QUICK HITS: DEC. 11, 2017
1) The Flyers will practice on Monday at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, NJ, in preparation to play the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Wells Fargo Center on Monday. Today's blog will be updated if their any notable developments at practice.
2) Flyers general manager Ron Hextall said on Sunday that the team would not loan Nolan Patrick to Hockey Canada in order to play in the 2017-18 World Junior Championships. This decision was not a surprise, for reasons spelled out in depth
in yesterday's blog.
3) Having room under the salary cap ceiling this season has been very important for the Flyers this season with all of the injuries (including the small cap hit absorbed when Anthony Stolarz had to be placed on SOIR) and the now-completed 10-game suspension served by Radko Gudas. The Flyers have been able to call up whomever they wished, and have not been forced to make use of a long-term injured reserve allowance.
Looking ahead, even if the cap ceiling were to remain static rather than the expected increase, the Flyers are going to enter the 2018 offseason with the most open cap space they've had since the summer of 2007 (when they were able to sign Danny Briere as an unrestricted free agent and to acquire and sign both Kimmo Timonen and Scott Hartnell).
Here's the breakdown:
* Valtteri Filppula ($5 million cap hit) is an unrestricted free agent (UFA).
* Matt Read ($3.625 million, approximate $2.625 million hit with him in AHL) is a UFA.
* Brandon Manning ($975,000) is a UFA.
* R.J. Umberger's buyout penalty ($1.5 million) comes off the books.
So far, that is $11.1 million of projected free space. It could rise to $14.4 million of open space. If the Flyers choose to buy out the final year of Jori Lehterä's contract ($4.7 million), they will add an additional $3.3 million of cap savings for next season at the cost of absorbing a $1.67 million cap penalty for 2019-20.
In terms of restricted free agents, Robert Hägg ($894,167) and Samuel Morin ($863,333) will both be RFAs after completing their entry-level contracts. So will left winger Taylor Leier ($806,588). The Flyers will also likely try to negotiate a long-term extension for Ivan Provorov, whose cap hit will take a huge jump come 2019-20 after his $894,167 cap hit entry-level deal expires after next season. Travis Sanheim ($863,333) is also a restricted free agent in the summer of 2019.
Wayne Simmonds' bargain contract ($3.975 million cap hit) will expire in the summer of 2019 and he will become an unrestricted free agent. Along with potentially pursuing a impact unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2018, deciding whether to negotiate an extension or to trade Simmonds either this season or next will be a crucial upcoming decision for Hextall.
4) OHL: The Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds ran their winning streak to 17 games with a 6-3 home victory against the Saginaw Spirit on Saturday afternoon. Flyers 2017 first-round pick Morgan Frost's run of multi-point games came to end at seven but he picked up the primary assist on a Boris Kachouk goal in the second period (primarily a solo effort by Kachouk) to extend his point streak to eight. Over his last 17 games, Frost has racked up 33 points (11 goals, 22 assists).
5) OHL: It was a disastrous Sunday for the Guelph Storm, as they were crushed 10-3 by the Kitchener Rangers and lost Flyers 2017 second-round pick Isaac Ratcliffe to a foot injury. Ratcliffe left the game after taking a puck off his instep in the second period and, per Storm writer Tony Saxon, departed the arena on crutches to get checked out at a local hospital. Flyers prospect and Kitchener captain Connor Bunnaman had two assists in the game.
6) NCAA prospects: For updates on the seven Flyers prospects playing collegiate hockey (Wade Allison, Tanner Laczynski, Cooper Marody, Brendan Warren, Wyatt Kalynuk, Terrance Amorosa and David Drake) and the two in the USHL (Matej Tomek and Noah Cates),
click here.
7) Best of luck to the Delco Phantoms PeeWee Team, who will compete next month in Port Huron, MI in the North American finals of the Silver Sticks tournament. Recently, Coach Dennis Helkowski's team went 6-0 to win the regional tourney held in West Chester, PA.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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