The Philadelphia Flyers today announced the club has signed forward Massimo Rizzo to a two-year, entry-level contract beginning with the 2024-25 season, according to General Manager Daniel Briere.
Rizzo, 22 (6/13/01), registered 44 points (10-34=44) in 30 games with the University of Denver of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) during the 2023-24 season. The 5-foot-11, 185-pound native of Burnaby, British Columbia helped the Pioneers capture their record-breaking 10th NCAA National Championship on April 13, his second national title (2021-22). The left-shot forward ranked third in the NCHC in assists and T-5th in scoring. He ranked second on the team in assists, third in points and T-5th in game-winning goals (2). The forward collected 13 multi-point games this season, including tying his career-high four points in four times: Oct. 8, Nov. 25, Jan. 19 & Jan. 20. He set a season-high eight-game point streak (5-12=17) from Oct. 7-Nov. 4 and a career-high seven-game assist streak (2-10=12) from Nov. 24-Jan. 5. He was named to the NCHC All-Conference Second Team, National Co-Player of the Month for October, NCHC’s Player of the Month for October and NCHC’s Player of the Week (Oct. 30).
Rizzo totaled 126 points (39-87=126), 10 power-play goals and seven GWG in 107 career games with the University of Denver in three seasons (2021-24). He was named to the NCHC Academic All-Conference Team twice (2021-22 & 2022-23), a 2022-23 Hobey Baker Award nominee, named All-NCHC First Team (2022-23), NCHC Forward of the Week twice (Jan. 9, 2023; Feb. 13, 2023), Finalist for NCHC Forward of the Year (2022-23), Finalist for NCHC Rookie of the Year (2021-22), NCHC Rookie of the Month (Oct. 2021) and NCHC Rookie of the Week (Oct. 11, 2021).
Rizzo’s rights were acquired by Philadelphia on Aug. 9, 2023, along with a fifth-round selection in the 2025 NHL Draft from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for the rights to forward David Kase. Rizzo was originally selected by the Hurricanes in the seventh round (216th overall) of the 2019 NHL Draft. Prior to joining the Pioneers, he totaled 122 points (43-79=122) in 132 career games with Penticton and Coquitlam of the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) in parts of four seasons (2016-20).
