|
Instant Analysis: Flyers Trade Lecavalier and Luke Schenn to Kings |
|
|
|
|
|
The Philadelphia Flyers have traded impending unrestricted free agent defenseman Luke Schenn and seldom-used veteran foward Vincent Lecavalier to the Los Angeles Kings for a 2016 third-round draft pick and 23-year-old center Jordan Weal.
Philadelphia will reportedly retain 50 percent of both Lecavalier's ($4.5 million cap hit) and Schenn's ($3.6 million) contracts. In the short term, this creates $4.05 million of cap space for the Flyers. The other $1.8 million of Schenn's contract will come off the books after this season when the veteran defenseman hits unrestricted free agency. The Flyers would have to retain a $2.25 million cap hit on Lecavalier through the 2017-18 season unless he retires.
However, Lecavalier will retire at the end of this season per Bob McKenzie via a statement from agent Kent Hughes. As such, Lecavalier's salary comes off the books after this season, too. Essentially, this is a quid pro quo arrangement with the Flyers and the Lecavalier camp to allow him to go somewhere where he could have a shot at a Stanley Cup ring.
"We felt like the flexibility we gained from the move cap-wise... we had eight defensemen, it wasn’t fair to any of them and quite honestly it wasn’t good for our team, and Vinny was sitting out. We just felt like this made sense for where we are as an organization and where we’re going," Flyers general manager Ron Hextall said.
The GM said he'd been engaged in discussions with Los Angeles Kings general manager Dean Lombardi for several weeks, as well as talking to Lecavalier and Hughes about waiving his no-trade clause.
"This has been going on for a while," Hextall said. "Probably a good three weeks. Dean and I have kept in regular touch. He’s always had a big interest in Luke Schenn, and we talked about that way back. It’s been going on for a while."
However, speaking to the media shortly before the Flyers practiced at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, NJ, on Wednesday, Hextall slyly let nothing on about even the possibility of a trade.
"It's fairly quiet right now," Hextall said shortly before 11 o'clock on Wednesday morning. "Everybody's talking the same way. But everybody's pretty much in it, too. So at some point here things will start to shake loose."
It turns out that things shook loose just a few hours later. Prior to making the trade, Hextall did hint that he was prioritizing the alleviation of an overcrowded Flyers' blueline, which compromised eight players on the active roster.
"We don’t like having eight defensemen," Hextall said. "Players don’t like it. We don’t like it. That’s reality. At some point here something will break, but until then we’ll continue on."
Moving Lecavalier was a tougher challenge -- something the Flyers have been working on for each of the last two off-seasons and the first half of this season. While the Flyers long resisted the option of retaining salary in a trade, it had become crystal clear that the only way a solution to move out the unhappy player and find a taker would be for the Flyers to absorb a signficant chunk of his cap hit.
Schenn and younger brother Brayden have played together as Flyers teammates since the lockout-out shortened 2012-13 season. Both in Toronto and Philadelphia, Schenn never lived up to becoming the hoped-for shutdown defenseman he was hyped to be when Toronto rushed the player -- billed by The Hockey News as the next Adam Foote -- directly to the NHL after the Maple Leafs made him the fifth overall pick of the 2008 NHL Draft.
"I did talk to Luke this morning," Hextall said. "Luke understood where we were at as a franchise and he also understood that we had numbers. He knew he was a UFA. I think he had a sense something possibly was coming. So I think he was excited to go to LA and a top team, somewhere where Brayden’s been [prior to his 2011 offseason trade to the Flyers]. He mentioned to me when I told him that he knew half a dozen players from LA. So he was excited, and I think it’s going to be an absolute terrific fit for Luke. If you look at their team, the way they’re built, the way they play, their system. He’s going to fit in like a glove.
Weal, whom the Kings drafted in the third round of the 2010 NHL Draft, is an undersized but highly skilled forward who has been a very productive American Hockey League player but has had a hard time cracking the NHL as a regular. This season, Weal has dressed in 10 games for the Kings receiving very sparing ice time by Sutter.
Weal, who is subject to waivers, will be staying with the NHL club per Hextall. The Kings had him on their NHL roster all season, despite how infrequently he has played, out of concern for losing the skilled forward for nothing via waivers if they attempted to send him back to the AHL.
"I’m an energy guy. I play good in all three zones. I think my work ethic is one thing that I can offer to the group. They’ve got a good squad. They’ve got young guys up front, skilled guys, and I think I can mix right in well with that and make some really good things happen," Weal said.
The center admitted that, while happy to be in the NHL, it has been mentally tough to go from playing heavy ice time in all situations in the AHL to being a frequent healthy scratch and seeing little ice time even when he dressed for the Kings.
"It was tough. It was hard to keep my confidence. Even when you got into the games, it was hard because you’d play one shift early, and if there’s a couple penalties, you weren’t getting a shift for 15 minutes of the game," Weal said.
"It’s tough to go from playing 22 minutes a night to playing six or seven. It’s really a shock to the system. But I tried to do my best and get used to it as much as I could. Hopefully I can come to Philly and work my way into getting some more minutes a lot quicker."
During his Wednesday morning media availabilty, Hextall said that he did not relish his cap-driven and roster-limit based decision to waive Sam Gagner and send him to the Phantoms when he cleared. The GM also indicated a desire to bring Gagner back up to the big club at some point.
"We were in a situation where something had to break and that’s what we decided to do. Does Sam deserve to be in the minors? No. Can it help him? Absolutely. He hasn’t played here for quite some time. He hasn’t got the type of ice time that he’s used to and I think this time in the minors — and I’m assuming at some point we’ll bring him back — but this time in the minors he can kind of rebuild his game, rebuild his confidence and get him going,"Hextall said.
"It’s kind of twofold there where something had to break and this is what made the most sense for us and Sam had a great attitude. ‘I’m gonna go down there and play well and earn my way back.’ I suspect he’s gonna put up some numbers down there, make some plays and get back to playing that type of hocey. My vision is for him to play some games down there, get his game going, come up here and play good hockey for us."
The Flyers now have the salary cap flexibility to call up whomever they'd like. As such, if they want to play Weal and recall Gagner, it is possible they may opt to do so and send the waiver-exempt Scott Laughton to Lehigh Valley.
However, Hextall indicated on Wednesday evening that there is no immediate plan to fill the now-open 23rd spot on the Flyers' active NHL roster.
'
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»