UFA Michael Bunting Signs Deal With Metropolitan Team
The Philadelphia Flyers have signed Michael Bunting to a one-year, $1.2M deal ✍️ Philly takes a chance on the former 20-goal scorer after scoring just five goals in four games 👀 https://t.co/puk3uLfV8m
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) October 6, 2026
It's a $1.2 million contract.
The Flyers are off to a dreadful start to the season, at 0-2-2, and have scored just five goals in four games. Bunting has been pretty regularly close to the 20-goal mark in four of his five full NHL seasons. Last year, split between the Nashville Predators and Dallas Stars, he slumped a bit to just 14 markers in 74 games.
The 31-year-old broke out in his age-26 season with his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs, notching 23 goals in his full year in the NHL, and matching that the following year. Since then, he's played for five other teams over the past three seasons, and he was a trade deadline transaction in each of those campaigns.
Bunting was a fourth-round pick of Arizona in the 2014 NHL Draft, but never got a foothold with the team, spending most of his time in the AHL. The Maple Leafs signed him in free agency in 2021, and he had a couple of productive seasons in Toronto, though he left as a UFA in 2023.
Overall, he has 109 goals and 252 points in 418 career games with the Coyotes, Leafs, Carolina Hurricanes, Pittsburgh Penguins, Predators and Stars. The Flyers will be his seventh team.
It's not yet clear exactly where he'll slot into the Philadelphia lineup, but, per The Athletic, he could potentially replace Carl Grundstrom, who already cleared waivers before the start of the season.