Hockey Randomness

[Jim]

Off ice issues...

[mikey]

Source...?

[dodint]

I would give Letang up for him.

[faftorial]

If you read the Athletic they are promising an answer:

Why the Flyers waived Shayne Gostisbehere: Addressing the lingering questions and potential consequences

For weeks now, as the Philadelphia Flyers have steadily fallen farther back in the East Division playoff race and suffered truly embarrassing defeats along the way, exasperated fans have clamored for the front office to do something beyond watching the team continue to slowly and publicly drown.

Well, waiving Shayne Gostisbehere certainly qualifies as something.

Paywall.

https://theathletic.com/2487326/2021/03 ... sequences/

[meow]

Source...?

Jim

[willeyeam]

Source...?

Jim

Well what else does anyone need?

[NTP66]

I would give Letang up for him.

This cannot be a serious post.

[meow]

Source...?

Jim

Well what else does anyone need?

Nothing. Obviously.

[Jim]

Source...?

Jim

Well what else does anyone need?

Still (not) waiting for you to back up your stupidity from yesterday.

Go ahead, change to subject or bury your head, which out are you going to take?

Yep.

[mikey]

So...does...he have noted off ice issues...?

[willeyeam]

Lol

[Jim]

So...does...he have noted off ice issues...?

Not that I am aware of.

[Jim]

Lol

Didn't think so.

[willeyeam]

well that kind of worked itself out right before our own eyes

[Jim]

So...does...he have noted off ice issues...?

Not that I am aware of.

Went back to look at the post. I thought that I had wrote "Off ice issues... kind of like Deangelo?" but I went to look how to spell his name as I was stuck on Demattio but I knew that was wrong. I never finished the sentence for some reason. Two "relatively" valuable guys put on waivers, questioning maybe for similar type of reasons.

[Jim]

well that kind of worked itself out right before our own eyes

You let me know when you want to back up your own words. I admit that I goofed there... I admit when I am wrong. You might want to think about that.

[willeyeam]

As Aaron Rodgers would say, r-e-l-a-x

[shoeshine boy]

If you read the Athletic they are promising an answer:

Why the Flyers waived Shayne Gostisbehere: Addressing the lingering questions and potential consequences

For weeks now, as the Philadelphia Flyers have steadily fallen farther back in the East Division playoff race and suffered truly embarrassing defeats along the way, exasperated fans have clamored for the front office to do something beyond watching the team continue to slowly and publicly drown.

Well, waiving Shayne Gostisbehere certainly qualifies as something.

Paywall.

https://theathletic.com/2487326/2021/03 ... sequences/

The “simple” explanation
Shortly after the news broke, Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault stepped up to the camera for his post-practice media availability. Predictably, the main topic was Gostisbehere, and Vigneault was careful to stick to one overarching theme: flexibility.

“It just gives us a little bit more flexibility in player personnel,” Vigneault said. “I’m not sure about my lineup tomorrow, I’m not sure if he’s gonna be in, but if he’s in, then he’s in. If he’s not, then he’s on the taxi squad, and it permits me to have one more player available on our roster. It’s just a question of a little bit more flexibility.”

In other words, the company line is that waiving Gostisbehere wasn’t meant to be a shot across the bow of the team or to sound the death knell for Gostisbehere’s time in Philadelphia (more on that later); it was meant to allow the Flyers to send him to the taxi squad on non-gamedays and nights when the coaching staff deems him not worthy of being in the lineup. It was about roster and salary-cap flexibility.

But there was one moment when Vigneault deviated from that narrative. And it was probably his most revealing comment.

“We do believe that he’s going to clear waivers,” Vigneault said.

Any discussion of Tuesday’s waiving of Gostisbehere has to start with the Flyers’ wager that he will indeed be passed over by 30 other teams. They’re banking on no team taking on his $4.5 million cap hit, which lasts for two more seasons beyond this one (through 2022-23).

Why? Well, it likely goes back to the simple fact that no team was willing to take it last offseason.

