The NHL offseason has seemed very short after the Flyers’ run to the Stanley Cup Finals. We’re not exactly used to the Orange and Black making a deep postseason run of that sort (had not happened since ’97), so it is surprising how quickly the NHL Draft and free agency period approach when your team is actually playing up until the very last game.

Change has come quickly to the Flyers and the Chicago Blackhawks. Game 6 of the Finals was on June 10, three weeks ago. Since then, the Blackhawks traded one of their biggest playoff contributors, Dustin Byfuglien, to Atlanta along with Brent Sopel and Ben Eager in a cap-clearing move, and the Flyers acquired and traded away the rights to Dan Hamhuis (sending Ryan Parent to Nashville, receiving a third-round pick from Pittsburgh) and have received permission to speak with both Evgeni Nabokov and Marty Turco. The NHL Draft also came and went, with lots of trade talks but nothing major coming together.

With free agency less than 24 hours away, the Flyers have $49.4 million dollars tied up in 17 players (16, really, because Riley Cote doesn’t count). That leaves them with roughly $10.6 million in cap space, with the salary cap rising to $59.4 million.

The Flyers have three restricted free agents: Braydon Coburn, Dan Carcillo and Darroll Powe. All three are expected to sign, Carcillo and Powe for marginal cap hits and Coburn for a decent sized chunk.

After those three sign, the Flyers will likely lose about $4.5-5 million of that cap space. Is that enough to add a Hamhuis-type defenseman or Nabokov-ilk goaltender? Not without moving a major salary.

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