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Flyers Offseason Directory: Dates,Free Agents, Loaned Players, Contracts |
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Quick Hits: September 9, 2020
1) There is going to a whirlwind offseason one the Stanley Cup Final is over. The 2020 NHL Draft has been moved up slightly, with the first round taking place on Tue. Oct 6 and rounds two to seven on Wed. Oct. 7. Free agency season will open on Oct. 9. The salary cap ceiling is $81.5 million with a $60.2 million floor.
Barring subsequent changes, NHL training camps are slated to start on Nov. 17 with a targeted Dec. 1 start date for the 2020-21 regular season. The NHL intends to get in an 82-game season, so there will be back-to-backs and three-in-fours galore for every team.
2) Flyers restricted free agents this offseason: Nolan Patrick, Philippe Myers, Nicolas Aube-Kubel (arbitration eligible), Robert Hagg (arbitration eligible), Mikhail Vorobyev (Flyers will retain the 23-year-old center's NHL rights but has signed a three-year contract with KHL team Salavat Yulaev Ufa).
3) Flyers unrestricted free agents this season: Justin Braun, Brian Elliott, Tyler Pitlick, Derek Grant, Nate Thompson, Chris Stewart, Alex Lyon, Kurtis Gabriel.
4) The American Hockey League tentatively plans to start the 2020-21 season on Dec. 4. There are still some big hurdles that have to be cleared before this is feasible.
As a gate-driven league that lacks a national TV contract, the timetable of availability of arenas open to paying customers is one crucial factor. A bubble scenario, even on a regional basis, is probably not viable for the AHL. Additionally, border crossing restrictions with the U.S. and Canada, primarily as pertains to quarantining requirements, are something that needs to be resolved.
While there were government allowances made for the NHL to hold the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the Toronto and Edmonton bubbles, the AHL simply cannot afford the sort of overhead that's involved with all the daily Covid-19 testing requirements and the many other procedures related to operating hockey within the secured areas of the hotel, practice rink and arenas.
There are residual considerations that figure into the uncertainty over when the AHL can start the 2020-21 season. At the NHL level, does that mean rosters will expand to a taxi squad of sorts, similar to the Black Aces during the playoffs? If so, what are the cap implications? Would such added players, at the ones on two-way contracts who'd otherwise be sent to the AHL, be paid at the NHL rate or their AHL rate?
Due to the uncertainty over when the American Hockey League will start, many NHL teams (including the Flyers) have loaned a handful of contracted players to clubs in Europe. Under the terms of most of these loans, NHL contracts take precedence over players' arrangements with European teams. In other words, recall to North America is at the discretion of the NHL team and not the European club.
Contracted Flyers and Phantoms prospects currently on loan to European (note: list excludes as-yet-unsigned prospects who play in Europe): Linus Sandin (HV71, SHL), German Rubtsov (HK Sochi, KHL), Maksim Sushko (Dinamo Minsk, KHL), David Kase (Karlovy Vary, Czech Extraliga).
5) There is a similar uncertain situation to the 2020-21 ECHL season as there is with the AHL. Last season, contracted Flyers prospects Matthew Strome, Pascal Laberge, Felix Sandstrom and Kirill Ustimenko (who finished the season in the AHL with Lehigh Valley and was one of the Flyers' Black Aces in the bubble in Toronto) saw time in the ECHL with the Reading Royals. It has been a goal of the Flyers organization in recent years to make wider use of their ECHL affiliate for the incremental development of goaltenders and prospects such as Strome who are projected to need lengthier developmental timelines at the professional level.
6) On the horizon: The following notable players on the Flyers are one season away from restricted or unrestricted free agency.
2021 RFAs: Carter Hart, Travis Sanheim (arbitration eligible)
2021 UFAs: Matt Niskanen, Scott Laughton, Michael Raffl
7) Oskar Lindblom's new three-year contract at a $3 million AAV kicks in for the 2020-21 season; a significant raise from the $925,000 cap hit on his entry-level deal that will now expire.
8) Claude Giroux $8.275 million cap hit through 2021-22) and Kevin Hayes ($7.14 million cap hit through 2025-26) are the only two Flyers players with no-trade clauses in their contracts. Giroux has a full no-movement clause. Hayes a full no-movement clause through the 2021-22 season and then a limited no-trade (12-team list to whom Hayes would accept a deal) for the remainder of the contract.
9) Jakub Voracek's contract, which carries an $8.25 million cap hit, runs through 2023-24. There is an unusual structure to the remaining term on the contract, which was frontloaded at the time former Flyers general manager Ron Hextall signed him to the deal.
For the 2020-21 season, per Capfriendly, Voracek gets up-front payment of $4 million via a signing bonus lump sum. Thereafter, he will make a $2.25 real-dollar base salary for the 2020-21 season. This arrangement, once the signing bonus is paid by the Flyers, would make Voracek an attractive trade option for a team looking to get to the salary floor. However, that is only for this upcoming season.
For the 2021-22 season, there is no signing bonus installment per Capfriendly, and Voracek will carry a $7.5 million base salary across the season. Then, in 2022-23, it becomes another trade friendly arrangement with a $5 million signing bonus followed by a $1.25 million base salary. In the final year of the contract, 2023-24, Voracek will be 34 years old. He will not be due a signing bonus on the first day of the fiscal year but will get a $7.5 million season salary.
10) James van Riemsdyk's contract, signed as a UFA in the summer of 2018, runs through the 2022-23 season. There is a much more straightforward structure to it than Voracek's contract, although JVR's deal was slightly frontloaded in getting to its $7 million AAV.
Each of the years of the contract, per Capfriendly, van Riemsdyk receives a $1 million signing bonus installation up front. Starting in the 2020-21 season as well as in 2021-22, he will get a $6 million base salary (down from $7 million the first two seasons). In the final year of the deal, 2022-23, the base salary drops to $4 million.
11) Shayne Gostisbehere has three seasons remaining on his current contract at a $4.5 million cap hit. Per Capfriendly, this how the rest of the deal is structured:
* 2020-21: no signing bonus installment, $3.25 million season base salary.
* 2021-22: $2.25 million signing bonus, $1.0 million season base salary.
* 2022-23: $2.25 million signing bonus, $1.0 million season base salary.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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