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Philadelphia Flyers Expansion Outlook: Andrew MacDonald

By Joel

Mar 13, 2017; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Andrew MacDonald (47) during game against the Columbus Blue Jackets during the third period at Wells Fargo Center. The Blue Jackets defeated the Flyers, 5-3. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 13, 2017; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Andrew MacDonald (47) during game against the Columbus Blue Jackets during the third period at Wells Fargo Center. The Blue Jackets defeated the Flyers, 5-3. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Philadelphia Flyers Expansion Outlook, as the NHL inches closer to the end of the season.

Philadelphia Flyers fans, it’s time to start looking to this off season’s expansion draft.

Let’s start with Andrew MacDonald’s outlook, The perception is the Flyers will leave Andrew MacDonald unprotected, hoping the Vegas Golden Knights won’t be turned off by his massive $5 million cap hit over the next three seasons.

Don’t expect the Golden Knights to grab the overpaid defenseman who spent time in the minors last season before finishing the year in Philadelphia. Not even Ron Hextall wanted to pay him last season, why would Vegas?

Let’s get into that, Las Vegas has two things they need to look out for.  The first is the cap floor, they need to have a minimum of $54 million on the books. Vegas will also need a veteran defenseman on the back-end to help ease the rebuilding pain.

Philadelphia Flyers
Philadelphia Flyers /

Philadelphia Flyers

Las Vegas is also in the asset management business.  This means a team like the Flyers who has a rich prospect pool could swing a deal with the Golden Knights, sending a prospect in exchange for  Andrew MacDonald in this summer’s expansion draft.

"The expansion draft on June 21 looms large over the other 30 teams. Many of the players moved at the deadline — Valtteri Filppula to the Philadelphia Flyers, Eric Fehr to the Toronto Maple Leafs and Mark Streit to the Pittsburgh Penguins — were dealt specifically with the expansion draft in mind.More moves are still coming. A team not wanting to lose a key player to the Golden Knights in the expansion draft can instead offer Vegas a trade in the form of prospects or draft picks, meaning McPhee should have no shortage of dinner dates this week. “We were talking to clubs anyway in general terms and trying to set the set table for expansion,” said McPhee, -Michael Traikos National Post."

It’s no secret; Ron Hextall would love to get the contract off the books saving a significant amount of cap space over the next three seasons.

MacDonald has struggled.  Let’s look at his stats in Philadelphia:  playing 167 games, scoring 5 goals along with 35 assists with a +/- of minus 8.  That’s not exactly what you would expect from of a $ 5 million defenseman.

 His possession metrics aren’t up to standard as Hockey Reference shows.

Will Ron Hextall offer up a prospect, making Las Vegas bid on McDonald? With Las Vegas taking over MacDonald’s salary, this would help them reach their salary cap floor.

Only time will tell what will happen with Andrew Macdonald at this year’s expansion draft.

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