Headlines

  • Wild Sign Marcus Foligno To Four-Year Extension
  • Minnesota Wild Sign Mats Zuccarello To Two-Year Extension
  • Andrei Vasilevskiy Out Two Months After Back Surgery
  • Calgary Flames Extend Mikael Backlund; Name Him Captain
  • Buffalo Sabres Showing Interest In Patrick Kane
  • Brad Marchand Named 27th Captain In Boston History
  • Previous
  • Next
Register
Login
  • MLB Trade Rumors
  • Hoops Rumors
  • Pro Football Rumors

Pro Hockey Rumors

  • Home
  • Teams
    • Atlantic
      • Boston Bruins
      • Buffalo Sabres
      • Detroit Red Wings
      • Florida Panthers
      • Montreal Canadiens
      • Ottawa Senators
      • Tampa Bay Lightning
      • Toronto Maple Leafs
    • Central
      • Arizona Coyotes
      • Chicago Blackhawks
      • Colorado Avalanche
      • Dallas Stars
      • Minnesota Wild
      • Nashville Predators
      • St. Louis Blues
      • Winnipeg Jets
    • Metropolitan
      • Carolina Hurricanes
      • Columbus Blue Jackets
      • New Jersey Devils
      • New York Islanders
      • New York Rangers
      • Philadelphia Flyers
      • Pittsburgh Penguins
      • Washington Capitals
    • Pacific
      • Anaheim Ducks
      • Calgary Flames
      • Edmonton Oilers
      • Los Angeles Kings
      • San Jose Sharks
      • Seattle Kraken
      • Vancouver Canucks
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Partners
    • MLB Trade Rumors
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Anthony Stolarz And The Expansion Draft

April 28, 2017 at 6:19 pm CDT | by Zach Leach 4 Comments

The Philadelphia Flyers may not be desperate for a goalie, but they’re not in the best of shape either. Heading into the off-season, the Flyers will likely say goodbye to impending free agent starter Steve Mason, but re-signed Michal Neuvirth to a two-year, $5MM extension earlier this season. Behind Neuvirth, Philly has Anthony Stolarz, a 2012 second-round pick who looked great in seven appearances in his rookie season. The Flyers also have promising prospects Carter Hart and Felix Sandstrom in the system, but it seems unlikely that either is ready for NHL action just yet.

So it’ll be Neuvirth and Stolarz next season? That’s not too bad. However, this is the 2017 off-season approaching and nothing is that simple. Both Neuvirth and Stolarz are eligible for the upcoming NHL Expansion Draft and both should be attractive to GM George McPhee and the Vegas Golden Knights. Stolarz is young and under team control as a restricted free agent and could be valuable to Vegas as either an investment or a potential trade chip. Neuvirth is relatively cheap at $2.5MM per year through 2018-19 and was drafted by McPhee when he was with the Washington Capitals. He would immediately provide some veteran presence to a goalie group that is expected to skew very young.

The question then becomes: if Vegas has interest in both, who should Philadelphia protect? At first, the obvious answer seemed to be Stolarz. Not only is he much younger than Neuvirth, but he simply outplayed him when given the chance in 2016-17. Stolarz has just as good a chance to be the goalie of the future in Philly as any of the other Flyers’ keeper prospects. However, there was a wrinkle added to than plan recently when Stolarz was injured in an AHL game, suffering a serious knee injury that required surgery. Now, Stolarz is expected to be sidelined all summer and likely not ready for game action into next season. What that means for the Flyers is, if they stay the course and protect Stolarz, an expansion selection of Neuvirth leaves the Flyers with no goalies to start the 2017-18 campaign.

Is that threat enough for them to potentially lose a top-end young goalie? It might be. The Flyers already have about $60MM committed to just 16 players for their cap payroll next season, and while many of their reinforcements will come from the minor leagues, you can expect GM Ron Hextall to be on the lookout for some veteran assistance as well. That very well may include a goalie, even if they do retain Neuvirth and Stolarz. However, the Flyers may not have the cap flexibility to deal with a potential loss of Neuvirth on top of a Stolarz injury. Such a predicament may force Philly to look at top-end free agents like Ben Bishop or Ryan Miller or may cause them to have to add two mid-level options like Brian Elliott, Jonathan Bernier, or Darcy Kuemper or even a return to Mason. Either of those strategies would severely limit the team’s ability to add anyone else in free agency.

