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Travis Sanheim, Flyers Avoid Arbitration With Two-Year Contract

By Jacob Modugno

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - DECEMBER 06: Travis Sanheim #6 of the Philadelphia Flyers celebrates his goal against the Columbus Blue Jackets at the Wells Fargo Center on December 06, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Blue Jackets defeated the Flyers 4-3 in overtime. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - DECEMBER 06: Travis Sanheim #6 of the Philadelphia Flyers celebrates his goal against the Columbus Blue Jackets at the Wells Fargo Center on December 06, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Blue Jackets defeated the Flyers 4-3 in overtime. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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The Philadelphia Flyers and defenseman Travis Sanheim have agreed to a two-year, $9,350,000 contract, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. The contract runs through the 2022-23 season and carries an average annual value of $4,675,000. Sanheim will also be eligible for unrestricted free agency for the first time in his career when the contract runs its course.

Sanheim and the Flyers were scheduled for an arbitration hearing on August 26th after the team elected to file for arbitration on August 2nd, but since the two parties have reached an agreement, the hearing will no longer be necessary.

Sanheim is coming off a down season, as is most of the team. He recorded three goals and 12 assists for 15 points in 55 games while also posting a dreadful -22, by far a career worst. His Corsi-For Percentage in all situations was 51.0 and his PDO topped out at 93.9. Sanheim was called upon to log some tougher minutes in the wake of Matt Niskanen’s sudden retirement coupled with other defensemen also taking a step backwards in their games, and it did not pan out very well for the former 2014 first-round draft selection.

Sanheim has spent 255 games in the NHL, all coming with Philadelphia since he made his debut on October 5th, 2017 against the Los Angeles Kings. He has posted 22 goals and 63 assists for 85 points in that time. He has also appeared in 20 postseason contests for the Flyers, netting two goals and six assists for eight points in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The 25 year-old Elkhorn, Manitoba native is one of the players on the roster that survived the team’s offseason roster shakeup. He has shown flashes of the offensive potential he possesses, though his defensive game leaves a bit more to be desired. He has been slated as the team’s second pair left defenseman alongside newcomer Rasmus Ristolainen in most people’s mock-ups of the 2021-22 lineup, a role he spent a lot of time playing in last year alongside one of Phil Myers or Justin Braun.

With Sanheim’s new contract on the books, the Flyers’ salary cap hit is approximately $82,143,523, which is $643,523 over the salary cap, which means general manager Chuck Fletcher will have to do a little maneuvering before the season starts to make sure the team is compliant with the league’s cap.

In the grand scheme of things, the team’s new cap crunch will be interesting to monitor as the Flyers have seven pending unrestricted free agents at the NHL level after the season ends, the two most notable being star players in captain Claude Giroux and alternate captain Sean Couturier. Rasmus Ristolainen is also in the UFA boat and the Flyers will try to re-sign him too after shipping off a handsome trade package to Buffalo to acquire him.

The team also has 15 pending restricted free agents after 2022 as well, with Joel Farabee leading the charge in that group as he will likely command a decent pay raise after the success he’s achieved at the NHL level so far.

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