Around a year and a half ago, forward Karsen Dorwart was one of the top undrafted college free agents in the 2025 class after an impressive three years at Michigan State University. Things haven’t gone as well in the pros, however, as he found himself an unrestricted free agent once again this summer.
Dorwart now has a place to play for the upcoming season as AHL Charlotte, affiliate of the Panthers, announced that they’ve signed him to a one-year deal.
The 23-year-old signed with Philadelphia once his college career came to an end with the Flyers opting to burn a year of the contract right away to help entice him to sign. Dorwart got into five games at the end of the season and held his own, logging nearly 11 minutes per night and winning 40% of his faceoffs.
The hope was that Dorwart could push for a full-time role with Philadelphia in training camp last fall but instead, he missed most of camp with an upper-body injury and was assigned to AHL Lehigh Valley upon being cleared to return.
Unfortunately for both sides, Dorwart’s play wasn’t quite good enough to warrant a recall. He played in 70 games for the Phantoms, posting 10 goals and 14 assists.
On top of that, the Flyers opted not to give him a qualifying offer, instead non-tendering him back in June.
With this deal, Dorwart will likely attend Florida’s training camp when it opens up next week. While he won’t be in consideration to break camp with the big club this time around, he’ll look for a bounce-back season to try to play his way into an NHL contract either during the season or next summer.