Bargain Basement Free Agents the Flyers should look to acquire this Offseason

Photo Credit: Ozarkradionews.com

To say that this season for the Philadelphia Flyers has been a disappointment would be an understatement. After making many substantial moves this past off-season to try and better his club, Flyers’ General Manager Chuck Fletcher’s team has seen many injuries and continued failed execution which, has contributed to his club finding themselves in the basement of the Metropolitan Division. With that being said, the team will not only be sellers at the trade deadline but- if Fletcher wants to do it right- should find themselves in the middle of a full-on rebuild this off season. Now, what would be ideal is if the Flyers could land one of the many big-name free agents this off-season like: Johnny Gaudreau, Filip Forsberg, Tomas Hertl, Ondrej Palat, Max Domi, or Nazem Kadri. But at this point, we the fans might as well keep dreaming because what player in his right mind would want to leave playoff-bound teams like Calgary, Tampa Bay, or Colorado to come to this floundering franchise in the City of Brotherly Love? 

Besides, let’s face it: Philadelphia is not just one player away from actual contention again, regardless if everyone who is injured and up in the press box can come back 100% healthy next season. Then, when you factor in that the Flyers have most of the bottom six of their offense becoming free agents this off season, only two of their non-injured defensemen are signed past this season, and that the Flyers will once again need to ink a backup goalie this summer- there simply won’t be enough cap space to fill the roster with who they may want. 

That’s why they should look to acquire these bargain-basement free agents who will give them the most bang for their buck. All the players listed below are currently making less than a million dollars this season, have expiring contracts at the year’s end, and have contributed greatly to their current team’s success in recent years. 

Evan Rodrigues

First up on this list of potential bargain-basement additions for the Flyers is 28-year-old Pittsburgh Penguin Evan Rodrigues who would take the place of the expiring 34-year-old center Derick Brassard. Evan, who was originally signed to an NHL contract by the Buffalo Sabers (after going undrafted despite his impressive collegiate career playing at Boston University), has seen his point production already this season more than double his previous career highs. The reason for this is trust. Due to injuries and the ever looming COVID-19 virus causing players to be out for extended periods of time this season, Evan (the versatile player that he is) has been called upon to step up and help fill in on the top two lines when needed. While his natural position is center, Rodrigues has proved over the course of this season and last that he is more than capable of playing wing alongside stars like Jeff Carter when needed, and/or rifling shots from the blueline while quarterbacking the powerplay. Making the most of these opportunities gifted to him this season, Rodrigues has already been able to net 15 goals and 18 assists for 33 points, all while only making $1,000,000 on the year. That’s why the Flyers would be wise to try and steal this multifunctional player this upcoming off season from their inner-state rival. With the Flyers not yet knowing who the boss behind the bench next season will be- or just what their roster may look like next year- having a player like Evan who can excel wherever and with whomever you put with him on the ice will help to create a nice stop-gap for a season or two until this troubled franchise can sort this whole mess out.

Travis Boyd

Another versatile player (Center/Wing) with an expiring contract that currently pays him a very affordable $750,000 is 28-year-old Travis Boyd who stands 6’0 and 190 pounds and plays for the Arizona Coyotes. If signed next season, Boyd would bring a lot to the ailing Philadelphia Flyers. First off, he would bring experience seeing that he is a former Stanley Cup winner with the Washington Capitals back in 2018. More importantly though, he is a gritty center who could not only replace the ever-aging 37-year-old Nate Thompson but is a player who could offer so much more. For example, with Arizona having troubles similar to the Flyers in the injury department (with the Coyotes having more than seven players currently out of their starting lineup, like the previously mentioned Pittsburgh’s Rodrigues) Boyd has been asked this season to go above and beyond what his team once thought he was capable of. In fact, Travis did so well this season when asked to center wingers Lawson Crouse and Phil Kessel on the second line, Boyd now finds himself on the top line, centering 2022 NHL All-Star Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz as well as seeing time on both the team’s 2^nd power play unit and their 1^st penalty killing unit. Granted, Boyd should not be expected to keep this kind of production up for long, but it is nice to know that he is fully capable of effectively playing up in the lineup when necessary. Blowing his previous seasons career highs away this year, Boyd has already totaled 10 goals and 12 assists for 22 points through just 40 games played, a fine signing for sure. This is especially true considering Travis may not be too keen on signing back in Arizona next season considering he would then be reverting back to playing home games that will have crowd sizes similar to the ones he played in front of back in Minneapolis when he was a star for the University of Minnesota. The Coyotes are now being forced to play in the Arizona State University Sun Devils’ rink next year after being evicted from theirs at season end for not paying their bills.  

