Morgan Frost’s bridge deal is indicative of where both the player and the Flyers are at the moment

Just over a month before the start of the 2023-24 NHL season, the Flyers finished signing their restricted free agents. Both the deal and the player are representative of the stage the organization is about to enter.

Twenty-four-year-old Morgan Frost is a player with unrealized potential. His two-year, $4.2 million ($2.1 million AAV) contract is the epitome of not only a bridge deal but a “prove to me you’re worth more” deal.

The Flyers may have been headed for a “rebuild” for a while, but they’ve only just acknowledged the word officially. Although coach John Tortorella believes in “addition through subtraction,” the organization has also been clear it doesn’t believe in the “tear it all down” philosophy. Look no further than interim general manager Danny Brière clarifying the difference between a rebuild and a fire sale at his introductory press conference in March.

» READ MORE: The Flyers’ future down the middle starting to take shape as this season nears its end

The Flyers are early in the building process and are still finding out what pieces they have. This next stage is about the organization finding answers to the unknowns and the players proving themselves.

The highly skilled but sometimes frustrating Frost is representative of where the Flyers are. After seasons of inconsistency followed by a burst of success over the second half of last season, he’s left Tortorella with more questions than answers. Last season, the center posted career highs with 19 goals, 27 assists, and 46 points, but he still was a streaky player. With this deal, he has to show that the final month of the season, when he scored 16 points in 18 games, isn’t a fluke. If he does, he could become a key part of the team’s future core and earn himself a big payday in two years’ time.

The fifth-year center is far from the only young player in the organization who still needs to prove himself. Over the years (especially the last two), the Flyers have accumulated high draft picks. So far, none of their homegrown prospects have developed into a true game-breaker, which the Flyers sorely need. The Flyers hope Cutter Gauthier and Matvei Michkov have that potential to do that one day, but those players are further down the road.

For now, Tyson Foerster impressed with seven points in his NHL cameo, but eight NHL games are a small sample size. Other former first-round picks like Joel Farabee and Cam York had uneven performances last season. Even those who proved steady last year, like former fifth-round pick Noah Cates, could plateau or regress. However, Frost is the most extreme case, and the biggest variable, as the player who took the biggest leap in the shortest amount of time.

Frost’s final month earned praise from a coach who was not shy about criticizing him through most of the year. Will his success carry over or will his history of inconsistency and the toilet seat comparisons from Tortorella continue?

The next stage of the Flyers’ rebuild depends on the answer to these questions on a larger scale. Will the youth, like Frost, prove to be the players the Flyers hoped they’d be? If some of them make good on their potential, this might not be as long and grueling of a process as some may fear.

Or will they prove to be the latest examples in a long history of Flyers’ drafting and development misfires? If so, the organization will need to go back to the drawing board to build around the next generation of draft picks.

The bridge deals that Frost York, and Cates signed this summer allow the Flyers to find out these answers at a low cost. The short-term contracts let the Flyers get out quickly if things don’t work. Any loss of cap space or troubles on the ice would happen in the years the Flyers are rebuilding anyway.

However, the short-term deals also work in the players’ favor if they continue to improve. They aren’t locked into cheap contracts for the long term, which would allow them in a few years the chance to renegotiate and potentially cash in once they have more leverage.

» READ MORE: The Flyers’ 25-and-under core’s late-season momentum provides hope for the future

It’s a distinct change in philosophy from the previous regime, which tried to lock down any young player who flashed potential. Travis Sanheim was handed an eight-year, $50 million contract with a no-trade clause after one great year, while Farabee earned a six-year, $30 million contract after 28 career goals an 107 NHL games.

Sixteen points in 18 games (0.89 ppg) is impressive, as are Frost’s 40 points over the final 54 games (0.74) last season. But he’s never produced that consistently over his other 104 NHL games. Entering last season, Frost had averaged just 0.30 points, a low number for an offensive flair player.

This season is going to be a litmus test for Frost and the organization. Frost, who likely will open the season in the team’s top six, has to prove he’s got what it takes to be a part of the future. At the same time, the organization has to prove to the fans that it truly is looking toward the future, unlike some of the team’s previous regimes, which failed to look in the mirror and carelessly went chasing for immediate success.