"I think the size (6-foot-2, 206 pounds), he brings some tenacious play that we lost … and he's support scoring," Hextall said. "In a perfect world, you bring in a guy who's an elite scorer, but those guys don't fall off trees. When you can't do that, you tend to look at depth scoring, and we felt we added depth scoring for our lineup."
The Flyers re-signed three restricted free agents, among them left wing Brayden Schenn, who agreed to a four-year contract to avoid arbitration. Forwards Nick Cousins and Jordan Weal also signed.
Schenn's signing keeps the Flyers' best line intact, which included center Claude Giroux and right wing Wayne Simmonds. It combined to score 80 of the Flyers' 211 non-shootout goals (37.9 percent).
"Brayden is a very good young player who has continued to get better and we hope he continues to get better," Hextall said.
Weise likely will play on the third line in place of Sam Gagner, who signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Gordon takes the fourth-line spot left by Ryan White, who signed with the Coyotes.
The Flyers bought out the final year of R.J. Umberger's contract. He was a healthy scratch in 23 of the final 24 regular-season games and all six playoff games.
Last season the Flyers' forwards averaged 2.07 goals per game, 24th in the League, so it's up to the holdovers from that group to raise their level.
Atop that list is right wing Jakub Voracek, who had 55 points last season after he finished fourth in the League with 81 points in 2014-15. On July 30, 2015, he signed an eight-year contract that has an average annual value of $8.25 million.