

As has been discussed often throughout the last several years, the Flyers have a stocked cupboard full of wingers on the NHL roster, in the minors, and in the prospect pipeline.

No matter which way the Bunting signing gets sliced, someone is losing a spot in the lineup and ice time, and that someone obviously is not going to be a player like Tyson Foerster, Travis Konecny, Matvei Michkov, Porter Martone, or Owen Tippett.

Instead, youngsters like Alex Bump, Denver Barkey, and Nikita Grebenkin will be hit with the shrapnel of the surprise signing, and Bump, who has already been benched during games and healthy scratched this season, seems destined for the AHL, especially when including the context of his unimpressive preseason and training camp.

Barkey had been injured up until Sunday's practice, and Grebenkin has taken Barkey's place on injured reserve.

To turn the tide, the Flyers are first adding some veteran experience with Bunting, a player who plays with sandpaper and can bring offensive value in the right situation.

Presumably, the Flyers are hoping they can coax some of that scoring out of Bunting, who has two 50+ point seasons under his belt, but hasn't achieved that since 2023-24.

At his best, Bunting was able to be that stabilizing, complementary force for more talented players.

Early in his career, the scrappy winger played alongside Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, owning a 65% expected goal share in 557 minutes in 2021-22, and 57.3% of the expected goal share in 282.5 minutes in 2022-23.

With William Nylander replacing Marner for 101 more minutes in 2022-23, the results were 0.6% worse, so virtually the same.

In 2023-24, Bunting scored 19 points in 21 games with Pittsburgh, spending 193 minutes at 5-on-5 with Evgeni Malkin and Rickard Rakell, a trio that owned 60% of the expected goal share, per MoneyPuck.

During his time in Carolina, before being shipped off to Pittsburgh, Bunting owned 59.9% of the expected goal share playing alongside Jack Drury and Martin Necas.

Last season, in spite of how mediocre the Nashville Predators were, Bunting, Erik Haula, and Luke Evangelista owned 61.3% of the expected goal share in 124 minutes together.

This is all to say that, yes, the Flyers can absolutely get some good value of Bunting when he is paired up with the right linemates... and if the Flyers as a team start playing real hockey.

The following lineup is my educated guess on what I think the Flyers will end up doing, not necessarily what I would personally do:

Flyers lines with Michael Bunting

Michael Bunting - Trevor Zegras - Owen Tippett

Travis Konecny - Christian Dvorak - Matvei Michkov

Tyson Foerster - Noah Cates - Porter Martone

Denver Barkey - Sean Couturier - Noel Acciari

In this situation, Alex Bump is sent to the AHL instead of serving as a reserve on the bench, and Carl Grundstrom reprises his role as the 13th forward with Garrett Wilson remaining on the roster as a fill-in for Grebenkin.

The Zegras-Tippett duo experiment has not carried over well to start this season, and it would be preferable to try Michkov with Zegras and Bunting, but Rick Tocchet might not be at that point yet with two of his brightest offensive players.

Also of note: center Noah Cates is averaging a career-low 12:29 through four games this season, and if his struggles continue, it wouldn't be surprising to see either Barkey or Couturier get a promotion somewhere.

In any event, the Flyers signed Bunting to play him, and it's looking like that will be in the top-six to start off.