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Flyers Loan Raffl to Austrian team |
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Back in September, veteran Flyers winger/center Michael Raffl was rumored to be considering the possibility of temporarily playing in his native Austria to stay in shape during the National Hockey League off-season. The rumor has come to fruition, except with a different Austrian club than the one originally rumored.
Earlier today, Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher announced that the organization has loaned Raffl to Villach SV of the ICEHL. The original rumor had Raffl going to EC Red Bull Salzburg, where his older brother, Thomas, and his cousin, Alexander Rauchenwald both play.
Raffl is entering the final season of his Flyers contract. He will turn 32 years old on Dec. 1. He is coming off a solid but injury-affected 2019-20 season that included an initial lower-body injury that he suffered in the first game of the round robin and then aggravated later in the playoffs. Over two spells of missed time in the postseason, he was only able to dress in nine of the Flyers' 16 playoff games.
When he was in the lineup, though, Raffl was one of the Flyers' best playoff performers. He notched four goals in the nine games and was the only Flyers player who scored at least one goal in the round-robin, the Montreal series and the New York Islanders series. He is also remains one of the Flyers' most versatile players, who can be plugged on at either wing (or even play center for short stretches) and temporarily move up in the lineup from his more-accustomed fourth-line role.
Although it's not a front-and-center decision, the Flyers will have another decision to make with Raffl over the next season. He's come up on free agency before and drawn interest from other teams as a rental but the Flyers have always decided to keep him because his in-house value has always exceeded whatever modest draft-pick compensation that was floated Philadelphia's way to
let him play as a rental elsewhere. The passage of the trade deadline has sometimes come as a big relief to Raffl, because he'd rather stay put and has played his entire seven-year NHL career in Philadelphia.
Raffl proved his value to the Flyers again in the Bubble. But there are younger and cheaper (Raffl's contract AAV isn't a cap-budget killer at $1.6 million, but every $500K or so that can saved among bottom six forwards in a flat-cap reality for several seasons has to be at least considered). I do not think Raffl will be traded this offseason and, if the team is doing well again near the trade deadline and is pushing for a top spot in the Metro, the best option may be to have him complete an eighth season in Philadelphia and then re-evaluate.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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