AJgoal

It's like Tim Hortons, but with candy, hoagies, and gas.

Sure. And in a couple years they have to revisit them again. Bridge deals are fine for a bit, but they can kill you too. They don't need to though. All they need is to have $3-5 million seasons, and you're in trouble.

I don't think you'll find many, if any, who will argue that. He's been a consistently good 5v5 player over his career, and his production rate has stayed fairly constant when given increased ice time. He will certainly help them in the near term, I actually think they're placing in the division, not a wildcard, partially because I see Columbus, Pittsburgh, and the Islanders falling off, and partly because I think they should have a 4-line deep forward corps, which Hayes has a large impact on. Braun and Niskanen, on the other hand, are another story, but since this is the Hayes thread, I'll stick to him. What many people have a problem with, is that Fletcher has tied himself to Hayes in a way that is very difficult to extract himself from. He's being paid to be a core member of the team, when he arguably might not even be playing center for them in a couple of seasons. Patrick, while disappointing so far, has shown flashes in the NHL of why he was the consensus #1 until his injury. Frost might actually have a higher ceiling than Patrick. If just one of them hits, you now have to pay them what they're worth, AND pay Hayes 7 million a season as he enters his decline, to be your 3C OR 3RW. I was doing some back of the napkin math yesterday, and the Flyers have roughly $6 million coming off the cap next season. Which means that they will have that $6 million, plus whatever space they have this year, plus whatever the cap goes up, which could very likely be another small number, to sign Myers, Patrick, Lindblom, and a backup goalie. They're looking like they're going to be pushing up against the cap this season, so that leftover cap seems likely to be fairly low, so maybe $11 million all told if they're lucky. You almost have to hope that those guys all have disappointing seasons in order to get them all under contract, because if just one of them breaks out, you're going to have a decision to make. Then the next year, you have Sanheim, Hart, and (maybe) Hagg, again with only about $6 million coming off your cap. We already know, per Charlie O'Connor, that the Flyers and Sanheim were talking long term, then the Flyers moved to a bridge deal in order to keep the cost down because they found themselves low on cap space. While bridging guys is somewhat effective short term, a lot of quality RFAs are pushing for long-term deals coming out of their ELCs, and the guys you think will be part of your core long term are the guys you SHOULD lock up long term. Where would the Flyers be if Hextall had bridged Ghost or Couturier again on a deal that ended this off-season? Eventually, bridging good players bites you. Again, I don't think I've seen ANYONE argue that Hayes won't help the Flyers this season - I argued in favor of acquiring him earlier this summer, back when I thought he'd come in at 5x5. He gives the Flyers great depth down the middle. Even if Patrick takes a jump forward and supplants him as the 2C, the cost THIS YEAR is not so big a deal that a 7 million dollar 3C is the end of the world. It's next year, and the year after, as all these prospects start coming off their ELCs and could well be pushing for Hayes' spot on the roster that he becomes an expensive, difficult to move luxury. Not likely to be useless like AMac, but causing issues with his contract all the same. While any of Frost, Patrick, etc. could turn out to be a career-long disappointment, you really need almost all of these guys to miss in order for this contract to not be a hindrance, not 4, 5 years down the line, but in the very near future. THAT'S the concern with Hayes.

Agree, it's a nice signing. Some risk with his recent concussion history, but high skill and high reward if he pans out. I wouldn't have minded the Flyers giving him a shot on that contract. I disagree with HJ on the quality of their defense, but there's admittedly a level of personal bias in there (not against the team, but against particular skill sets of players), and they're not terrible in any case. With quality goaltending this year that holds up all season, they're right in the mix for a wild card.

Giroux was a Clarke pick. The most successful thing Holmgren did there was not trade him away for Dion Phaneuf and a $25 Canadian Tire gift card. (OK, and signed him long term. But that was as no-brainer as it gets by that point) Edit: I would add Couturier to the list, though.

I'm not going to rehash my disagreement with this.

Friedman mentioned a couple of times that once Fletcher was hired, Holmgren/Scott were pushing for "stuff" to happen, and Fletcher pushed back and managed to get them to calm down on it. I think the fact that no kids have been moved in the offseason is an indicator that Fletcher liked what he saw of them. It's the one positive I've taken out of Fletcher's tenure so far.

