Quick Hits: July 10, 2023
1) Noah Cates and the Flyers have avoided arbitration. Today, the two sides reached an agreement on a two-year contract carrying a $2.62 million average value (AAV). When the contract expires in 2025, a 26-year-old Cates will once again be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent. He'll be one year away from attaining unrestricted free agent status.
Although the Flyers save a bit on salary cap hit over the next two years compared to what a longer-term deal that preempted UFA years would have cost cap-wise, it gives the decided upper-hand in future negotiations to the Cates side (as long as he stays healthy and performs to the expectations set by his career to date). However, a two-year deal is preferable to a three-year term from the Flyers side because the latter would have walked Cates directly to being a UFA.
Thus, based on the typical course of similar negotiations, there was likely some compromise involved in contract term. Meanwhile, Cates is betting on himself that any money left on the table from a potential long-term offer from Philly will be recouped and then some in his next negotiation.
2) It is also believed that the Flyers are close to finalizing a new contract with restricted free agent defenseman Cam York and RFA center Morgan Frost. This is unconfirmed by the organization but sources close to the two players have said deals are in sight. Meanwhile, as of this writing, there are no updates on the status of the much-rumored trade between the Flyers and Hurricanes to return Tony DeAngelo to Carolina.
3) In a busy edition of the weekly "Mondays with Meltzer" episode of Flyers Daily (recorded last night). Jason Myrtetus and I discussed Alexei Kolosov's entry-level contract, general manager Danny Briere's offseason to date, how much Cates could potentially still improve (on the offensive end) and whether he's better off staying at center or going back to left wing if Sean Couturier is healthy, the additions of Marc Staal and Garnet Hathaway, whether the Flyers should more actively seek additional reclamation projects of younger players, and more.
To listen, click here.
4) Today in Flyers History: On July 10, 1995, the Flyers re-signed 32-year-old former captain Kevin Dineen to a two-year contract extension. Although Flyers head coach Terry Murray anticipated reducing Dineen's role in 1995-96 (from a regular top-six player and frequent linemate for second-line center Rod Brind'Amour to more of a top-nine role), Dineen wanted to stay with the team.
Unfortunately, it didn't work out. Dineen struggled out of the gates when the season started and his ice time was cut dramatically rather than gradually. After he posted just two points (0g, 2a) while dressing in 26 of the first 37 games, Dineen was traded back to his original NHL team, the Hartford Whalers, on Dec. 28, 1995. In return, the Flyers received 1997 third-round (Kris Mallette) and seventh-round (later returned to Hartford/Carolina in the Paul Coffey trade) draft picks.
It was an unfortunate ending for Dineen to what had been a meritorious Flyers career that started amid a five-year dark period of Philadelphia missing the playoffs and ended when the team was re-emerging as a Stanley Cup contender. Dineen's final shining moments as a Flyer came during the 1995 Eastern Conference Final against the New Jersey Devils.
In Game 3 of the series, Dineen answered back quickly to a Claude Lemieux goal in a match the Flyers ultimately won in overtime to climb back into the series after dropping the first two games at home. In the fateful fifth game at the Spectrum after the Flyers tied the series at two game apiece, Dineen struck for a pair of goals (erasing 1-0 and 2-1 deficits) before Lemieux's long-distance unscreened shot from the right point in the final minute of the third period sent the Devils to a 3-2 win.
As a free agent in the summer of 1995, Dineen put the sentimental goal of wanting to stay with the Flyers and feeling the team now had a Stanley Cup within reach over the self-interest of potentially making more money to remain a top-six forward elsewhere. Unfortunately, the decision didn't work out as hoped.
Nevertheless, his NHL career ultimately went on until he was 39 years old. By then, the four-time 30 goal power forward (two-time 40+ goal scorer) was strictly a lower lineup role player but he still brought a phenomenal work ethic and team-first mentality to his clubs. Dineen's career concluded with the Columbus Blue Jackets after two-plus seasons with the expansion club. 5) July 10 Flyers Alumni birthdays: Ilkka Sinisalo (1958-2017), Glenn "Chico" Resch (1948), Mark "Trees" Laforest (1962), Blake Wesley (1959).