The Philadelphia Flyers made a significant move on Tuesday, as the team has decided to sign forward Noah Cates to an extension contract, the team announced.

“BREAKING: We have signed forward @cates_noah to a four-year contract extension worth an annual average value (AAV) of $4 million,” the Flyers shared in a social media post on X (formerly Twitter).

Cates is coming off his fourth season in the NHL with the Flyers, in which he scored 16 goals to go with 21 assists for 37 points while finishing with a plus-3 through 78 games. It was also a solid bounce-back year for the 26-year-old Cates from the 2023-24 campaign, where he had six goals and 12 assists for 18 points in 59 games while recording a minus-8.

Philadelphia's move on Cates comes just within days of the Flyers' signings of defenseman Helge Grans and forward Tyson Foerster. With Cates signed, the Flyers only have one pending free agent forward in the fold to deal with in Jakob Pelletier, who is also arbitration-eligible.

Cates now owns the fourth-highest average annual value among Flyers skaters, behind Travis Konecny ($8.75 million), Sean Couturier ($7.75 million) and Owen Tippett ($6.2 million).

Fan reactions to the Cates' extension deal with the Flyers are mixed.

“Too much!!” said a fan.

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One fan demanded an explanation from Philly general manager Daniel Briere: “HOW MUCH?!?!?! Danny there has to be a better explanation. He’s worth maybe 2.5 AAV.”

Via another commenter: “They're expecting a huge jump in offense I guess. Hate the value.”

“HOLY OVERPAY,” shared a social media user.

From a different take: “A contract im not upset about, Danny did a good job on this, not too much salary, and not too long of a contract, nice to not be angry about it.”

Cates, who was born in Stillwater, Minnesota, was selected in the fifth round (137th overall) of the 2017 NHL draft by the Flyers. He made his NHL debut in the 2021-22 season, scoring five goals to go along with four assists in just 16 games. He became a regular for Philly the following season, where he had 13 goals and 25 assists (still a career-high) through 82 outings.