Yandle has signed a one-year contract with the Flyers worth $900,000. A veteran of 14-plus NHL seasons and a three-time NHL All-Star Game participant, he was recently bought out by the Florida Panthers with two seasons remaining on the six-year deal he signed back in 2016. Yandle is coming off a down season by his standards in 2020-21 but posted 45 points in the pandemic shortened 2019-20 season. He will celebrate his 36th birthday on Sept. 9.
By signing Yandle for one year, the Flyers have taken the pressure off 20-year-old Cam York to jump directly into full-time NHL duty after a three-game cup of coffee (plus 11 American Hockey League games with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms) late last season.
Yandle has never been a stellar defender but has been one of the upper-echelon point-producing defensemen in the NHL over the course of his career. Even if he plays a lesser role than he did in the prime of his career, Yandle can still ably handle power play ice time.
As with fellow new acquisitions Cam Atkinson, Ellis and Ristolainen, Yandle has been part of the leadership group on his teams. Most recently, he was an alternate captain for the Panthers.
Yandle has also been durable, rarely missing games over the course of his entire career. Currently, Yandle has an active 922-game iron man streak of consecutive games. He is 42 short of Doug Jarvis's all-time NHL record.
The four annual $1,241,667 buyout installments Yandle will receive from the Panthers made him a budget-conscious signing candidate for the Flyers for the next season.
Additionally, Yandle previously played under head coach Alain Vigneault before. They were together with the New York Rangers in 2014-15 and 2015-16 before Yandle signed with Florida as an unrestricted free agent.
