There is a very good chance that the NHL's next Collective Bargaining Agreement -- whenever one is finally reached -- will make life tougher on the Philadelphia Flyers. The case of defenseman
Matt Walker is a good example of how the NHL's desired rule changes could immediately work against the Flyers.
Walker, a depth defenseman, was signed by Tampa Bay in the summer of 2009 to a four-year contract carrying a $1.7 million cap hit and an annually escalating real-dollar salary that peaked at $2 million in 2012-13. After the 2009-10 season, the Lightning were able to foist Walker's contract on the Flyers in exchange for Simon Gagne (who carried a cap hit of $5 million the Flyers were forced to shed for cap-planning reasons).
Gagne did not give Flyers' general manager
Paul Holmgren much flexibility in terms of potential trade destinations. He was pretty much only willing to waive his no-trade clause for Tampa Bay, which meant the Flyers had to accept a deal that was ridiculous from an on-ice value standpoint and less-than-optimal even from a salary cap perspective.
Over the last two seasons, Walker has only played eight NHL games for the Flyers. Mostly, he has been buried in the American Hockey League in order for Philadelphia to avoid his cap hit. The rest of the time, he has either been on injured reserve or a healthy scratch.
In the next Collective Bargaining Agreement, the NHL wants to put an immediate end to the practice of teams waiving veteran players and assigning them to the minor leagues for purposes of getting undesirable one-way contracts off their salary cap figure (although the player remains on the payroll). The NHL wants teams to take a hit on the salary cap regardless of whether the veteran is waived and assigned to the AHL.
The NHLPA has already agreed to this part of the NHL proposal, and it is going to become a reality whenever there is a new CBA. The two sides have more or less agreed to place the threshold at contracts of over $1 million per season.
As such, the Flyers are going to take a cap hit for Walker whenever NHL hockey begins again. It makes no difference that he doesn't fit in the Flyers' NHL roster plans regardless of his salary level. It will make no difference if he's waived again and sent back to the Phantoms. All that remains to be seen is how much of a salary cap hit the team will have to take if and when he's removed from the NHL roster.
Philly is already on the hook for $100,000 worth of dead cap space in each of the next two seasons due to the buyout of Oskars Bartulis this summer. It may not sound like much but consider the fact that the Flyers habitually operate at or near the the cap ceiling --- and the cap ceiling is going to decrease as soon as the new CBA is in place. Then add in whatever the cap hit responsibility will be on Walker's seven-figure salary.
The NHL remains adamant that there will not be a cap compliance buyout (AKA "amnesty") provision in the next CBA. There was such a one-time provision in 2004-05, which the Flyers exercised on John LeClair and Tony Amonte.
What that means: Barring a change in the over-35 contracting rules to allow players to retire without cap penalty in the event of a legitimate career-ending injury, the Flyers are going to have to carry the cap hit for
Chris Pronger for the duration of his contract and place him on long-term injured reserve every season until the expiration of his contract at the end of the 2016-17 season.
At least it does not appear likely that the LTIR cap allowance will be eliminated in the next CBA. If it was, the Flyers would REALLY be up a creek.
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