Randy Jones wasn't worth 2.75 million to the Flyers or to anyone else in the NHL. The defenseman, who the Flyers waived on Friday, has cleared waivers today and will been sent to the Phantoms in the next few days. The move automatically gives the Flyers 2.75 million dollars under the cap, money that will be used to sign Blair Betts and ensures that James van Riemsdyk will start the season in the NHL.What happens next for Jones is the real question. The Flyers could easily stash Jones away in the AHL for the rest of the year and they would have to pay him his full salary but it wouldn't count against the cap. The other option they have would be to bring Jones back up, which would expose him to waivers yet again. At that point, another team could claim Jones and they would only have to pay half of his salary with the Flyers paying the rest with that amount counting towards the cap. Because of the salary cap implications, Jones might be stuck in the AHL for the rest of the year.
With Jones being demoted, Danny Syvret and Ole-Kristian Tollefsen will start the year with the Flyers. Tollefsen hasn't impressed this preseason so Syvret would seem to have the edge for the 6th defenseman spot.
While the Flyers take a bit of a hit at defense, getting rid of Jones has made their forwards much stronger. Betts and JVR are more than worth the loss of Jones.
I don't think he's been sent down just yet (as of this writing). I think they're still trying to trade him and clear the salary from the books that way.
ReplyDeleteIf he does get sent to the Phantoms, he'd have to clear re-entry waivers before we could trade him. At that point, we would be responsible for half his salary for the remainder of his contract. Considering that the entire reason for the waiver move was to free up cap space, losing him to re-entry waivers and gaining back a salary cap hit would be counter-productive.
If he does go to the Phantoms, we might not see him recalled unless we can work a trade deal around the time of the deadline. By then, the pro-rated cap hit would be very little if we were to lose him to waivers.
It sucks for Jones, as it did for Gauthier before him, because it's not his fault our front office got itself jammed up with salary cap issues.
I never said that Jones was demoted yet, just that it was pretty likely.
ReplyDeleteI agree that if/when he gets sent down, we aren't going to see him again this season.