Cam York is more than worth the bargain

After an anxiety-inducing wait, Cam York's new deal with the Flyers has been finalized.

Here's the tweet from Elliotte Friedman, who gave the money details and a brief comment on the deal.

So York was able to get a bit more than a bridge deal for a more than decent price. Over the length of the contract, he'll be paid $25.75 million. That really is a good bit of business done by Danny Briere and Co.

Now, this is a fair bit of money for a player who regressed offensively last year (17 points from 30 the year before) and who got on the wrong side of the coaching staff. It might be a lot for a player whose ceiling we've already seen. That's the worry of fellow contributor Scott Cole who wrote about the signing as well.

This deal does carry some risk, as does any signing that has significant term to it, but when you look a bit deeper at the numbers, York's should prove to work out in the Flyers' favor.

First, it'll carry him until he's 29 years old and somewhere in the middle of his prime years. Money-wise, if the cap keeps up with its steady progressive skyward, the Flyers shouldn't have an issue throwing him the dollars as long as it makes sense to keep him.

Hopefully, he'll be the anchor of the Flyers' defense as it turns over. Right now, other than Travis Sanheim, he's the only one signed long-term. Rasmus Ristolanien will continue to remain trade bait as long as the Flyers are out of the playoff races and he plays decently, and if Jamie Drysdale can shake the injury bug, he might become a chip.

Nick Seeler is a good depth piece, and players like that get collected like Halloween candy come trade deadline time. Regular depth pieces like Noah Juulsen and Denis Gilbert scream, send me a 5th round pick. So even just getting a defenseman who is under 25 under contract for five years is an accomplishment.

Another thing to take into account was that York didn't get to play as many games last season as in 2023-2024. Dropping from 82 to 66 games impacted him. He was also down minutes-wise, dropping from 22:37 minutes per game to 20:47, losing one minute and fifty seconds per game. That's about three shifts per game, which is 198 shifts over 66 games. That's significant.

During those games, York's offensive chances also went downhill. As a whole, their offense was 24th in goals scored, and defensemen need forwards who can score, screen goalies, or tip shots to help their numbers. The Flyers didn't do York any favors there, and impacted his chances overall. His offensive zone starts moved from 50% down to 39.5%. He's had his offensive time reduced and his defensive responsibilities increased. His defensive zone starts were up to 60.5%, and he took on a much bigger role on that end of the ice.

He also went from having 171 minutes of power play time in the 2023-2024 season to just over nine minutes ALL LAST SEASON. He'll be playing on the power play this season, at the very least on the second unit. His number will go up almost automatically.

Under Rick Tocchet, the Flyers are going to play a different style than with John Tortorella and Alain Vigneault. He's helped develop (in part) players like Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek. If he helps the forward group, he'll help the defenseman, and he's sure to be excited by the chance to deploy Cam York on a regular basis.