👋 Good morning! I will be walking around Philly with a clothespin on my nose until this strike ends.

The last major trash strike was in 1986. Garbage piled up around The Vet, creating some iconic Philadelphia imagery that I was not aware of until yesterday. The Birds went 5-10-1 that year, Buddy’s first season. Life imitating art.

One quick programming note: This will be the last newsletter from me until next Tuesday. We at ALLCITY are taking July 3rd and 4th off from the newsletter (there still will be shows on the 3rd), which I think is pretty darn reasonable. And then I will be on vacation until Monday. So, in the words of DJ James Kennedy, see you next Tuesday.

As always, you reach me at [email protected]

Yesterday was Day 1 of free agency for the Flyers, Day 2 for the Sixers.

Let’s start on the ice. Heading into free agency, the Flyers realistically had about $11 million to play with. In Charlie’s primer, he listed two spots as key areas of need. And as it turned out, they filled both of them right away:

No relation to Radek apparently. Bummer. Shoutout the NHL for making it easy and announcing the money for everyone. None of this, “Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed” nonsense.

So, those were the big moves that the Flyers. I trust Charlie, and he is not crazy about the Vladar signing. Pretty cool name, though.

Bill and Charlie talked about the Vladar signing here. In the last four years, Vladar has played between 20 and 30 games. The Flyers want him to play minimum 30 games this season, and likely more. And he has a .895 career save percentage, which is slightly below average. Vladar is five years younger, but I do not really understand why he is making almost $2 million more per year than Lyon… especially because the term is the the same. The term is good, though. Egor Zavragin is still very much not blocked.

Speaking of term, I have one my beloved cross-sport comps to make: The Sixers signed JJ Redick to a balloon deal back in 2017. Redick was an in-demand free agent with plenty of multi-year offers, but the Sixers wanted to keep their future cap space open with a bunch of rookie contracts on the books. So, they gave Redick $23 million (an insane cap number at the time) but it made sense because it was only a one-year deal.

That feels like the rationale for the Dvorak deal, which Bill and Charlie talked about here. Is it an overpay? Absolutely, but it is a one-year overpay. And the situation feels somewhat similar to the Redick one. Like the Sixers in 2017, the Flyers want to become more competitive next season without putting their foot on the gas. That should happen next year. Charlie saw it coming, mentioning Dvorak in his primer:

As Charlie mentioned, there are three major reasons the Flyers made this signing:

So, very much a “meh” day for the Flyers. They also signed depth defensemen Noah Juulsen and Dennis Gilbert to one-year deals. Would be nice if they could also sign Russian free agent Maxim Shabanov, as has been rumored.

Speaking of “meh,” the Sixers lost Guerschon Yabusele to the New York Knickerbockers. Excusez-moi? And it was for two years and $12 million (the second year is a player option), which is not the level of contract I was expecting Yabu to get in January. Much less, in fact. That is the taxpayer (smaller) mid-level exception.

Derek and Devon talked about the Yabu signing here. Derek mentioned that, to his knowledge, the Sixers did not even offer Yabu a contract yet. Sacre bleu! And before you get too upset, that is because of the Quentin Grimes situation. The Sixers do not know exactly what Grimes’ next contract will look like, and offering Yabu the MLE would hard-cap them at the dreaded Second Apron. And they might not have the money to pay Grimes if they are locked into that Yabu salary. C'est la vie. This new NBA CBA is super restrictive.

I am of two minds on this…

I just wish Yabu got to play with Joel Embiid. And I wish he went to a team I do not care about, like Josh Sweat and Mekhi Becton did a few months ago. Shoutout to Yabu, though, I enjoyed the experience.

Late last night, the Sixers also announced they signed Eric Gordon to a deal. Gordon’s shooting can be valuable in the right spot, but he is Old and Slow. Do not love that.

The main selling point is that Gordon can be VJ Edgecombe’s mentor, as they are friendly and played together on the Bahamas national team. The Luc Mbah a Moute/Joel Embiid idea, basically. Still, I do not love it.

Summer Camp, Part 1: The Flyers will have The Kids practicing in Voorhees over the next few days. Porter Martone is the big name that will be on the ice, but I am also excited to read that Robert Esche’s son is a goaltender who got an invite. Chico!

Summer Camp, Part 2: Two weeks of summer league for the Sixers, which kicks off July 5th in Utah and then heads to Vegas. The most important players will be VJ Edgecombe, Justin Edwards, Adem Bona and Johni Broome. No Jared McCain, though, which is a bit of a bummer. He could have went for 40 in a few of these games. Kyle has more here:

The Phils got rained out, so they will have a day-night double dip against San Diego. Mick Abel will get the ball in the first game, Cristopher Sánchez in the second game. The Flyers will kick off the on-ice portion of development camp as well.

Your tentative Wednesday schedule at ​PHLY​:

Let's make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
PHLY SPORTS