Flyers/Weber Sign Offer Sheet. Unreal Trolling By Philly.

This is what you get when you type “Flyers Troll” into Google Images. 
Last night the Flyers sent an offer sheet to Nashville Predators’ restricted free agent defenseman Shea Weber that is 14 years and over $100M. My initial reaction was this: 

I’m not sure if I’m stunned at the Flyers’ balls to send an offer sheet to a restricted free agent because no one did it last year when one of the best forwards in the NHL was available (see: Stamkos) or if it’s because the Flyers could have Shea Weber for 14 fucking years. Either way, I was pretty shocked, but then I started to think about it more and now I’m like this: 

There’s a few reasons why I find this comical.

• Philadelphia is banking that Chris Pronger never returns to the ice and doesn’t retire. As long as that happens, they can keep his jelly brains on LTIR and use the money. If he retires, as much of us know with the Tim Thomas situation, his virtual $5M salary ($4,921,429 to be exact) counts against the cap and the Flyers are pretty much screwed. 
• If Nashville doesn’t sign the offer sheet, they get 4 first round picks. FOUR! That’s an insane amount of picks for one player. So it’s possible that for the next few years, Nashville has two picks in the first round, which could result in a bevy of good players coming to Nashville. 
• Regardless of who is playing defense, the Flyers will have Bryzgalov in net. 

But this speaks to a bigger issue in hockey. Right now the owners are basically preparing for a lockout because they believe the players are making too much money. They feel as though contracts are too long and they want to pull back the amount of guaranteed bucks going to the players…

…but then they sign off on contracts like this one, the Zach Parise contract and the Ryan Suter contract.

I’m all about making a team better by bringing in good players. What the Wild and Flyers are doing (or done) isn’t illegal, but for an owner to agree to some outlandish contract and then cry that their broke isn’t going to cut it for me or anyone else who struggles everyday to make it paycheck to paycheck. 

Reader Andrew Johnson put it perfectly on our Facebook page:

“Its like these GMs have been told to quit drinking forever but could have one last hurrah.”

Broad St Hockey has a breakdown of how the cap would work for Philly: 

Depending on the exact figures, the cap hit might be under $6,728,781 (which typically means a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd round pick) or between $6,728,781 and $8,410,976 (which typically means two 1sts, a 2nd, and a 3rd). However, this is misleading; the compensation for long deals is not based on cap hit, but on one-fifth of the total value of the contract. For a package of over $100 million, that means it would be treated as a $20 million/year offer, which is obviously in the top group and would cost the Flyers their first round pick in each of the next four years. Hopefully everyone involved realized this.

So that it for what it’s worth, but as a troll myself, good job Philly. You fucking dickbags.