The trade deadline has come and gone which means the early offseason to-do list can take shape. And for the Philadelphia Flyers, their priority list seems to revolve heavily around potential buyouts. Does it make financial sense for the Flyers to travel down the buyout path and who are the most likely players on the block?
Ryan Johansen
The Flyers newest toy, whom they immediately exiled before he even stepped on a plane to come to Philly, is leading the buyout candidacy.
The fascinating tidbit about a Johansen buyout is that Nashville, who signed the contract originally and retained 50% when they traded him to Colorado last summer, is on the hook for half of the remaining value as the retained salary percentage converts to buyout percentage. According to CapFriendly, that means the nearly $5.4 million he’s owed gets broken into favorable $1.3 million chunks for both teams for two seasons.
Now, yes, Johansen is “injured” which disqualifies him from getting bought out. But he played a game two days before the trade in March, and compiled 63 games played during the season. It’s pretty obvious he’s never going to play for the Flyers and has zero interest in a demotion to the AHL. So if he wants to play during the 2024-25 season, his mystery injury will have to magically heal so the Flyers can deal with him one way or the other. Though it’s also possible that at 32 years old he doesn’t give a crap anymore and just wants to collect one last payday before retiring next summer, and a career ending injury is the best way to accomplish that. But if that was the plan why didn’t he do it sooner in Colorado or Nashville?
In any case, if there’s no trade partners (which appears to be the case) then a buyout is the most likely option if he’s healthy. It costs the Flyers $2.85 million to bury him in the AHL for next season. If he refused to report the Flyers would suspend him and his full $4 million salary counts against the cap anyway. It’s a headache they gave themselves in the name of landing a first round pick in the Walker trade, so they just have to deal with the $1.3 hit for a few years as a result.
Cam Atkinson
34-year-old Cam Atkinson returned to the Flyers for the 2023-24 season after missing all of the previous campaign with a neck injury and subsequent surgery. While he came out of the gate hot posting 12 points in his first 16 games, he had a goalless drought reach 26 games before breaking back onto the score sheeet, and has posted just a handful of points since November. He’ll turn 35 in June and still has one season left on his contract at a $5.8 million cap hit.
There was hope that if Atkinson returned and maintained his pace from his pre-injury days that they’d be able to trade the last year of his deal without having to retain any money, but that no longer seems like the case and a buyout is the most likely outcome for Atkinson this summer.
The Flyers don’t necessarily need to clear his cap from a financial perspective (unless they unexpectedly add a big name or two during free agency) but they absolutely need the main roster spot he’s taking up for a younger, better player to progress to the NHL level, considering he’s been taking away a spot from either Bobby Brink or Olle Lycksell all season.
Cal Petersen
Petersen is coming even worse than advertised when he was acquired as part of a cap dump from the LA Kings in the 2023 offseason.
22-year-old goalie Alexei Kolosov is expected to make the jump to North America next season and more than likely joins the Phantoms. It’s probably best the Flyers ditch Petersen and find a solid veteran depth option for tandem purposes rather than rely on Petersen to serve that role that he’s proven he can’t handle.
He’s still got one year left on his contract at a $5 million cap hit. It costs the Flyers $3.85 million to bury Petersen in the AHL right now, and both his real life dollars and minors salary goes up next season. Much like Atkinson, there’s a significant amount of real life savings next season with only minor impact in 2025-26. It costs less to buy him out than it does bury him in the AHL ($3.85 mil), and it’s still be cheaper to add another journeyman depth piece than run it back with Cal Petersen.
Ryan Ellis
At this point, Ryan Ellis’ time with the Flyers feels more like a fever dream than an actual occurrence, but there’s a very real financial implication from his four games with the team remains on the book three more seasons at a $6.25 million aav.
Buying out his contract doesn’t contain the financial ramification you’d think. According to CapFriendly, it’s more a longevity issue than a monetary one.
If the Flyers don’t really intend on making any notable roster moves until Matvei Michkov shows up, the team really doesn’t need the cap that desperately where buying out Ellis is a “right now” kind of problem. Hell, Ellis spent the entire 2023-24 season on regular IR because the Flyers aren’t under financial pressure at the moment to tap into LTIR.
The longer they wait to buy Ellis out the easier the pill will be to swallow. A buyout will probably be an inevitability at some point unless they ditch his contract to a team like Arizona, but the lingering effects of the flat cap aren’t making that a feasible possibility for at least a few more seasons. Considering they are still on the hook for the Tony DeAngelo buyout in 2024-25 anyway, if the Flyers were to buyout a combination of Johansen, Atkinson or Petersen, which are both smart decisions versus a luxury, they would be better off waiting to potentially make a move with Ellis for another season at least.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: Getty Images
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