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Flyers Cap Deadline Primer |
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The Philadelphia Flyers have an 11:30 a.m. practice scheduled for Monday at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. This year, on trade deadline day, the atmosphere will be a little different than many recent years as the deadline drew near. Rather than players wondering who could be on the move -- or waiting for that shoe to drop -- the curiosity is over who might be coming.
While the Flyers might make a depth acquisition or two prior to 3 p.m. ET on Monday, general manager Chuck Fletcher is pretty limited cap-wise in what he is able to do even if a trade partner retains salary. Per Cap Friendly, Flyers have $70,954 of actual cap space and up to $2,082,368 if they max out their LTIR allowance.
Fletcher has not made a secret of the fact that the primary area he is looking to upgrade is in terms of center depth. A third-line center with second-line capabilities would be ideal but would also be almost impossible to obtain without moving out NHL-roster salary. While it's not impossible that Shayne Gostisbehere ($4.5 million cap hit, signed through 2022-23) could be on the move by the deadline, that does not seem likely at present.
Monday is also "Clear Day" in the American Hockey League; after which time, American Hockey League eligibility for the remainder of the regular season and Calder Cup Playoffs is set. Although the Lehigh Valley Phantoms are a longshot to make the Calder Cup playoffs, it is possible that Connor Bunnaman will be at least paper-transactioned to the Phantoms and the Flyers would burn one of their four allowed non-emergency callups to place Bunnaman back on on their NHL roster. If he goes down without recall, it does add in $736,666 of available space for the Flyers to add a third-line or fourth-center.
Let's assume Bunnaman goes back to the Phantoms tomorrow, and no NHL salaries are dealt for cap relief. The working maximum cap number for acquisition(s) tomorrow would be a shade below $2.82 million. I don't want to further complicate things by discussing the perils of incurring cap penalties for 2020-21 due to overages caused by bonuses. That's a topic for after the season.
In the meantime, let's clear up some misinformation that's been out there on Gostisbehere as relates to how now-completed conditioning assigment to the Phantoms and recall to the Flyers on Sunday. This had nothing to do with the NHL trade deadline. Teams can trade players who are on conditioning stints or even on injured reserve. They just can't send down an injured player to the minors. In this case, the timing of the recall is strictly coincidental to the deadline (although, I suppose, one could construe the recall as a way of letting potential trade partners know he's immediately available for NHL action again).
The timing of AHL Clear Day affects what the Flyers can do with Nolan Patrick if and when he's cleared to play hockey. Although Patrick is still waiver-exempt, the Flyers can no longer send him outright to the Phantoms after tomorrow due to the Clear Day rule. Likewise, the option of Patrick agreeing to a 14-day conditioning assignment goes out the window tomorrow.
There is a third option; which I will go into in more detail in a post-deadline analysis article being planned for the Flyers' official website (Flyers.NHL.com). The player would be eligible for a six-day, three-game assignment to the Phantoms because of his presence on LTIR at the time of the NHL trade deadline. He would still remain on LTIR at the time of the assignment.
During Sunday's television broadcast of the Flyers Wives Carnival, Bill Clement interviewed Patrick. The player reiterated that he is still hopeful of playing hockey this season. Fletcher has said the same several times as well, but also said that the deadline will be approached as if Patrick will be unavailable this season.
Keep in mind, too, that Patrick had no preseason, no training camp, and not even a normal offseason last summer to work up toward it. He last played in the next-to-final road game of the season last April. As I see it, if Patrick is able to suit up for the Flyers this season, I would be suprised. Pleasantly surprised, but surprised nontheless.
If and when the Flyers make moves tomorrow -- whether roster-related transactions or trades -- this blog will be updated above the primer section. Regardless of what the Flyers do by the deadline, look for my analysis article tomorrow on the Flyers' website tomorrow, which will include quotes from Chuck Fletcher's post 3 p.m. availability as well as my own read on why the team did or did not make moves.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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