Flyers sign Latvian center Rodrigo Ābols to a two-way deal

Although anticipation is running high as time ticks to the reported June 30 deadline for the addition of Matvei Michkov, the Flyers did make a move on Saturday by adding a European player.

Thin down the middle, the Flyers signed center Rodrigo Ābols to a one-year, $775,000 two-way contract.

This past season, the 6-foot-4 left shot had 26 points (14 goals, 12 assists), including five power-play goals, in 50 games with Rögle BK of the Swedish Hockey League. He added another 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in 15 playoff games and played for Latvia at the IIHF Men’s World Championships in May, notching two goals and two assists.

Ābols, 28, was a seventh-round pick of the Vancouver Canucks in 2016. He played two seasons in the Canadian Hockey League — one full year with Portland of the Western Hockey League and another split between Portland and Acadie-Bathurst of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League — but his rights with Vancouver expired.

In May 2019, Ābols signed a two-year deal with the Florida Panthers and spent the season in the minors, where he registered 23 points (seven goals, 16 assists) in 36 games with Springfield of the American Hockey League.

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He returned to Europe on loan with Örebro HK in the SHL for 2020-21, scoring 20 goals and 35 points in 47 games before adding another 10 points in the postseason. In 266 career games with Örebro and Rögle BK, Ābols collected 163 points (85 goals, 78 assists).

Ābols has represented his home country at all levels, notably at the World Championships — earning a bronze medal in 2023, when he scored five goals and seven points as an alternate captain — and at two Olympics.