The Market is down, and the league as a whole (just like the rest of the world) is still having to deal with the ramifications of the COVID-19 virus. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and other league officials (who were able to bring us playoff hockey last season with little to no COVID cases arising) are currently trying to find a way to bring back the game we all know and love, safely. The only problem with that is whatever idea the league comes up with will most likely result in little to no fans being able to attend the games. With no fans being able to attend the games, then ticket, merchandise, and concession sales will be null and void. Additionally, teams cannot count on parking revenue being generated.
With no revenue, most NHL owners and general managers (made evident by the most recent free-agent signings) have been reluctant to shell out some of the lengthy and lucrative contracts of old. As for the Flyers, they have just one important signing left to make: Defenseman Philippe Myers.
Myers, who is coming off of a deal that paid him $1.9 million dollars over the last three years (that’s only a cap hit of $636,000 dollars a year) was offered this deal as an undrafted free agent. Since signing this deal a lot has changed for Myers: This now 23-year-old, who now stands at 6’5 and weighs in at 210 pounds, has progressed from a once overlooked prospect to now possibly finding himself playing alongside the team’s star defenseman Ivan Provorov on the Flyers’ top pairing next season. This opportunity came as a result of the unexpected early retirement of the Flyers’ Matt Niskanen.
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The only problem is the Flyers’ organization is set to have to pay this young and talented guardian of the blue line quite the substantial raise while only receiving a very small sample size of games played in which to base his potential salary on. Although it is technically Myers second year in the NHL, Phillipe has just played in 87 total NHL games to date: 21 regular season games in the 18’-19’ season 50 regular season games this past season, and then 16 playoff games. That’s BARELY one “regular” season of games to go off of. In his 2nd year of playing with the Flyers (last season), Myers totaled just 4 goals and 12 assists for 16 points. Adding to that, Myers provided the team with 80 hits and 44 blocked shots: Two stats that Philadelphia would love to see Myers approve upon in the future. Perhaps the highlight of all Phillipe’s stats from last season would be his plus/minus average, which was a plus 17 on the season. This was good enough to rank him second on the team- only behind the 2020 Selke Award winner Sean Couturier.
Now, with all that being said, Myers has certainly earned himself a raise. The only question is just how much of one? A similar contract that Phillipe and the Flyers will look to use in order to jumpstart negotiations is his line-mate for most of the year: Defensemen Travis Sanheim. Sanheim recently signed his own restricted free agent contract last season which pays him $3.25 million a season until the end of this upcoming season; but let’s remember with all that is going on in the world things are not the same anymore. So, in order to get a more accurate and up-to-date representation of the market, let’s take a look at some comparable young defensemen from other teams around the league that have already signed their contracts during this extended off season.
If we go off the basis of Myers potentially being a top-pairing defenseman next season, we could look at the odd similarities of Ryan Graves and the new contract that he just signed with the Colorado Avalanche. Graves is also 6’5 and weighs just a couple of pounds more than Myers. Ryan is 25 years old and has played in just one full season this year with a similar amount of playoff games this season and a similar amount of games the previous season. Graves currently plays on Colorado’s top pairing and totaled 9 goals and 17 assists for 26 points last season. The only big difference between these two is that Graves led the entire league in plus/minus last season with a plus 40 average! With those numbers Graves was awarded a 3-year deal of $9,480,000 dollars. That is a cap hit of $3,160,000 dollars a season.
Another defenseman, this time from the Florida Panthers, (who Myers’ agent and the Flyers’ general manger Chuck Fletcher might look to compare numbers with) is Mackenzie Weegar. He may not have Myers’ size but is a fellow right-hand-shot defenseman that is set to play on his teams’ top pairing. Weegar is currently 26 years old and just finished his third full season where he was able to post 7 goals and 11 assists for 18 points, all while keeping a plus 6 average. With those totals Mackenzie was able to ink a 3-year $9,750,000 dollar contract with the Panthers. That averages out to a $3.25 million dollar cap hit for each year of his contract.
If the Flyers were still considering Phillipe as a 2nd pairing defenseman, they might look to the Columbus Blue Jackets’ defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov’s latest deal for a point of reference. Vlad is 6’3 and 213 pounds at only 24 years of age. Gavrikov just finished his first full season in the NHL and had very similar point production totals to those of Myers. For his efforts Vlad now has a 3-year deal with the Blue Jackets that adds up to $8.4 million dollars with a cap hit of only $2.8 million a year.
Now that we have an idea of what the fair market value is for a defenseman of Myers’ size, talent, and point production, the Flyers should be able to get a deal done and use a total of just $3.125 million (a year) of their available $4,811,085 dollars left this season to resign this talented young defenseman. Whether the term is a 3-year $9,375,000 payday for Myers or a 2-year $6,250,000 dollar deal, one thing is for certain: the Flyers should be able to re-sign Phillipe and still have roughly $1,686,085 left over this off-season to bring in a scoring winger if they so choose (and choose they should!! Anthony Duclair (Ottawa’s leading goal scorer in 2019 who signed with the Senators for just $1,650,000 last year) is still available! I’m just saying…….)
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