Photo Credit: Katelynn Reiss
The Philadelphia Flyers may be in a world of hurt next season. As we all know, the team’s longest tenured captain Claude Giroux- who has spent his entire 15-year career, playing for the orange and black- is set to become an unrestricted free agent after this season. He probably won’t get a contract offer anywhere close to his current one that has seen him be paid a hefty $8,275,000 cap hit over the last eight seasons, though he just might have to go looking elsewhere if he desires anything even remotely close to play next season with the Flyers.
The team’s General Manager Chuck Fletcher has already held talks with Giroux this past offseason about the possibility of an extension, but Claude must not have heard the type of numbers that he liked because he ended the discussions rather quickly. Since that time the team has apparently decided to move on: Fletcher has now inked both Selke Trophy Award winner Sean Couturier and the team’s 2021 leading goal scorer Joel Farabee to substantial extensions that are not only due to take effect next season but will make both individuals very wealthy.
Joel Farabee’s new deal of six years for $30 million dollars will pay this just 21 year old a cap hit of $5,000,000 until the end of the ‘27- ‘28 season where he will then be considered a wisely old veteran of 27. Signing this former 2018 1st round pick (whose play has grown by leaps and bounds since being drafted) to such an affordable deal was a wise move. However, it comes with a price: Joel is only currently getting paid $925,000 which is quite the bargain. But, starting next season, his cap hit will rise to the above-mentioned $5,000,000, which is a raise of $4,075,000. This is a move that the team had to make in order to secure one of their best young players for the foreseeable future, but it does take away from who this struggling franchise will be able to re-sign or bring in for next season.
It seems like only yesterday that the Flyers drafted Sean Couturier with the eighth overall pick back in 2011. Therefore, it could surprise people to hear that he has been in the league for 11 years now and might just be the top candidate to become the Flyers’ next captain when Giroux exits. Sean was recently compensated for his play over the years at the start of this season when the team offered him a massive new deal which, starting next year, will pay him $62 million over the course of the next eight seasons. This will cost Philadelphia a cap hit of $7,750,000 per season through the duration of the deal, which equates to a $3,416,666/year raise over his current salary/cap hit of $4,333,333. Why the team would want to sign a now-29-year-old center for the next eight years (or until he’s 36) is beyond me but they must know what they’re doing right?
Not Exactly! If you combine both Farabee’s and Couturier’s pending raises ($4,075,000+$3,416,667=) it comes to a total of $7,491,667. So, if you subtract that from Giroux’s current salary of $8,275,000 the team will be left with just $783,333 of what they paid Giroux this season to either sign him back or find some one else to replace him.
This is kind of scary considering no other player on the roster that has a considerable salary is due to come off the books this season so that the team could offer their captain (who currently leads the team this season in goals, assists and points) an enticing enough deal to have him return next year. The closest impending free agent the team has would be defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen, who is in the last year of a deal that carries a cap hit of $5.4 million. But after trading away the team’s 1st round pick from this past draft, a 2nd in 2023, and defenseman Robert Hagg for his services, the Flyers aren’t about to just let him walk in free agency without putting up a fight.
While we’re on the topic of re-signing defenseman, the team will need to re-sign or bring in three new defensemen this upcoming off-season because only Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim, and Ryan Ellis are inked for next season. Which if I were the Flyers, I don’t know how much faith I would put into Ellis being healthy. With that being said, it will be hard to duplicate the type of bargains this offseason that Fletcher was able maneuver this year on defense. 34-year-old veteran Justin Braun took a pay cut when he agreed to sign for $1.8 million, 35-year-old Keith Yandle did the team a favor this year when he signed on the dotted line for just $900,000, and both Nick Seeler (who makes $750,000) and waiver wire pickup Kevin Connauton (who makes $825,000) contracts are set to expire as well.
Up front, Chuck was able to do much of the same when he was able to bring in free agent centers Derick Brassard and Nate Thompson on one-year deals for just $825,000 (Brassard) and $800,000 (Thompson). He stole soon-to-be-free agent, forward Zack MacEwen (who is making just $825,000 this season), off waivers from Vancouver and will have to re-sign Morgan Frost who only makes $863,333 as well. That’s not to mention the fact that Chuck will need to re-sign goaltender Martin Jones who makes $2 million or bring someone else in to play in-between the pipes next season.
All these upcoming free agents will most likely require a raise or, if not brought back, it most certainly will be a hard sell to get another free agent to agree to join this struggling franchise for mere pennies on the dollar that most of these players made this season. Even if the cap were to go up next season Fletcher will undoubtedly have his work cut out for him this off-season if he cannot find a way to shed some salary.
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Therefore, it might be wise if the team continues to struggle this season to potentially look to place certain players like the streaky James van Riemsdyk- who gets paid $7 million for this season and next, or the underperforming Oskar Lindblom- who makes $3 million until the conclusion of the 2022 season, on the trade block this spring. If able to successfully trade one or both of these players the team would be in a much better position financially to potentially bring back Giroux and or sign/ re-sign other free agents to try and better this lineup for next season.
