Instant Analysis: Ghost Trade Purely a Cap Move
Gostisbehere had his ups and downs in his career path. Various times, he was set back by injuries -- a left ACL tear his rookie pro season, right hip surgery after the 2016 playoffs and, more recently, by injuries to both knees that required minor surgeries. "Ghost" made a positive offensive impact in his rookie NHL season (2015-16) and third season (2017-18). After back-to-back down seasons marred by injuries in 2018-19 and 2019-20, he had an uneven but mostly healthy campaign in 2020-21.
Gostisbehere passed through waivers unclaimed last season. This was largely due to his remaining contract term (a $4.5 million AAV running through the 2022-23 season). He was bypassed by the Seattle Kraken in the Expansion Draft largely for the same reason. The Flyers, who were in dire need of added cap space to address team needs this offseason beyond the recent acquisition of top-pairing defenseman Ryan Ellis, got no cap relief from Seattle's selection of young restricted free agent winger Carsen Twarynski in the Expansion Draft.
On Thursday, July 22, 2021, Shayne Gostisbehere became a salary cap victim. The Flyers traded him to the Arizona Coyotes along with 2022 second-round and seventh-round picks. The one and only asset the Flyers gained was $4.5 million of cap space. Flyers President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Chuck Fletcher made it clear that he felt there was little alternative but to accept the terms proposed by Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong for Arizona to take on Gostisbehere's contract with no money retained on the cap by Philadelphia.
"There's a lot of players around the league that are very good hockey players that were not selected by Seattle for the very same reasons that I made this move today. Cap space is really, really tough. For the foreseeable future -- the next two, three years -- it's not going to improve all that much. Everybody is pretty careful.
"It's a tough environment out there right now. It's tough to move money. I think everybody saw that [Wednesday] night with the Seattle Expansion Draft," Fletcher said.
"Our reality was pretty simple. When you factor in the expected raises that [restricted free agents Travis] Sanheim and Carter Hart will receive, and we very much want to sign those two players, we didn't have a lot of space left to fill the holes we need to fill. We made the move we had to make. I spoke to every team in the league several times going back a year and a half now. I had a pretty good idea of what the market was. A couple of teams had made offers. One team had asked for Cam York to take Gostisbehere. Another team had asked for our first round pick this year to take Gostisbehere. This was the best move we could make. Hopefully now, it allows us to get into some other opportunities over the next few days."
Unlike other veteran Flyers players that were exposed to the Expansion Draft -- specifically wingers Jakub Voracek and James van Riemsdyk -- the Flyers already have potential in-house replacement options in relatively short order. Had Gostisbehere remained with Philadelphia for the 2021-22 season, he figured to be a third-pair left defenseman at even strength who also received power play time. The organization believes that the 20-year-old York has the ability to contribute in a similar role as he learns the ropes in the NHL. Over the long haul, the belief is that York will grow into an expanded role. Likewise, the organization is high on the potential of Egor Zamula.
"Both Cam York and [Egor] Zamula are young players that we hope over the next 12 months can push for an NHL roster spot and certainly that would influence this decision," Fletcher said.
With the Gostisbehere trade and the packaging of Phil Myers and restricted free agent Nolan Patrick in the Ellis acquisition, the Flyers now have $13,885,477 of available cap space. This represents roughly $910,000 more than the organization had before the trade to acquire Ellis.
The Ellis deal removed the team's number one positional need (right defense on the top blueline pairing) they took into this offseason. However, Ellis alone will not be enough to dramatically improve what was the NHL's worst goals against average and 30th-ranked penalty kill last season.
The Flyers would still like to add an additional top-four caliber defenseman to the lineup, preferably a right-handed defenseman to pair with Sanheim. Additionally, the team hopes to add a proven two-way forward. There's also a desire for an offensively skilled forward with a shoot-first mentality, and a little more size, grit and.or speed in the overall roster mix.
These are the ideal-world needs. The real-life reality is that there will only be so many items that the salary cap will allow the Flyers -- and every team -- to check off their offseason shopping list.
Fletcher said on Thursday that he's open to a variety of different possibilities in addition to free agent signings. This could include a "hockey trade" of NHL roster players that tries to match a Flyers' on-ice need with another team's needs while matching salaries in the exchange as closely as possible. Fletcher is also still open to trading the 13th overall pick in the 2021 Entry Draft if the return is sufficiently enticing. If not, the Flyers will keep the pick.
"We're certainly ready to draft at 13. I would say that I'm very open-minded to using it if we can add a player that can help us. I'm probably more active in listening on 13 this year than I would have been in previous years. In fairness last year, we really didn't have any cap space, so it didn't really make a lot of sense. This year, we have a little more flexibility. If something makes sense via trade, we'll certainly look at it and potentially do it. We're happy to pick at 13 too. We're open-minded and that's really what the last little while has been all about. Certainly, a lot of calls today and I'm sure they'll be a lot more going into [Friday] afternoon," Fletcher said.
On top of trying to upgrade last season's roster, the Flyers still have to re-sign Sanheim, re-sign Hart, and find a replacement for unrestricted free agent goalie Brian Elliott either via free agency or trade. That will eat up a big chunk of the Flyers' available cap space, so it may be necessary to find a trade or two that match salary with hockey considerations and leave enough for an outside free agent.
"Certainly, we're going to look at other options. We need to make a decision about the number two goalie, clearly. We need to look at one or two other opportunities on defense. We have some guys internally that can push, but we certainly are still looking at the outside. We have some other holes out front. What we can get at what price will be a determining factor in which way we go or cap space will be a determining factor. Trying to make judgments on which young players we think are closest to making it will also be a factor," Fletcher said.
If there's only one significant thing post-Ellis trade that proves to be within reach for Fletcher this offseason beyond a new veteran goalie to pair in tandem with Hart, what would be the top priority? Fletcher did not rank priorities numerically. However, when asked about the importance of acquiring a second-pair caliber defenseman, Fletcher said it's a "high priority".
"It's something we're looking at. We wanted to add one coming into the summer and to get Ellis, we moved Myers. We really like Ellis. Certainly, we like Braun. I'm very pleased with Ellis and Braun. Sanheim can move to the right side and we can fill. Cam York can play. We have Hägg and Morin. You also can add a left shot. You can add a right. There's the ideal world and there's the real world. Sure, a right shot would be great. There's not a lot of supply. We'll see if there's something there that we can find that makes sense that we can acquire and fit in our cap. And if not, again, I'm comfortable that we have players that can play on the right side. We have young players that can step up and so we'll see how it plays out. Those are exactly the things we're exploring right now," Fletcher said.