It’s no secret the Flyers actively tried to move Gostisbehere last fall and winter and found no takers. Well, that’s not exactly true. There were teams with some interest, but only if the Flyers added a sweetener (picks and/or prospects) to entice the team to take on the player and his contract. Fletcher didn’t bite, and Ghost stayed a Flyer.

Gostisbehere is playing much better in 2020-21 than he did in 2019-20. But it’s not like he’s been stellar. His even-strength play-driving metrics are basically break-even, and he’s been nothing more than fine on the power play. Is it possible that another team nabs a No. 4/5 defenseman with power-play utility at a $4.5 million cap hit for the next two seasons and change? Sure. But the Flyers — based on their read of the market — are betting that no one will bite, that even if his value is higher now, it had a long way to climb to exit “negative value asset” territory, which is where the cap-strapped market deemed it last offseason.

Other teams have made similar wagers on high cap-hit players this season. Detroit waived Danny DeKeyser (one more season at $5 million). Carolina waived Jake Gardiner (two more at $4.05 million). Florida waived Anton Stralman (one more at $5.5 million). There were no takers on any.

Right now, Gostisbehere is being treated by the coaching staff as a third-pair even-strength defenseman, and they’ve even scratched him three times. Whether one agrees with those decisions or not, it’s clear that he’s fallen down the depth chart to the point where he’s a nightly option to potentially sit. If a front office is convinced such a player will clear waivers, doing so would indeed provide that taxi squad “flexibility” on nights when he’s asked to take a seat. It would make it easier for the front office to account for daily injuries, rest-related scratches and other minor roster situations.

Again, that’s if the team is convinced that said player will not be claimed.

What if Gostisbehere is claimed?
To be clear, my best guess is that Gostisbehere will indeed clear waivers. His value around the league was quite low as recently as a few months back, his $4.5 million cap hit is in line with other non-impact defensemen who have cleared waivers already this season in this environment, and there are quite a few teams that don’t have sufficient banked cap space or long-term injured-reserve allowance to put in a claim even if they wanted Gostisbehere. There’s also the simple truth that most clubs aren’t going to look at the current worst defensive team in hockey and think, “Yes, what we need is a defenseman who is being waived by them.”

But what if a team does put in a claim? Well, to be blunt, it would hurt the 2020-21 Flyers.

Gostisbehere is absolutely in the midst of a bounce-back season. No, he hasn’t come close to bouncing back to where he was in 2015-16 or 2017-18. But he’s still been a useful player for the Flyers. He ranks third on the Philadelphia defense in even-strength impact on expected goal differential (plus-0.012), second in raw xG differential at five-on-five, per Evolving-Hockey’s model (50.81 percent), and is second only to Sean Couturier in power-play points per 60 minutes.

Has he been great, especially relative to leaguewide blueliner performance? Nah. Has he been one of the Flyers’ four best defensemen? By the numbers, yes.

Losing Ghost in the here and now and replacing him with one of Erik Gustafsson or Nate Prosser would make the team measurably less likely to win games, and any prospects called up to replace him would be total unknowns. Also, the Flyers, for all their frustrating wins and losses, still are just one point out of a playoff spot, even if the Bruins have games in hand. Dropping Gostisbehere would make an already unlikely road to the playoffs even more improbable, and they’d be getting nothing in return.

Nothing but future cap space, that is.

The Flyers may think the risk of Gostisbehere being claimed is low. But the risk is still there. My guess is this regarding their thinking: Even in the worst-case scenario of losing Gostisbehere for nothing, clearing out $4.5 million worth of cap space in 2021-22 and 2022-23 wouldn’t be a terrible outcome, especially considering the player didn’t have a market as recently as last offseason.

Presumably, this summer will be far more active for Fletcher than last. But to make moves, cap space has to be cleared. This would be one way to do it, even if it comes to the detriment of the 2020-21 team.


(Jayne Kamin / USA Today)
Lingering questions (and answers)
When a player with the name recognition and following that Gostisbehere has is placed on waivers, there’s going to be lots of rapid-fire, emotional questions that result. So let’s try to run through a few of them.

Why waive Gostisbehere and not Gustafsson, Prosser or Hägg?

