The Flyers now have all of their restricted free agents under contract with yesterday's completion of a two-year deal with Marc-Andre Bourdon. The Bourdon deal is a good one for both sides, but especially for the Flyers.
The new contract pays Bourdon $612,500 per season. Some have said the the new deal represents a paycut for Bourdon but that's not true. It's a lower cap hit and a lower NHL base salary but the player will be still be taking home considerably more money than he did in his entry-level contract. Here's why:
Under the terms of Bourdon's entry-level contract, the player carried an $875,000 cap hit at the NHL level for three seasons. However, that was not Bourdon's actual salary.
The player was on a two-way contract. He received a signing bonus delivered in three annual installments of $87,500. In terms of base salary, he received $65,000 per season in the AHL, where Bourdon spent the first two-plus seasons of his pro career.
In 2011-12, he got his first NHL call-up and spent two stints (Nov. 21 to Feb. 19, March 27 through the end of the season) with the big club. For these portions of the season, he received a prorated distribution of a full-season $762,500 NHL salary. For the portions of the season MAB spent on the Phantoms roster (October, most of November, 10 days in February, most of March), he received a prorated $65,000.
Bourdon's new contract is a two-way deal in the first season ($105,000 at the AHL level) and one-way in the second season, meaning that even if he ends up in the AHL -- he'd now have to clear waivers to be assigned to the Phantoms -- he will receive his full $612,500 gross salary the second season. While hardly big bucks by NHL standards, it's still a nice bump up from what he was taking in even a year ago.
Just as important, if Bourdon seizes the opportunity to win a regular starting job with the Flyers in 2012-13 or 2013-14, he will be in line for a bump into a seven-figure salary in his next RFA contract. Thus, the new deal puts the player in position to cash in if he delivers on the ice and provides him a de facto raise and increased financial certainty in the meantime.
For the Flyers, it means the club gets the player at a lower cap hit for the next years. By NHL standards, it's a low-cost contract for a player they think has the capability to crack the starting six on an otherwise extremely expensive blueline. With Bourdon's AHL salary set at $105K for this season, he is exempt from recall waivers, In other words, if he is waived, clears waivers, and demoted to Phantoms, he would NOT have to clear waivers a second time (at half of his NHL salary to the claiming team) to rejoin the big club. In 2013-14, he will be subject to recall waivers on his one-way deal.
Getting Bourdon signed so inexpensively keeps the club in good shape in terms of banking nearly $3 million of cap space with the fallback of the combined maximum $8.9 million LTIR allowances for Chris Pronger and Andrej Meszaros if the team needs to exceed the cap at some point.
As explained previously, banked cap space provides a team with far more bang for the buck than LTIR. The longer open cap space is held during the season, the further it goes in being able to take on larger contracts later in the season. For example, $3 million of banked cap space at the exact midpoint of the season would enable the Flyers to acquire a player with a $6 million contract before they'd have to dip into the LTIR allowance. Conversely, the LTIR allowance is strictly use-it-or-lose-it and cannot be banked.
The Flyers also signed 2012 first-round pick Scott Laughton to an entry-level contract yesterday. That is not a big surprise, as the team usually gets contracts done quickly with prospects they value. As with the Bourdon deal, there is something to be gained for both sides here.
For Laughton, it means security. He knows he has his contract and signing bonus lined up ahead of the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement. The NHL has been pushing for entry-level contracts to be increased from three years to five years, in order to slow down young players' salary escalation path via restricted free agency. Having a contract in hand also means that he will get a longer look at NHL training camp, even though it is very likely he will spend at least one and, possibly, two more seasons in junior hockey.
For the Flyers, there is no real downside to getting Laughton signed early. First of all, the contract can slide to the OHL next season and, if need be, in 2013-14 as well. Secondly, it provides cost-certainty ahead of time. It is possible that the rookie salary maximum and bonus structure may be increased in players' favor in the next CBA in exchange for lengthier waiting times for RFA and UFA eligibility. Getting Laughton signed now locks him in at the current going rate.
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If the Flyers are going to trade for a defenseman, I would prefer it be for a young player with top-three potential, even if the player has struggled a bit at the outset of his career. However, in light of the Andrej Meszaros injury combined with the free agent departure of Matt Carle, I can certainly see the need for another veteran defenseman. I'd rather the Flyers go the UFA route in that case, but if there's a reasonable trade to be made, that option might ultimately make more sense.
Since the news of Meszaros' injury broke yesterday, the two trade-candidate names people have asked me about the most frequently are Calgary's Jay Bouwmeester and Ottawa's Sergei Gonchar. Rather than answering everyone individually, I figured it's best to discuss the pros and cons of both players in today's blog.
Both Bouwmeester and Gonchar are massively overpaid on their current contracts, which is why they are (reportedly) available in the first place, assuming they are willing to waive their respective no-trade clauses. The soon-to-be 29-year-old Bouwmeester carries a massive $6.68 million cap hit and has two more seasons to go on his contract. The 38-year-old Gonchar has a $5.5 million cap hit, but is an unrestricted free agent at the end of next season.
Gonchar, a former NHL All-Star, is still a decent offensive defenseman but has missed 43 games to due to injury over the last three seasons. He has never been known for being particularly good in his own end of the ice, but that reputation isn't entirely fair.
The veteran Russian blueliner has had years where he's been just fine in his own end of the ice, and years where he's been inconsistent defensively. The former was especially during the playoffs in Pittsburgh's runs to the Cup Finals of 2008 and 2009. In the two series against the Flyers in those years, Gonchar was a force at both ends of the ice.
