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Quick Hits: Buyouts, Contracts, Jones, Hamilton, Alumni Golf and More |
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Quick Hits: May 30, 2021
1) According to Cap Friendly, the Flyers final cap spending for the 2020-21 season was $80.63 million with $868,799 available below the cap ceiling. The team did not have to dip into long-term injured reserve allowance to stay cap compliant for the season.
Per Cap Friendly, 10 teams finished the season with zero available cap space even with the use of LTIR. None was more reliant on LTIR than Tampa Bay. The Lightning used more than $17 million worth of LTIR allowance to stay within the ceiling, including Nikita Kucherov's $9.5 million.
With the salary cap ceiling still flat, it will be interesting this offseason to see how many teams are imposed salary cap penalties for 2021-22 due to overages in 2020-21 caused by bonus payments.
2) This offseason, the Flyers have two buyouts coming off the books. The end of Andrew MacDonald's buyout adds $1.91 million of cap space onto their offseason cap space. The end of David Schlemko's buyout adds $600,000 onto the cap. However, the salary raise in Scott Laughton contract extension subtracts $700,000 from the combined MacDonald and Schlemko total; so, in other words, it balances out to additional $1.81 million available heading into the offseason.
In terms of unrestricted free agents, Brian Elliott's $1.5 million comes off the books and will have to replaced with a new goalie partner for restricted free agent Carter Hart. Alex Lyon ($700,000) is also an unrestricted free agent.
The NHL Expansion Draft will subtract a contract and a yet-to-be-determined amount of tied-up cap space off the Flyers cap for the 2021 offseason.
3) In terms of restricted free agents, the Flyers have three of note: Travis Sanheim (arbitration eligible, $3.25 million cap hit on his expiring deal), Carter Hart (arbitration ineligible, $730,883 on his expiring entry-level contract) and Nolan Patrick (arbitration ineligible, coming off am $874, 125 one-year contract). Additionally, they have to keep in mind that Claude Giroux ($8.275 AAV) and Sean Couturier ($4.33 million AAV) are both one season away from becoming unrestricted free agents.
4) The Flyers currently have 49 players on NHL contracts for next season of a maximum 50 allowed under the Collective Bargaining Agreement. However, the Expansion Draft will knock off one tied-up contract slot. Additionally, there are several slide-rule eligible contracts (2020 draftees such as Tyson Foerster, Zayde Wisdom and Elliot Desnoyers) that could come off the Flyers' contract total for next season depending on whether they go back to their junior league or play in the NHL.
As of now, no changes have been made to the normal AHL/CHL age rule. The rule was relaxed in 2020-21 due the pandemic-related cancelation of the Ontario Hockey League season and the lengthy delay of the abbreviated Western Hockey League campaign. As a result, the Flyers were able to slide the contracts of Foerster, Wisdom and defenseman Mason Millman to the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms and did not burn a year off their entry-level NHL contracts.
5) No matter how you slice it, the Flyers are going to need to open up significant cap space (via the Expansion Draft and/or by other means) in order to be aggressive this offseason. Finding a top pair right defenseman remains the most glaring need along with signing another NHL-level goaltender.
As of right now, the Flyers only have one goalie under an NHL contract for 2021-22, and that's prospect Kirill Ustimenko, who missed the entire 2020-21 season and barely has even AHL-level experience. Hart and Felix Sandström are restricted free agents, and Elliott and Lyon are UFAs.
6) Elliotte Friedman and The Hockey News have reported that Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones has informed the team that he does not intend to sign a contract extension and will test unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2022. After the Blue Jackets lost both Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky as unrestricted free agents, Jones' decision essentially forces a trade (and most likely this offseason rather than in-season). He has one season remaining on his contract at a $5.4 million cap hit.
Jones, who will turn 27 in October, is coming off back-to-back down seasons from an analytics standpoint and even some primary stats. However, he is still a major all-situations minutes eater (25:17 in 2019-20, 25:14 in 2020-21), still posted north of a point every other game, still posted healthy blocked shot and hit totals and eminently capable of bouncing back to the form that enabled him to finish fourth in the Norris Trophy balloting in 2017-18 and ninth the next year. He's a phenomenal athlete, naturally skilled, has ideal size and a right-handed shot. Pairing him with Ivan Provorov is an intriguing proposition.
It is not known whether Jones would be willing to negotiate a contract extension with another team before next summer -- whether the Flyers or another team -- but he will be in high demand in the trade market either which way. The premium on acquiring him will be expensive either which way, but especially high if he's willing to forego UFA status if traded elsewhere.
I do not know what Columbus general manager Jarmo Kekäläinen would consider to be a fair trade package for Jones. If I were Chuck Fletcher, I'd come with an offer of Travis Konecny, Phil Myers and a first-round pick and see what his counter-offer would be (such as subbing out Sanheim for Myers). However, if Jones is intent on going UFA regardless of where he's traded, I'd be leery of trading two NHL roster players plus a first-rounder for one-year rental.
I also have no idea if the fact that Seth's father, Popeye Jones, is an assistant coach with the Philadelphia 76ers helps the chances of bringing the hockey player to Philadelphia for the long term. It doesn't hurt, certainly, because father and son are said to have a close relationship. However, I tend to doubt that it's a primary factor.
This offseason, Dougie Hamilton is an unrestricted free agent. He's coming off a significantly better 2020-21 season than Jones and offers many of the same pros (right handed shot, huge frame, plays a lot of minutes). Jones is a little younger (Hamilton will turn 28 this month), more physical and logs a little more penalty killing ice time atop the PK rotation (but Hamilton can also kill penalties).
Hamilton's agent and the Hurricanes have had talks about a contract extension but the negotiations were temporarily put on hold in March. There is still a widespread belief that the two sides can hammer something out before the start of free agency. If not, the Flyers will be just one of many suitors this offseason.
From a Flyers standpoint, it behooves them to have as many irons in the fire as possible.
7) The annual Flyers Alumni Golf Invitational will be held on June 28, 2021 at DuPont Country Club in Wilmington. Held one day after the Flyers Alumni Team play the Flyers Warriors at Ice Works in Aston, the Golf Invitational is the second half of Alumni Weekend, honoring Joe Watson after his recent retirement. More than 50 Flyers Alumni from every generation of franchise history will be on hand for the golf fundraiser, which is sponsored by Pure Storage. The schedule is as follows:
* 10:00 a.m. EDT tee-Off
* 4:00 p.m. dinner reception
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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