Robert Hägg is hurt, so they’re not going to waive him. Prosser has been waived in the past and is currently sitting on the taxi squad — in other words, his full cap hit already doesn’t count for the Flyers on days when he isn’t in the lineup. On non-game days, Prosser is simply stashed on the taxi squad. To paraphrase Sean Connery’s character in “The Rock”: What do you want them to do, waive him again?

The “why not Gus?” question is more interesting, though, and worth exploring. It’s absolutely true that Ghost is better than Gus, and the Flyers’ usage of both this season implies they concur. But because Gustafsson is on an expiring contract, he’s probably more likely to be claimed even though he’s a worse player. If a team claims Gus, it only has to worry about fitting him this year. If it claims Ghost, he’s a present and future piece. That adds a very important wrinkle to the Gostisbehere decision-making process for other clubs that just doesn’t exist with Gustafsson, who might even have enough value to bring back a late-round pick if the Flyers go into sell mode in the next two weeks.

Is Gostisbehere being punished for his comments about the team?

Gostisbehere has been quoted in the media quite a few times recently in memorable fashion; first, for profanely ripping the team’s play after last week’s 8-3 defeat, and second for expressing support for Carter Hart on Monday after the Flyers revealed he would be a healthy scratch as he worked on his game. Some have theorized that Gostisbehere’s recent comments didn’t fit with the team’s preferred narrative, and this is some sort of punishment.

According to a source, that’s not the case. I don’t get the sense that it’s related at all. The Hart comments in particular were innocuous bits of public support sent a teammate’s way, and Gostisbehere only happened to be the messenger because he happened to be the only player granted pregame media availability Monday. And if the team was angry with his comments from Thursday, presumably they wouldn’t have waited five days to react.

What does this say to Gostisbehere?

No player wants to be waived. At the very least, it’s public proof that your organization isn’t prioritizing you, and at worst, it’s cold, hard evidence that no team wants you enough to take on your contract even for free. It certainly doesn’t send a positive message to Gostisbehere, and that aspect of the move shouldn’t be ignored.

That said, the NHL is a business, as both Brian Elliott and Scott Laughton pointed out on Tuesday during their availability sessions after the Gostisbehere news broke. There’s always a risk that Gostisbehere’s on-ice play — assuming he isn’t claimed and the Flyers keep starting him regularly — does dip due to frustration as a result of Tuesday’s decision. But it’s also just an unfortunate part of the gig.

Is Gostisbehere going to be traded if he clears?

Nothing I’ve heard tells me a Gostisbehere trade is imminent. That said, Tuesday’s move does make it abundantly clear to all that the Flyers aren’t tied to the defenseman and that losing him isn’t unthinkable to them. In addition, if Gostisbehere does clear, his newfound “flexibility” to move up and down between the NHL roster and taxi squad would carry over to his new club for at least 10 NHL games played or 30 days on the roster from the date he cleared. It doesn’t increase his trade deadline value dramatically, but it’s not nothing.

Is a big trade forthcoming?

Fletcher is certainly talking with other teams about potential big moves. He’s been open about that. And the same flexibility that Vigneault touted from a roster standpoint also could serve to allow the Flyers to bank more deadline cap space and clear out one more roster spot for a potential addition. Every move matters in that regard.

Still, I don’t get the sense the move was an immediate precursor to a blockbuster. That doesn’t mean one might not be coming — just that I don’t think it guarantees one.

All statistics courtesy of Evolving-Hockey.

(Top photo: Eric Hartline / USA Today)

[nocera]

[MR25]

7 games wasn't enough

[Beveridge]

I'm intrigued to claim Ghost but don't think it happens or if we can even fit him under the cap to claim him anyhow.

[shafnutz05]

I hope McDavid can manage.

[Dickie Dunn]

Ghost goes unclaimed.

[Pavel Bure]

Ghost goes unclaimed.

Just read this. Color me shocked that not a single team gave him a chance.

Interested to see if a follow-up story of him taking a leave for personal reasons comes out.

[mikey]

I know Ghost pretty well since his days at Union...I don't think there's anything there...

Also, he practiced with the team after being waived yesterday...