Holy hell. I've seen hometown discounts before, but this borders on negligence by Labanc's agent. Not going to compare the two deals because they're not comparable.

Laughton's QO was $1,050,000. Arbitration filing is pretty much a formality for eligible players who don't have contracts by the time the deadline hits. It doesn't mean anything more than Laughton is making sure he keeps all of the tools he has available to him.

No flirting.

My mother is from Niagara Falls, and I spent a lot of time up there when I was a kid. So, pretty close to being Canadian.

That's fair. It's certainly reasonable to believe he's starting a decline, or that he will before the contract is up in three years. That said, if the cost to acquire Kadri was reasonable (doubtful, I assume it would have included Ghost or Sanheim, which I would not do), I would prefer to have rolled the dice on Gudas, Subban and Kadri for three years for a slightly lower cap cost than Hayes, Niskanen, and Braun. But I can certainly understand those who would not.

2 seconds and scraps for Subban was not a bad price. I'm not sure what you could offer Toronto short of Ghost that would be as attractive as Barrie and Kerfoot. Frankly, I doubt either of Marleau or Williams is interested in Philly. I think Marleau wants to go back west, and Williams is re-signing in Carolina or retiring. I really do think Fletcher mismanaged his offseason. He rushed to get everything done and missed out on better opportunities that presented themselves later on. Regarding LTIR, they don't even have to wait for the season to start. Teams can place a player on LTIR now, it's just that the cap relief they would get is equal only to the amount they're exceeding the cap by at the moment, unlike in the season proper where they can use unused portions later on (I think, at least.).

With Hak in Toronto, I'm hoping to dump off Hagg up there. They still need defense. Edit: or not. Just saw they got Barrie. That gives them room for Marner, but damn are they going to struggle next year.

Yeah, I wouldn't be too concerned with lack of splash today. For one, the Flyers were out of cap space. Second, they already made their moves. Hayes improves the club. He's a good even strength player. I'm not pleased with the cap hit or the term, but he will help the team in the immediate term. Niskanen and Braun are at least upgrades on MacDonald and Hagg, but I'm not sure of anything past that. As I said a week or so ago though, the Flyers weren't moving forward on the strength of Kevin Hayes. They have to trust in their young players, Provorov, Ghost, Myers, Sanheim, Patrick, Lindblom, Frost, etc. It's when the kids hit their potential that the team will show marked improvements. It's the risk you take when you are a draft and develop club. The reward is that your window tends to stay open a lot longer, and you have a better chance of making multiple runs.

Vecchione signs in St. Loo.

Goulbourne to Vegas, 2 years, $700k.

Simmonds signs in NJ for 1 year, $5 million.

The Flyers announced they were terminating his contract, so yes, buyout.

No, it clears his contract from the 50. But of course, now you have to replace him, so it doesn't really do you any good to clear that spot. Honestly, the only time it makes sense to use a buyout to clear a contract is when you're right up against the limit. I suspect tomorrow we'll see WTF this was about, and say, "WTF?"

And buying out Schlemko gives them one at the expense of a player that could have filled that role. It doesn't really help answer the "problem." Especially when they only have 3 defensemen for LHV at the moment.

No. As much as I love Simmonds, I think he's cooked, and even strength was never his strong suit. I think one of the youngsters can provide as much value on the ice at this point. On top of that, you have up to 3 million in performance bonuses coming this season. While not likely, if all are met, you're already looking at another 300k of cap overage to push into next year when you have to re-sign Patrick and Lindblom - that will only increase with an additional signing, and make it more likely that smaller bonus payments get pushed into next year. If they progress as we need them to for this season to be successful, you're making it harder and harder to get them under contract without making a salary dump trade. Finally, it's always good to have cap space going into the season to facilitate in-season trades. It "increases" as the season goes on, allowing the team to add more expensive players if they think it is beneficial.

I assume so. They keep burning my resume in front of me when I drop it off.

But even that doesn't line up. They have 15 contracts available, and AHL contracts wouldn't affect the cap.