So that’s the situation: will the Flyers’ protect the future (Stolarz) at the possible expense of the present? Or will they play it safe (Neuvirth) and almost surely lose a talented young goalie? McPhee and the Knights would love to have Stolarz, but they may have their eye on Neuvirth as well. Either way, it’s your move Hextall.

Share 0 Retweet 0 Send via email

AHL| Expansion| Free Agency| George McPhee| Injury| Philadelphia Flyers| Ron Hextall Anthony Stolarz| Ben Bishop| Michal Neuvirth| Vegas Golden Knights

Detroit Red Wings In Pursuit Of Victor Ejdsell
Main
Hurricanes Acquire Scott Darling From Blackhawks
View Comments (4)

Comments

  1. acarneglia

    6 years ago

    Anthony Stolarz- from Edison NJ like me and we share a first name.

    Reply
    • pukelit

      6 years ago

      Same

      Reply
  2. ericl

    6 years ago

    I see Flyers protecting Neuvirth. They have Alex Lyon who played extremely well this season in the AHL if they would lose Stolarz and I think that is a big if. I think it is more likely that the Flyers lose Michael Raffl than it is Stolarz. They have to get quality players up front & Raffl would be a solid pickup. Vegas will take Grubauer in the expansion draft & they could draft Pickard or Berra. There are other young goalies who they could draft that are coming off of knee surgery. For example, they could draft Zane McIntyre or Malcolm Subban from the Bruins

    Reply
  3. Jimmykinglive

    6 years ago

    No way Vegas takes Neuvirth. There will be a number of better options out there and after the season he has it’s hard to believe he’d be on their top 3 or 4 for available tenders

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Please login to leave a reply.

Log in Register

    Top Stories

    Wild Sign Marcus Foligno To Four-Year Extension

    Minnesota Wild Sign Mats Zuccarello To Two-Year Extension

    Andrei Vasilevskiy Out Two Months After Back Surgery

    Calgary Flames Extend Mikael Backlund; Name Him Captain

    Buffalo Sabres Showing Interest In Patrick Kane

    Brad Marchand Named 27th Captain In Boston History

    Ducks Remain Far Apart In Negotiations With Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale

    Montreal Canadiens Acquire Tanner Pearson

    Minnesota Wild Re-Sign Calen Addison

    Brayden Schenn Named St. Louis Blues Captain

    Recent

    Evening Notes: Hartman, Zuccarello, Islanders/Rangers

    Training Camp Cuts: 09/29/23

    Atlantic Notes: Pinto, Senators, Brown

    Avalanche Notes: Toews, Makar, Holland

    Wild Sign Marcus Foligno To Four-Year Extension

    Salary Cap Deep Dive: Montreal Canadiens

    Golden Knights Rule Out Zach Whitecloud For Rest Of Preseason

    Waivers: 9/29/23

    Blue Jackets Claim Spencer Martin Off Waivers From Canucks

    Injury Notes: Guentzel, Klingberg, Olivier

    Rumors By Team

    Rumors By Team

    • Avalanche Rumors
    • Blackhawks Rumors
    • Blue Jackets Rumors
    • Blues Rumors
    • Bruins Rumors
    • Canadiens Rumors
    • Canucks Rumors
    • Capitals Rumors
    • Coyotes Rumors
    • Devils Rumors
    • Ducks Rumors
    • Flames Rumors
    • Flyers Rumors
    • Golden Knights Rumors
    • Hurricanes Rumors
    • Islanders Rumors
    • Jets Rumors
    • Kings Rumors
    • Kraken Rumors
    • Lightning Rumors
    • Maple Leafs Rumors
    • Oilers Rumors
    • Panthers Rumors
    • Penguins Rumors
    • Predators Rumors
    • Rangers Rumors
    • Red Wings Rumors
    • Sabres Rumors
    • Senators Rumors
    • Sharks Rumors
    • Stars Rumors
    • Wild Rumors

    Navigation

    • Sitemap
    • Archives

    PHR Info

    • About
    • Privacy Policy

    Connect

    • Contact Us
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS Feed

    Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

    scroll to top

    Register

    Desktop Version | Switch To Mobile Version