BRAYDEN SCHENN NEXT IN LINE FOR EXTENSION
Over the course of the last two off-seasons and the 2013 pre-season, Flyers general manager
Paul Holmgren has systematically gotten contract extensions done for the team's major prospective free agent forwards. If you are keeping score at home, the Flyers have locked up seven of their top eight forwards for multiple years beyond the 2013-14 season
Earlier thus summer, team captain
Claude Giroux received the maximum eight-year contract extension. The deal will increase his cap hit in 2014-15 from its current $3.75 million to $8.275 million. Later, the club got
Sean Couturier signed to a two-year bridge deal, with a modest cap hit increase from $1.35 million to $1.75 million. Couturier is eligible to become a restricted free agent in the summer of 2016 and able to negotiate a new extension one season before its expiration.
Last summer, Holmgren signed restricted free agent
Jakub Voracek to a multi-year extension. His deal, which carries a $4.25 million cap hit, runs through the 2015-16 season. Upon its expiration, the Czech forward can become an unrestricted free agent. He has two seasons to go, including the upcoming one, before he's eligible to discuss a new extension.
A year ago, the Flyers also gave respective six-year extensions to both
Wayne Simmonds and
Scott Hartnell, running through the 2019-20 season. Both of those deals kick in for the 2013-14 campaign, with Simmonds' deal carrying a $3.975 million cap hit and Hartnell's $4.75 million.
Earlier this week, Philadelphia agreed to terms on a four-year contract extension to pre-empt unrestricted free agency for
Matt Read next summer. With UFA market prices being higher than comparable RFAs, the 27-year-old Read landed a deal which will increase his current $900,000 cap hit to $3.625 million beginning in the 2014-15 season. His deal will expire after the 2017-18 season.
When
Vincent Lecavalier was bought out by the Tampa Bay Lightning in June, the Flyers signed him as an unrestricted free agent to a five-year contract with a $4.5 million cap hit. The deal will take Lecavalier through the likely remainder of his NHL career, expiring in 2017-18.
Now there is one long-term forward contract left to figure out: the one for impending restricted free agent
Brayden Schenn.
Schenn's current entry-level contract carries a hefty cap hit of $3.11 million. As with Couturier's deal, I suspect that Schenn's next cap hit is NOT likely to jump dramatically from his entry-level contract. Instead, he will make his extra money through a big jump in his base salary and the elimination of bonuses in his next contract.
Schenn's entry-level contract originally signed when he was a member of the Los Angeles Kings organization is largely
steeped in performance bonuses. It carried a relatively modest base salary of $900,000 in the first two seasons and $810,000 for 2013-14. For Schenn to collect the maximum $2.35 million in bonuses he's eligible for in the upcoming, he'd have to have All-Star season, finishing among the league's point leaders and win a major NHL award.
The tricky part with Schenn's next contract will be to find a contract length that is agreeable to both sides. Will it be a bridge deal of one or two seasons, or will it be a longer-term arrangement? While anything is possible, I suspect that it will end up as a bridge contract. The bigger question I have is whether the deal gets done in the near future or closer to next summer.
Even with bridge deals, the NHL's salary cap ceiling is likely to be much higher than the current $64.3 million by the time that Schenn and/or Couturier would come up again for renegotiation. Additionally, the Flyers will have a better sense by that time of how close both young players have (and will continue to) come to reaching their talent ceilings at the NHL level. If they come close to reaching that level, it will be Couturier and Schenn's NEXT renegotiations that will walk down the monstrous extension path to preempt UFA seasons in the latter years of a long-term contract.
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SUNDAY QUICK HITS
* Defense prospect
Samuel Morin is back in action on Sunday afternoon. His Rimouski Oceanic club will play host to the Quebec Remparts. Game time is 4 p.m. EDT. A
webcast is available for $6.95.
* Defense prospect
Robert Hägg assisted on the game-tying goal in the third period and was plus-one (+2, -1) in Modo's 4-3 road shootout loss to Luleå HF (one of the top teams in the SHL). This was a much better all-around game for Hägg than his uneven performance against Leksand on Thursday. In four regular season games to date, Hägg has two assists and an even plus-minus while playing on his team's top defense pairing.
* Left wing prospect
Taylor Leier had his second two-assist game in as many regular-season outings for the WHL's Portland Winterhawks. Portland dropped a 4-3 shootout decision to the Seattle Thunderbirds. The Hawks are back in action on Tuesday.
* Coming off a 30-save shutout win in his first regular-season game of the 2013-14 campaign, goaltending prospect
Anthony Stolarz and the rest of the London Knights will have to wait until Friday to take the ice again. Next up for London is a Sept. 27 home game against the Saginaw Spirit.
* Defense prospect
Valeri Vasiliev played in his second game since returning from a shoulder injury. He started on the third pairing for KHL club Spartak Moscow, receiving 13:12 of ice time in a 4-1 loss to Ilya Kovalchuk's SKA St. Petersburg club. Kovalchuk notched a pair of goals, while former Flyers forward Patrick Thoresen had an assist and three shots on goal for the winning side. Vasiliev was not out for any goals for or against in this game. In three regular season games to date, he has averaged 12:44 of ice time with zero points and 2 PIM.
* Defense prospect
Fredric Larsson did not record a point or penalty and was even in plus-minus in his second regular season game for the USHL's Youngstown Phantoms. Once again, the Phantoms lost to the US National Team squad; this time in a high-scoring 7-6 affair. Team USA blew out Youngstown, 9-3, in the opener on Friday.
* Defense prospect
David Drake did not record a point, penalty or shot on goal and was even in plus-minus in his USHL regular season opener for the Des Moines Buccaneers in a 6-4 loss to the Sioux Falls Stampede.
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Today in Flyers History Part I: On this day in 1991, the Flyers traded team captain
Ron Sutter and defenseman
Murray Baron to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for forwards
Rod Brind'Amour and
Dan Quinn. The deal turned out to be one of the best trades made during the
Russ Farwell era.
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Today in Flyers History Part II: On this day in 1994, the Flyers re-acquired goaltender
Ron Hextall and a 1995 sixth-round pick (
Dmitri Tertyshny) from the New York Islanders in exchange for goaltender
Tommy Söderström. The trade by newly rehired general manager
Bob Clarke was part of the large-scale makeover that the team had during the lockout-shortened season. After the lockout, Hextall and an what by the end of the year was almost an entirely remade blueline corps from the previous season --
Eric Desjardins,
Kevin Haller,
Petr Svoboda, NHL All-Rookie Team honoree
Chris Therien and
Karl Dykhuis all made their Flyers debuts in 1995 -- formed the goaltending and defense portions of a team that went from missing the playoffs five straight years to winning the Atlantic Division and coming within two wins of reaching the Stanley Cup Final.
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Alumni Birthdays: Two of the more hyped but ultimately disappointing trade acquisitions in Flyers history celebrate birthdays today. Winger
Pat Falloon turns 41. Defenseman
Rick Foley is 68. Additionally, left winger
Carl Mokosak, who suited up in one game for the team in 1985-86 and dropped the gloves with New York Rangers defenseman Tony Feltrin in a 3-1 Flyers loss at Madison Square Garden, turns 51 today. Mokosak played a total of 83 NHL games between 1981-82 and 1988-89 for the Calgary Flames, Los Angeles Kings, Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Boston Bruins.
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