Ville Husso

Moving on to goaltending now, the Flyers will once again need to sign another backup goaltender this off season. While most would agree that the team playing in front of the Flyers’ current backstop Martin Jones has not made things easy for him, this now 32-year-old’s play has not overly exceeded the team’s expectations of him either. After inking him to a one-year deal worth $2,000,000, the Flyers thought they had found their 1B option if you will, to finally solidify their goaltending tandem. That was simply not the case though. Jones’ record this season is well below .500 with him recording just six wins in 17 games played. His goals against average (G.AA.) is worse still at 3.56 G.A.A. To find a possible replacement, Philadelphia should look to the St. Louis Blues’ Ville Husso, a 27-year-old native of Finland who stands at 6’2 and 205 pounds. This season, Husso has been able to seemingly take over the crease from his teammate and former Stanley Cup-winning goaltender Jordan Binnington who, to put it nicely, has been struggling as of late. So much so that when you compare the two goalies’ numbers you would think that one indeed plays for a contenting team like the Blues and the other must play for a dumpster fire of a team like the Flyers. Ville is currently atop all other goalies in the league in both goals against average with a 1.90 G.A.A. and in save percentage (SV%) with an incredible .941 SV%. Now, as impressive as these numbers are, let’s not go giving him the Vezina just yet because Husso has only played in fifteen games so far this season while other top goalies in the league like Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy already is nearing 40 games played this year. Binnington, whose strong play in previous years forced the Blues to send former teammate and goalie tandem partner Jake Allen packing to Montreal, has been vastly different this season since inking his new six-year $36,000,000 deal which will cost the Blues a cap hit of $6,000,000 until the year 2027. His goals against average has reached an all-time high of 3.35 G.A.A. and his save percentage a record low at .898 SV%. If Husso’s strong play continues this year I’m sure the Blues would love to retain him after this season but with Binnington’s new hefty contract on the books for years to come, they may not be able to do it. Their loss could be the Flyers’ gain though: Some of the most successful franchises over the years have always built a team from the net out. That is why the Flyers- who have failed to successfully do that over the last 20 years- would be wise to kick off this off season by signing Husso to a 2-3 year deal worth somewhere close to three to four times his current salary of $750,000 which would then see Ville receiving $2,250,000 a season for 3x or $3,000,000 a season for 4x his current salary.  Not only would St. Louis not be able to match that type of deal but they might not have to considering they also have 28-year-old goaltender Charlie Lindgren in their system who, through five games played this year with the Blues, has managed an equally impressive 1.22 G.A.A and a .958 SV% to boot. If re-signed by the Blues next season he could prove to be a formidable/less expensive backup option.       

If the Flyers signed any and all of these players next season it would help to solidify this team’s roster. No matter what chairman and CEO of Comcast Spectacor Dave Scott says, rebuilding this franchise the right way will take time. It will not be an easy fix that management will be able to turn things around in just one off season. This team has created a lot of bad habits over the years when putting a team together whose roots are now dug in. To break free of these bad habits the Flyers’ brain trust must overhaul the entire system from the ground up. This starts with the scouting department, player development, who they have currently in assessing and treating their players medically etc. That is why this writer would suggest these type signings this off season, because they are players that would come at a reasonable price that have proven when thrown into the fire due to others’ injuries, poor play, or COVID, that they are able to persevere and help their ailing franchise until other more capable players either return from injury or snap out of whatever funk they were in to begin with. These players are the type of cogs a well-run franchise seeks out each off season to complete their roster so that in times of struggles (like when a star player goes down due to injury) the following games (or rest of the season) is not then just chalked up as a loss. 

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