Flyers sign Tippett to 8-year, $49.6M extension

Forward Owen Tippett signed an eight-year contract extension with the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday, according to multiple reports.

Tippett, who was moved to injured reserve this week with a lower-body injury, is in the midst of what could be the best season of his young career. The 24-year-old winger is on pace to finish with his first 30-goal season and is projected to finish with 52 points.

If those figures hold, it would see Tippett surpass what he achieved in his first season with the Flyers back in 2022-23 when he scored 27 goals and 49 points in 77 games.

Re-signing Tippett to an eight-year deal worth $6.2 million annually gives the Flyers their sixth player who has more than three years remaining on their current contract. Tippett joins a group that also includes Sean Couturier, Ryan Ellis, Joel Farabee, Rasmus Ristolainen and Travis Sanheim.

A first-round pick by the Florida Panthers in 2017, Tippett was projected to be a top-six winger. He had 14 goals and 33 points in 94 games with the Panthers where he also averaged less than 13 minutes in ice time.

The Panthers traded Tippett, a 2023 third-round pick and their 2024 first-round pick to Flyers in 2022 in the deal that saw long-time Flyers forward Claude Giroux go the other way.

Tippett was able to carve out a greater role with the Flyers. He had four goals and seven points in 21 games after the trade while also averaging more than 15 minutes in ice time.

With the Flyers in a rebuild, it presented players such as Tippett with an opportunity. He took advantage of those circumstances by having the type of breakout season that saw him finish second on the team in goals and third on the team in points while averaging more than 17 minutes in ice time.

At the time of his injury, his 18 goals rated second on the Flyers while being tied for third in points for a team that went from openly being in a rebuild a year ago to one that could reach the playoffs for the first time since the 2019-20 season.

Entering Friday, the Flyers (25-18-6) were third in the Metropolitan Division and were five points clear of the New Jersey Devils with the caveat that the Flyers have played three more games than the Devils.