Flyers center Brayden Schenn has now completed his entry level contract and can become a restricted free agent on July 1. New Flyers general manager Ron Hextall recently told Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia that re-signing Schenn is his top priority. Days before he was officially moved up the front office ladder from general manager to club president, Paul Holmgren said that there have been no discussions about Schenn's contract since last summer.
That is very telling. The Flyers are an organization that prefers to get its core players locked up in new contracts well ahead of free agency. This past season alone, the Flyers reached terms on a two-year bridge contract to Sean Couturier and a three-year extension to pre-empt restricted free agency for goaltender Steve Mason.
The fact that there were no in-season negotiations for Schenn suggests that the two sides were far apart last summer and decided to renew talks after the 2013-14 season to see where Schenn was in his development after his third NHL season. Unfortunately, things are no easier now than they were a year ago.
Schenn's now-expired entry level contract was signed when he was a member of the Los Angeles Kings organization. According to a TSN report by Darren Dreger, the Schenn deal was structured with a
variety of performance bonuses, including many that were unreachable.
What was the motivation for the Schenn camp to agree to a deal like that? It had everything to do with setting a price for his SECOND contract. With all bonuses included, Schenn's entry-level deal came out to an average annual value of $3.1 million (although he didn't collect nearly that much in actual dollars). With a bonus cushion included in the NHL salary cap, Schenn's cap hit was $870,000. He collected some of his potential bonuses but none of the big-dollar, unattainable ones.
The goal at the time was probably to get Schenn to receive something in the neighborhood of $3.1 million per season in real dollars in his bridge contact.
The NHL does not allow performance bonuses in contracts except for entry-level or over-35 deals. As such, whatever Schenn's next real-dollar salary will be will also be his cap hit once averaged over the length of the deal.
The fact that the Flyers have had no contract discussions with the Schenn camp since last summer is further evidence that the price tag each side had in mind for his second contract was not yet the same ballpark.
As a frame of reference, the Flyers signed Couturier to a two-year extension that kicks in next season. The bridge deal carries a $1.75 million cap hit and real-dollar salary. The Flyers may be most comfortable with a virtually identical deal. By virtue of the fact there were no extension talks for Schenn over the last year, it would appear the Schenn camp was -- and may still be -- aiming for something closer to the aforementioned $3.1 million price of the entry-level deal (except in real dollars and not hypothetical ones).
In contract negotiations this off-season, Schenn's agent will undoubtedly point to the fact that Schenn hit the 20-goal mark in his third NHL season and plays in the Flyers' top-six rotation at even strength as well as the second power play unit.
The Flyers will say that Schenn's overall current value to the team when all factors are considered is NOT higher than Couturier's. While Couturier scored just 13 goals this season, he is rapidly emerging as one of the NHL's top defensive centers and penalty killers. Schenn is better offensively and is the more physical player of the two but is not as strong defensively.
Relative to their respective roles on the team, Couturier plays the "tougher minutes". Not surprisingly given that Schenn skates on the second line and his main role is to produce offense, Schenn started 55.2 percent of his shifts in the offensive zone during the 2013-14 season. Couturier, by contrast, often started in his own zone and benefited from offensive zone shift starts just 42.6 percent of the time. Moreover, Couturier by far played against
tougher opposing lines from a puck management challenge perspective.
When their ice time is broken down further, one sees that Schenn averaged 2:11 of power play ice time per game among his average 15:44 of ice time this season. Couturier averaged 19:05 of ice time per game but 3:25 of it came as a penalty killer and 1:16 of it on the power play (where he was not particularly effective).
Weighing all mitigating factors together -- team role, volume of offensive zone starts, amount of power play time, and difficulty of defensive assignments relative to the opposing line on the ice -- one could argue that Couturier's 13 goals and 39 points represented a better third NHL season than Schenn's 20 goals and 41 points. Some of that can also be attributed, however, to the chemistry Couturier has established with Matt Read. Schenn has shuttled between center and left wing and struggled to establish chemistry with Vincent Lecavalier regardless of which player was in the middle.
If it were my decision to make, I would not want to pay Schenn more than I pay Couturier; at least not significantly more. Both players are important young nucleus players who bring different value to the team but it is hard to justify Schenn's present value in his role and minutes played as being higher than Couturier's.
By the time they are on their third NHL contracts -- the one that will either take them into their unrestricted free agent eligibility or tie them up in a long-term contract -- Schenn may be producing enough offense to merit making a "scorer's salary" (which is almost always markedly higher than even a top-end defensive forward's contract). In terms of where he is right now, however, Schenn's first 20-goal season does not merit his entry-level real dollar salary being more than tripled.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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