Photo Credit: Ricky Brown
A steady Right-Handed Defenseman in Ryan Ellis, who stands at 5’10 and weighs 180 pounds was a top pairing veteran Defenseman with Ivan Provorov, when healthy in 2021-22. That’s just it when healthy, as Ellis has only suited up for the Flyers in four games since being traded from the Nashville Predators. Former Flyers’ General Manager Fletcher had this to say about him back in training camp.
“I do not expect him to play this season, and if he plays it’s a bonus.” – Chuck Fletcher said at Training Camp
To me this is concerning, Ellis missed all of last season with a hip/pelvis injury, but quickly corrected himself by saying it was a lower body injury, just sad news.
Fletcher did say that Ellis’s injury could be career threatening at Training Camp. You just really feel for Ellis, man that’s tough news. Sad news Regardless, he’s a human being.
As I stated throughout last Summer surgery is not an option for Ryan Ellis at the moment:
“There’s a psoas component, there’s a hip component, there’s an adductor component, so I’m not sure if you go in and repair one part it’s going to fix everything.” – Chuck Fletcher
With all this being said, it is highly unlikely that Ellis returns to play hockey once again. There are no sources behind this, this is just my gut feeling since he really wasn’t around the team this past season and he did not partake in exit interviews.
There is a way that Danny Briere could offload his contract, but he has to act quickly before the Arizona Coyotes make a judgment on where they’re going to play. Tempe Voters rejected a proposal to build a 16,000 seat entertainment center, that would have costed approximately $2.1 billion. The future of the Arizona Coyotes are now in doubt. Either way it’s sad for all parties involved to include the current players. In addition, it may be tough to add some players due to the uncertainty of the organization, so one way the Arizona Coyotes could get to the cap floor is by taking on contracts. Ryan Ellis’s cap hit of $6.25 million is a great example, like they did with Shea Weber’s $7.857 million cap hit and Jakub Voracek’s $8.25 million cap hit. The Coyotes might have a hard time re-signing some of their RFA’s or current players, as well.
Some people may be thinking why trade Ellis’s contract when they can just shuffle him to LTIR. Below is a better understanding as to why Briere should consider moving this contract now, plus it offers more cap flexibility.
- To qualify for LTIR, a player must be expected to miss at least 10 NHL Games AND 24 days of the NHL season
- When a player is on LTIR, a team may exceed the salary cap. Despite the common misconception, LTIR does not remove a Cap Hit from a team’s overall Cap Hit, it just potentially allows the team to exceed the salary cap.
- The amount that a team may exceed the salary cap due to LTIR is commonly referred to as the “LTIR Pool”
- If a team is cap compliant on opening day without using LTIR, or uses LTIR at any point during the season, the LTIR Pool is the Cap Hit of the LTIR player less the team’s cap space when the player goes on LTIR. For example, if a player with a $4M Cap Hit goes on LTIR when the team has $100K of Cap Space, the LTIR pool is $3.9M ($4M-$0.1M). Because of this, team’s often make several roster moves right before a player goes on LTIR in order to be as close to the cap as possible, in order to maximize the LTIR Pool
- If a team cannot be cap compliant on opening day without using LTIR, the LTIR Pool is the amount the team exceeds the Cap. For example, if a team is $3M over the Cap and places a player on LTIR with a $4M Cap Hit for the opening roster submission, the LTIR Pool is the $3M that the team exceeded the cap
- While on LTIR, Cap Space is no longer accrued, meaning any portion of the LTIR pool not used cannot be used later.
- When a player comes off LTIR, the team’s annual cap hit for that day must be under the Cap
This LTIR information above is from puckpedia.
All in all, Ellis is a very good defender, and would help the Flyers immensely. However, he cannot help the team if he doesn’t play, and that’s just it there is no timeline for his return. When healthy, Ellis will stick up for his teammates, and also possesses good offensive instincts and great mobility. He can move the puck quickly out of danger, and owns a powerful point shot. Unfortunately, Ellis may not suit up again, so it would give the Flyers more cap flexibility if Briere was able to offload his contract Arizona.
