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Meltzer's Musings: Betts Situation

October 10, 2011, 7:46 AM ET [ Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
After watching a marathon of hockey on Friday and Saturday, I figured that it would be safe to take a day away yesterday. I stashed away my phone and accompanied my two-year-old son, Benjamin, on an outing to Sesame Place. When we went back to the car, I glanced at my emails and saw the Flyers press release about Blair Betts being returned to the club as a result of failing his physical (bad knee, not his shoulder) in Montreal.

My immediate thoughts were that Betts contract is now problematic on many fronts:

* First of all, the Flyers are now back at the 50-contract maximum on the reserve list. If Sean Couturier keeps playing the way that he has, the club will want to keep him in the NHL beyond 10 games. Right now, the team can't do that.

* I hate to use the term "stuck" with Betts, because he's a great guy who did a lot of good things for the team the last two years. Nevertheless, the team pretty much is stuck with an injured player who had just been told a week ago that the team no longer wants him. Bets is a pro, and I think he could handle that. But here's the bigger issue: NHL teams generally are NOT allowed to waive (and/or send to the minors) injured players.

In Betts' case, however, there is a little bit of gray area. The Flyers could contend that they intended to send him to the AHL if he cleared waivers and this could fall under section 13.6 of the CBA, which covers loaning injured players to the minors:

A Player who is otherwise required to clear Regular Waivers and who is injured while on an NHL roster can be placed on Regular Waivers and be Loaned to a minor league club prior to appropriate medical clearance being granted only if the Player was on NHL Recall at the time of injury and has not played ten (10) NHL Games (cumulative) or remained on the NHL roster for thirty (30) days (cumulative) since his Recall. Player shall receive his Paragraph 1 NHL Salary and benefits until appropriate medical clearance is granted. All other Players may not be Loaned until appropriate medical clearance is granted.


* The Flyers still need to jettison another contract to get back to 49. If it can't be Betts, they will need to make a trade, likely a future considerations (conditional 7th round draft pick) type of move. Waiving a player and assigning him to the AHL provides salary cap relief but it does NOT take the player's contract off the reserve list. Likewise, if the Flyers were to loan Johan Backlund (who was a healthy scratch in the Phantoms opener) to a European team, he would still be on the reserve list.

* Betts comes back on the Flyers' salary cap, if they can't send him to the AHL. The team has already had to place Ian Laperriere on long-term injured reserve in order to become cap compliant. Betts may also have to go onto LTIR at some point unless he becomes healthy enough to be medically cleared to play hockey. However, he played during the preseason and practiced with the Flyers right up to the day he was waived. So I'm really not sure just how bad his injury his, but I figure it must be more significant than either he or the Flyers knew.

* What comes next if Betts cannot be assigned to the AHL? The Flyers could still waive Jody Shelley (who has 3 more games to go on his NHL-mandated suspension) for some cap relief to offset Betts' return. They have the option of assigning Matt Walker to the minors because he's still within the 30-day post-waiver period in which he can be sent down without going through waivers again. Walker has not practiced in over a week -- although the club has repeatedly insisted that he's OK physically -- and Andreas Lilja has played well in the first two games. Even so, the Flyers would prefer to keep both players.
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