Michael Bunting has a new home after the free agent forward managed to secure a one-year, $1.2M deal with the Philadelphia Flyers in the hopes of finding offense.
Tuesday afternoon came with some free agency news as the Philadelphia Flyers added some much needed scoring help by signing Michael Bunting to a one-year, $1.2M deal.
TSN's Darren Dreger was first to break the news on X:
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Michael Bunting finally finds a new home after months of waiting
Bunting, 30, had 14 goals and 33 points in 74 games with both the Nashville Predators and Dallas Stars. It ends a saga where he remained unsigned despite interest from his former team the Maple Leafs, who are still searching for some supplementary scoring help themselves.
The seven-year veteran has 109 goals and 242 points with time spent in Toronto, Pittsburgh, Carolina, Arizona, Dallas, and Nashville.
It also finally puts an end to Bunting's wait to see if he has any interest as it seems any offers dried up this summer. Toronto definitely had some fleeting thoughts about bringing him back, but decided against it at the end of the day.
A bit odd given the team wanted to give Auston Matthews familiarity and could have brought back a person who thrived alongside Matthews for two seasons - still his best numbers of his career.
Flyers desperately need Bunting to bring the heat this season
Philly is going to need Bunting to score immediately given that the team has only put five goals in the net in four games, including a terrible 7-0 thrashing at the hands of the Penguins.
Of the five goals they've scored this season, two of them have been from defensemen - Travis Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen. It makes sense given their offensive ability but nothing yet from Travis Konecny, Trevor Zegras, Denver Barkey or Sean Couturier - and things are dire.
Bunting might not explode for 40 goals but if he can give the Flyers a reliable and consistent scorer who ends up netting 15-20, then not only will that help out Philadelphia a ton, but also set up Bunting nicely for a deal next year given he's proven he can be an asset.
It's a low-risk, high-reward signing for GM Daniel Briere and he's going to hope he can rekindle some of the old Bunting that made him s prime target only a few short seasons ago.
Do you think Toronto made a mistake by not signing Michael Bunting?
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