Gonchar has always had a knack for hurting the Flyers offensively, but in those two playoff series, Philly's efforts to pressure him on the forecheck backfired far more often than not. Gonchar simply protected the puck, a made quick outlet pass to start the rush and (often delivered an unpenalized retaliatory slash behind the play before he) skated away either to join the attack as a trailer or go off for a shift change.
Since that time, though, Gonchar has spent a lot of time on the sidelines due to injuries. When he was in the lineup for the Senators in 2010-11, he wasn't very effective at either end of the ice. Last year, he recovered his offensive game but his defensive play was still a bit spotty at times. In 74 games played (his most since 2007-08), Gonchar produced 37 points. That is just one less than point than Matt Carle provided the Flyers last year.
Before the start of the free agency period, a rumor arose in the Ottawa press that the Senators would shop Gonchar over the summer and the Flyers had interest. I asked a Flyers source about it and was told the team had no dialogue with Ottawa about Gonchar and was not interested in him.
However, that was before the Flyers were unable to lure Ryan Suter, lost Carle to free agency, had the Predators match their offer sheet to restricted free agent Shea Weber and then lost Meszaros for at least half of next season due to injury. At this point, I'd think Gonchar WOULD be on Philly's radar screen as a rental if he'd agree to waive his no-trade.
For the Flyers, it would all depend on trading cost. With the news of Meszaros' injury, I suspect the Senators would start the negotiation by demanding a first-round pick in return for Gonchar. Teams ALWAYS increase their demands when they think another team is dealing from a position of weakness. This is especially true here, since the Senators only have $50.2 million committed on their current salary cap and ridding themselves of Gonchar's cap hit is not a pressing need.
To me, that would be an awfully hefty price tag for one year from an aging and oft-injured player. Plain and simple, I would not give up a first-rounder for Gonchar. Doing so would be a short-sighted waste of the asset. Gonchar is not enough of a difference maker at this stage of his career to do anything more than plug a hole for the short term.
However, if the price came down a bit by the trade deadline -- say a second-round pick and a mid-tier prospect with NHL role-playing upside -- it might be worthwhile. Even so, I'd think the Sens would like to hang onto Gonchar for the final year of his contract, given the expectations of returning to the playoffs next season. The Sens may be even be buyers at the next trade deadline.
In Bouwmeester's case, the Flames gave him the astronomical contract because they expected him to become a full-blown franchise defenseman after back-to-back 15-goal seasons with the Panthers. He was never very consistent defensively, but the tools were always there to become an outstanding two-way defenseman.
Unfortunately for Calgary, Bouwmeester's offensive game went AWOL as soon as he was installed in their system. Meanwhile, he has never become a shutdown defenseman, either. Jay-Bo is OK defensively: sometimes pretty good, sometimes ordinary but rarely dominant. At this point, it's clear he will never become the franchise player he was hyped to be in the 2002 Draft. He is what he is.
Bouwmeester's biggest assets are his mobility and durability. He can really motor up and down the ice, especially for a 6-foot-4, 215-pounder. He'll play a lot of minutes, although his hockey sense has been on par with his physical tools. It is almost impossible to knock him out of the lineup. In fact, Bouwmeester has not missed a single game since the end of the 2004-05 lockout.
Flames general manager Jay Feaster has spent the summer insisting he won't trade Bouwmeester. All the while, there have been rumors that the GM has, in fact, courted offers but the asking price is way out of line with what Bouwmeester has delivered on the ice relative to his stratospheric cap hit.
As such, I don't think there's a trade to be made here, even if J-Bo would waive his NTC to play for the Flyers (he wasn't interested in Philly back in 2010 but that's because he really wanted to return to western Canada). Quite frankly, I don't know why any team would take Bouwmeester's cap hit off Calgary's hands except if the Flames were basically giving him away to rid themselves of the awful contract.
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I have always liked Florida Panthers' prospect Colby Robak. He's still something of an under-the-radar prospect, but he's the type of young player that I think the Flyers should consider trading to acquire.
Now 22, Robak has been brought along slowly since he was a second-round pick in the 2008 Entry Draft. He remained in junior hockey through age 20 and has spent the last two seasons in the AHL, save for 3 games at the NHL level this past year.
Robak has all the tools to be a solid second-pairing NHL defenseman. He's not as raw as he was a couple years ago, but the learning curve is ongoing at both ends of the ice. He's got good size (6-foot-3) but you're barking up the wrong tree if you're expecting him to ever become a punishing physical player. That does not mean, however, that the players cannot learn to better use his size to his advantage.
His biggest asset is his collection of athletic skills and offensive upside. Robak showed himself to be an above-average AHL offensive defenseman last season and there is room for further growth. Defensively, he's still a work in progress but improved from a minus-12 in his rookie AHL season to plus-15 for San Antonio this past season. Robak did a good job at the AHL level of getting his shots on goal last season; 144 in 73 games.
The Panthers already have a wealth of young blueline talent in the system, to the point that 2007 first-round pick Keaton Ellerby (who has thus far struggled in the pro ranks and is another sleeper-trade candidate) could be trade bait. The Panthers are extremely high on Erik Gudbranson's long-term upside, and restricted free agent Dmitry Kulikov has come along nicely in the NHL. 2010 second-round pick, big and physical D-man Alex Petrovic, is getting ready for his first full pro season.
On a team that is anchored by veteran Brian Campbell and still has veterans Ed Jovanovski and Filip Kuba -- with Kulikov and Gudbranson as locks for starting spots -- there still isn't a lot of room for someone like Robak to get an extended look at the NHL level (barring injuries). I've never been too high on Ellerby, but he's someone else who could provide more for his second NHL organization.
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