Flyers sign up for four years of Mark Streit at $5.25 million annually (UPDATE: Eventually?)
Less than a week after acquiring the rights to Mark Streit from the New York Islanders, the Philadelphia Flyers and Streit have agreed to a deal in principle.
Considering Streit would have been the biggest-name defenceman on the market had he made it to July 5 unsigned, it must have taken some serious cash to get him under contract so early, right?
Oh, absolutely. It's a four-year contract, according to reports, that will pay Streit a whopping $5.25 million a season.
(Whoa! That's Dennis Wideman money!)
We remind you that Streit is 35 years old and there is no way to undo this contract -- which is north of both $5 million and reason -- once it's made official.
Someone call Paul Holmgren and remind him the cap is going down.
What makes this incredible overpayment even more incredible is that it can't be made official just yet because, in order to make room for this silliness, the Flyers have to clear other silliness from the books. From the Courier Post:
The issue comes with what can fit within the salary cap’s upper limit. Teams are still operating under the 2012-13 salary cap of $70.2 million until July 5, at which point it becomes $64.3 million. The Flyers will need to shed salary before then, because their cap payroll is $69.812 million.
When the new cap is in play, teams can go over the upper limit by 10 percent until opening night, but July 5 is also the start of free agency this summer. If the Flyers don’t come to an agreement with Streit before then, they lose exclusivity in negotiations and the 10-percent buffer does them no good with him. Also, if the Flyers extend an offer sheet to a restricted free agent or send a qualifying offer to one of their own, that also counts against the cap.
You'll recall, when the deal for Streit's rights was made, we hypothesized -- along with several others -- that this spelled the end of Ilya Bryzgalov and/or Daniel Briere in Philadelphia.
Well, you can consider their amnesty buyouts upgraded from "foreshadowed" to "necessitated". In order for the Flyers to seal this batcrap insane deal -- or do anything else, really -- they have to make a little room.
The amnesty buyout period begins 48 hours after the Stanley Cup Final.
UPDATE: GM Paul Holmgren offered this curious statement on Monday night:
"We continue to have talks with Mark's agent. Although there is nothing to report, we remain confident that we will get something done."
The Flyers need to clear out some salary before they ink Streit. Still ... curious.
