The Flyers announced that they have signed Jakub Voracek to a monster deal: Eight years at $66 million, which comes out to about $8.25 million a year. Voracek was a first team all-star in 2014-15, and had the best season of his career with 22 goals and 81 points while playing the full 82 games.
Point per game players are hard to come by. There were only eight such players last season. Voracek was ninth at 0.99. Two seasons prior, during the strike shortened season, Voracek was at 0.96, so this isn’t a fluke … certainly not at the age of 25. $8.25 million is a huge cap it and puts the Flyers up near the limit. But trading Chris Pronger (yes, trading Chris Pronger) enabled the Flyers to lock up one of their own and an important part of their future. They’ll have room next season as they lose about $10 million in contracts, so I’m sure the Flyers will be happy to go with what they have this season and retool later.
Bottom line: The Flyers couldn’t risk losing a durable 25-year-old player averaging close to a point per game. They’ve seen enough players move on and reach the pinnacle elsewhere. Though one of those players that did so brought back Voracek in return, so the Flyers can’t be too upset with the results.
