MacDonald Deal is Not Immovable
When the contracts of the now-retired Vincent Lecavalier and free agents Luke Schenn and Nicklas Grossmann came off the Philadelphia Flyers' books on July 1, the organization got a reset on the number of contracts for which it is allowed to absorb a partial cap hit in order to trade the player to another team.
While it is unlikely that the Flyers could find a buyer for defenseman Andrew MacDonald at his full $5 million cap hit, keep in mind that Philadelphia is allowed to absorb up to a maximum 50 percent of the cap hit. At $2.5 million, it is a movable contract. MacDonald is capable of playing as some team's fifth or sixth defenseman and to be a secondary part of the special teams crews.
The Flyers would strongly prefer not to waive MacDonald and send him down to the Phantoms again this season. For one thing, it provides scant cap relief (much less than trading him would). For another, they do not regard him as an AHL player but rather as an NHL defenseman victimized by his own inflated contract.
If the Flyers do carry MacDonald on their NHL club all season, he is a candidate for expansion draft movement a year from now if he has a decent season.
I am not eager to get into the whole debate again over the contract extension that MacDonald signed in 2014 to pre-empt his unrestricted free agent eligibility -- a contract that took him from making the NHL minimum to making $5 million -- but the popular versions of the story are incorrect. Key points:
1) Paul Holmgren did not just "stick" Ron Hextall with the contract. Hextall, who was named GM shortly afterwards, was very much involved in the negotiation and was agreed to the deal. If there is blame to be assigned for what has turned into an unfavorable deal for the Flyers, it is a shared one.
2) The Flyers were not bidding against themselves that year even at that level of compensation. There were other NHL teams who considered MacDonald the top UFA defenseman on the market that summer, and were preparing to offer a comparable or even slightly higher contract.
3) It was not a "lack of analytics awareness". The Flyers were already doing in-house forms of analytics, as were other teams. The reason why MacDonald, who has never done well in individual puck possession metrics, was coveted on the market came down to the fact that MacDonald could do a little bit of everything.
He led the NHL in ice time during the pre-trade portion of the season with the New York Islanders. While no one would have called that ideal, especially against other teams' top lines, it was precisely MacDonald's ability to absorb minutes, play both ends of special teams and durability that teams coveted. Although he plays a "containment" style of defense -- which is not very analytics friendly -- it was not like he was making egregious gaffes and the Flyers were hemorrhaging goals against because of him. On the flip side, it couldn't really be argued that he was a significant positive difference maker, either.
Now, whether the Flyers should have paid "UFA prices" on McDonald is a whole other topic. Clearly, he has not played anywhere close to the level of a $5 million defenseman. Even here, though, context is helpful.
Leaguewide, the UFA market price was extremely inflated, especially for defensemen. That was why the trade price for MacDonald as a rental player was so high and also why the Flyers had to overpay by that much in both cap hit and contract term.
Now, in hindsight, the Flyers would probably not have expended a pair of second-round picks to trade for MacDonald and then paid UFA prices to keep him. However, viewed in the context of the time, the Flyers' decisions were not nearly as egregious as they seem now.
4) The Islanders did not want to trade MacDonald until it became clear they were not going to be able to re-sign him. Garth Snow considered him an important part of the team's rebuild. Eventually, it became clear that the player was intent on testing the market, and there was a lot of trade interest in the player around the league.
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Today in Flyers History: July 20
1995: The Flyers sign veteran shutdown center Joel Otto as a unrestricted free agent. The longtime Calgary Flames forward agrees to a three-year, $2.3 million contract.
1998: The Flyers sign veteran checking center Marc Bureau as an unrestricted free agent. Bureau signs a three-year contract worth $1.1 million per season.
2013: The Flyers sign center Sean Couturier to a two-year, $3.5 million contract extension.
Birthdays: Current Flyer forward Nick Cousins was born July 20, 1993. Former Flyers defenseman, NHL head coach, NHL assistant coach, scout and Phantoms head coach Terry Murrray was born July 20, 1950. The perpetually underrated Murray Craven, one of the team's best all-around players from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, was born July 20, 1964.
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2016 Flyers Alumni Fantasy Camp
The 2nd annual Flyers Alumni Fantasy Camp will be held Aug. 19 -22 in Atlantic City. The Alumni have assembled an excellent group of instructor/coaches this year, including Hockey Hall of Famers Bernie Parent and Mark Howe, along with the likes of Danny Briere and Flyers assistant coach Ian Laperriere.
For more information,
click here.
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