Photo Credit: Katelynn Reiss
How about them Philadelphia Flyers? Finally all the restricted free agents have signed new deals, and now the Flyers can concentrate on the upcoming season.
General Manager Chuck Fletcher wanted to keep his young up and coming stars intact with the orange and black for years to come. He stayed true to his promise as the Flyers officially announced the re-signing of Travis Sanheim today for another two years, worth an AAV of $4.675 million, as the team avoided arbitration with Sanheim before the deadline of August 26, 2021.
Sanheim entered the 2020-21 season with one goal in mind, improve from last year. In his first stint with the orange and black in 2017-18, Sanheim found himself in and out of the lineup at times. Fast forward to the 2018-19 season, and he became a permanent fixture on the Flyers blue line, emerging as one of the most consistent defensemen that the Flyers had at that particular time. He did struggle throughout the course of last season, but Sanheim did improve as the season was nearing a close.
This young, gifted defenseman in Sanheim has made the most of his NHL opportunity when he was given the chance to do so, and this new two-year contract of $9.35 million ($4.675 million AAV) is very much well deserved. For the 2020-21 season, Sanheim registered a three goals, and 12 assists in 55 games played. Yes, he made some mistakes, however, Sanheim did improve as the season wore on, even so much so that he was trusted by Head Coach Alain Vigneault to play more than 25 minutes a night on multiple occasions. Sanheim had a Corsi rating of 54.1% (EV) on the season, and hopefully he learns to take the body more. That has been one downfall in his short NHL career. He has to learn to be more effective in wrapping up his opponents, given his height Sanheim should be able to do just that.
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Sanheim’s seals gaps well, but he has to get bigger and stronger to move his opponents. He should be averaging close to 22+ minutes of ice time every game from here on out. In the end, the Flyers could use a dependable second pairing defenseman that is a good skater and can log minutes, thus Sanheim provides both of those elements.
Yay….now we get 2 more years of ineptitude on defense.
All that money for the “softest” D man in the NHL.