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MELTZER'S MUSINGS: MAY 19, 2016
1) Last year at this time, the Philadelphia Flyers and Ryan White each had an easy decision to make. The Flyers wanted to keep White. He wanted to stay. Just as important, the price ($800,000 for one year) was right for both sides.
After missing the first half of the 2014-15 season with a torn pectoral muscle, White played well when he was finally able to join the lineup. He brought a needed element of grit and forechecking tenacity to the lineup, a dash of occasional goal-scoring and a likable, outgoing and team-oriented personality to the locker room. However, it was based on a limited sampling of 34 games.
This time around, the decisions are a little tougher. Yes, Flyers general manager Ron Hextall indicated that he wants to re-sign White. The player said he wants to stay, and would even be open to a bit of a hometown discount rather than chasing the highest possible offer.
A hometown discount only goes so far, however. With White (11 goals, 101 PIM, 208 credited hits, 52.4 percent in faceoffs in 73 games) having shown in 2015-16 that he could bring the same elements -- mostly positive but with a few too many bad penalties mixed in as well -- he will be looking for a raise and a multi-year term instead of another one-year contract.
The cap hit and the term are not so cut-and-dry this time. Where is the cap hit line drawn? 1.6 million (i.e., doubling his salary)? At $2 million, does it become a bad contract for a player in his third/fourth line role? Setting a salary partially depends on whether you consider the Pierre-Edouard Bellemare line the team's third or fourth line based on Dave Hakstol's deployment of his personnel. How about term? Two years seems reasonable, but is three too much for the 28-year-old role-forward?
Those are all negotiating points, as is the fact that White is versatile enough to have played both center and wing in his NHL career. So is this: If White goes unsigned until July 1 and becomes an unrestricted free agent, there will be other teams interested this time around.
Even though the Flyers want to keep White, there's a point (both in cap dollars and term) in which Hextall would decide it's too much to pay a role player. On the flip side, even though White has said that he will take a little less money in order to stay with a team for whom he's happy, that has some limits as well.
When all is said and done, it still seems that the most likely outcome is that White remains a Flyer. However, there are a lot more variables this time around than there were a year ago. It's not nearly as complicated as finding the right price and term for restricted free agent Brayden Schenn, but spending wisely on the "lower" portion of the roster is an underrated part of being able to do bigger things, because the cap hits add up quickly.
Case in point: when the Flyers had to, quite literally, bring in their entire defense corps from outside the organization via trades and veteran contracts, the total spending was excessive relative to the collective caliber of the players. On an individual basis, most could be justified by
similar contracts elsewhere for comparable players. Collectively, though, it was out of whack because the Flyers were not able to balance it off with contributing NHL defensemen still on entry-level or second contracts.
The Flyers were hardly alone in overpaying for veteran role players on D -- the premiums leaguewide got so high that there was bound to eventually be a market correction -- but their situation was undesirable. They aren't out of the woods yet, but as long as some of the defense prospects in the farm system -- in whom the organization has heavily invested draft pick and development-focused resources -- join Shayne Gostisbehere in delivering as hoped within the next few years, the picture will become much rosier.
2) Today in Flyers History: On the afternoon of May 19, 1974, the Flyers became the first NHL expansion team to win the Stanley Cup. They did so with a 1-0 win over the Boston Bruins at the Spectrum in Game 6 of the Final. The victory touched off a massive celebration, highlighted by a raucous and joyous parade on Broad Street the next day. an estimated two million people attended.
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