Navigating the Salary Cap is probably one of the more important tasks for any general manager to have. Teams that can avert total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful. Those that don’t see struggles and front office changes.
PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation heading into the 2018-19 season. This will focus more on those players who are integral parts of the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.
Philadelphia Flyers
Current Cap Hit: $69,217,500 (under the $79.5MM Upper Limit)
Entry-Level Contracts
F Travis Konecny (one year remaining, $894K)
F Nolan Patrick (two years remaining, $925K)
D Ivan Provorov (one year remaining, $894K)
D Travis Sanheim (one year remaining, $863K)
Potential Bonuses
Konecny: $425K
Patrick: $2.65MM
Provorov: $850K
Sanheim: $450K
Total: $4.375MM
Few teams are getting the bang for their buck that the Flyers are. Provorov has established himself as a legitimate top pairing player already and will be in line for a big money, long-term deal next summer instead of a bridge contract. Sanheim played himself into a regular role for a big chunk of 2017-18 and the team is hoping he’ll turn that into a full-time nod next season. Even if he does that, a shorter-term second contract is likely in the cards for him.
Up front, Konecny more than doubled his goal production from his rookie campaign, going from 11 to 24 last season. If he can repeat that type of output, he should be in line to bypass the bridge deal as well. Patrick’s rookie campaign was fairly quiet but the team was in a situation where they didn’t have to give him big minutes right away. While he’ll be asked to take a bigger workload next season, he shouldn’t project to hit his $1.8MM of Schedule ‘A’ bonuses which will give the Flyers a little more wiggle room on the cap for 2018-19.
One Year Remaining, Non-Entry-Level
G Brian Elliott ($2.75MM, UFA)
F Christian Folin ($800K, UFA)
F Scott Laughton ($963K, RFA)
F Jori Lehtera ($4.7MM, UFA)
F Taylor Leier ($720K, RFA)
G Michal Neuvirth ($2.5MM, UFA)
F Michael Raffl ($2.35MM, UFA)
F Wayne Simmonds ($3.975MM, UFA)
F Jordan Weal ($1.75MM, UFA)
Simmonds is the most prominent player here by a considerable margin. He has provided the Flyers with significant value on his deal over the past several years and is renowned as one of the better pure power forwards around the league. There’s no doubt that the Flyers will want to keep him around but the question is should they? He’ll be 31 when the puck drops in 2019-20 when his new deal will kick in and physical wingers tend to have more dramatic declines as they age. On the flip side, he brings an element to the table that Philadelphia’s forward group is largely lacking otherwise. It wouldn’t be shocking to see GM Ron Hextall try to work out a shorter-term extension if that’s something that Simmonds is open to.
Philadelphia’s goaltending was a concern heading into last summer which is why they brought in Elliott to try to help things. Last season, the goaltending was still a concern and both netminders had issues staying healthy. The good news is that with both being on expiring deals, there’s no long-term risk here and if a team has someone go down midseason, the Flyers could conceivably look to move one and give one of their youngsters some more NHL action. Looking beyond 2018-19, there’s a good chance that they will look to bring in a more prominent starter on a short-term deal to bridge the gap until top prospect Carter Hart is ready to step in.
As for the rest of the group, the other UFA forwards appear to be candidates to leave next summer. Lehtera was a buyout candidate this summer but since the team has plenty of cap space, it makes sense for them to keep him so there’s no carryover to 2019-20. Raffl has seen his output dip in recent years while Weal didn’t thrive in his first full-time NHL opportunity. He’ll battle with Laughton for playing time and the winner between the two should be part of the plans beyond next year. Leier projects to be a depth winger while Folin gives the team some extra depth on the right side of the back end.
Two Years Remaining
D Radko Gudas ($3.35MM, UFA)
D Robert Hagg ($1.15MM, RFA)
D Andrew MacDonald ($5MM, UFA)
F Dale Weise ($2.35MM, UFA)
This group features some of the Flyers’ bloated contracts. Weise has underwhelmed significantly since joined the team two summers ago and has struggled to hold down a fourth line spot in the lineup. MacDonald is a decent defender but is well overpaid for the role that he is best suited to play. Gudas certainly provides a physical element but isn’t going to bring much offensively to the table. The same can be said for Hagg but he’s on a good bridge deal for someone who is pegged to be a third pairing player next season.
Three Years Remaining
None
Four Or More Years Remaining
F Sean Couturier ($4.33MM through 2021-22)
F Claude Giroux ($8.275MM through 2021-22)
D Shayne Gostisbehere ($4.5MM through 2022-23)
F James van Riemsdyk ($7MM through 2022-23)
F Jakub Voracek ($8.25MM through 2023-24)
It’s amazing what a difference a year can make. Last summer, Giroux’s value was down considerably after his production had dipped for a fourth straight year. However, a shift to the wing helped him rebound considerably as he led the league in assists and finished second overall in points. That helped Voracek improve his output as well while Couturier emerged as a legitimate front-line center at a price tag that is lower than a lot of second line pivots. Hextall spent big in free agency to bring van Riemsdyk back to the team that originally drafted him but if he can hover around the 30-goal mark once again, they’ll be happy with that type of production.
After a quieter year in 2016-17, Gostisbehere had a very nice bounce-back season, posting career highs across the board while finishing fourth overall in scoring among NHL blueliners. With that type of output, he’s another one that’s on an extremely team-friendly deal.
Buyouts
G Ilya Bryzgalov (Compliance buyout so no cap hit; payments of $1.643MM to be made through 2026-27)
Retained Salary Transactions
None
Still To Sign
None
Best Value: Couturier
Worst Value: MacDonald
Looking Ahead
It wasn’t all that long ago that the Flyers were a team that was perpetually in cap trouble but that is no longer the case. The team is positioned quite nicely for next season with plenty of room to absorb any achieved bonuses while still having enough space to make an impact addition at some point during the year.
Beyond that, Philadelphia has enough expiring contracts to offset pay increases for Provorov and Konecny (and potentially Simmonds) without too much concern; they have a little over $46MM tied up in 11 players for 2019-20. This will be their last year sitting well below the Upper Limit but they are well-positioned to keep this core intact.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Not convinced HaK is the long term answer as the coach but I love what Hexy has done. We are finally out of Homer’s cap hell for the most part and things are looking up. Sustained success needs to be a deep system, so as your young players become high level talent and earn bigger contracts, you’ll have a continuous influx of entry level salaries to balance the budget, with no drop off in skill. Future is bright!, it’s been forever it seems, here’s hoping Hart is out franchise goalie!!!