The hip injury keeping Flyers forward Ryan Johansen out of the lineup is already inhibiting their roster flexibility. The ailment, which may prevent the Flyers from executing a buyout on his contract this summer if not healed, has now reversed the team’s attempt to assign him to the minors after he cleared waivers earlier this month, GM Daniel Brière told Jonathan Bailey of Philly Hockey Now.
Brière told Bailey that the Flyers were surprised by Johansen’s injury at the time of his acquisition. He was included as part of the return from the Avalanche for defenseman Sean Walker a few days before the deadline. Johansen, who has a reduced $4MM cap hit and was limited to 23 points in 63 games with Colorado, landed on waivers the same days. Brière stated shortly after the deal that he didn’t expect Johansen to ever suit up in an NHL game for Philadelphia, and he was only included in the trade for salary cap management on Colorado’s end.
According to Brière, Johansen informed the Flyers directly after the trade that he was dealing with a hip injury, which did not keep him out of the lineup for any period of time in Colorado. Philadelphia’s team doctors then confirmed the injury. While the initial plan was for Johansen to rehab with their AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the league reversed the reassignment because an injured player cannot be sent down on a non-conditioning loan. Per Brière, the team does not have a timeline for Johansen’s return to health. If he remains on the roster for under 30 days, he won’t need to clear waivers again to head to Lehigh Valley.
If the Flyers can provide documentation that Johansen’s injury healed before this summer’s buyout window, they may buy out the final season of his eight-year, $64MM contract. They would only be responsible for half of the buyout cost — the Predators, who retained half of Johansen’s salary in last summer’s trade that sent him to Colorado, would shoulder the other half.
League game reports show that Johansen was reinstated to the NHL roster sometime between Tuesday’s 3-2 win over the Sharks and Thursday’s 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. As such, his cap impact for the Flyers is now $4MM instead of the reduced $2.85MM they have as a buried penalty while Johansen is in the minors. Per CapFriendly, this reversal leaves Philadelphia just over $500K in cap space.
(Looking in the general direction of GMDB) –
“Well, that’s another fine mess you’ve gotten us into!”
— O. Hardy
@Mac – Wasn’t there once a rule against trading an injured player, or is that only if the traded player says he’s injured before the trade? I’m confused.
It probably has to be approved by the commissioner’s office or something like that.
@Gbear – There’s no rule against it in the 2012 CBA (the most recent). It’s entirely up to the teams’ discretion.
I bring up memories of Hurricanes legend Sami Vatanen, who was traded at the deadline while injured in 2020 and didn’t make his Carolina debut until the league reconvened in the bubble
@Josh – Doesn’t the injury have to be known by the team trading for the player though? Seems like Philly was in the dark about this even though they weren’t going to play him anyway.
From what I can tell, that’s on the Flyers for not making the trade contingent on RyJo passing a physical
@Gbear — This all seems to make the Flyers look a little discombobulated here, doesn’t it?
To cite another Flyers example – they attempted to acquire Kyle McLaren from the Sharks at the 2009 deadline. The trade call went through, and it was made official, but the deal was nullified/reversed two days later when he failed his physical in Philadelphia. (link to espn.com)
My educated *GUESS*, not insider info, is that the Flyers didn’t make the acquisition contingent on a physical because they would stash him in the minors anyway. Unfortunately, there are some unforeseen consequences stemming from that choice in the form of his increased cap hit (can’t reduce it by $1.15MM by burying him in the minors b/c of his injury) and the potential inability to buy him out this summer if the hip injury lingers.
Tells me that the flyers were stupid and didn’t do a pre trade physical