Philadelphia Flyers GM Ron Hextall has been a busy man this offseason as he attempts to reshape a Flyers franchise that has fallen on hard times in recent years. One of the biggest undertakings for Hextall has been to clear out cap space and bodies on the blueline, something he managed to a certain degree with the Braydon Coburn and Kimmo Timonen trades prior to the NHL trade deadline and the Nicklas Grossmann deal in the offseason. It's an undertaking that is still in progress and, according to a recent report from Randy Miller of NJ.com, may result in Luke Schenn heading out the door next.
Per Miller, the Flyers are "desperate" to move on from Schenn and his $3.6 million cap hit, acquired in what has turned out to be an incredibly lopsided trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs for budding star forward James van Riemsdyk, enacted in June 2012. In fact, according to Miller, the team has been trying to move Schenn for nearly two full years. The presumption at the time that they acquired him was that the big, powerful Schenn would help solidify a Flyers defensive corps that had gotten both too old and too slow. Unfortunately, Schenn has proven both inconsistent, unable to maintain positioning throughout a game, let alone a season, and just as slow as many of the Flyers older blueliners.
With eight defenders under NHL contracts, Hextall and new Philly head coach Dave Hakstol are dealing with a serious logjam. While Hextall has a stated preference of seeing young players develop outside the NHL, the overabundance of bodies was certainly at least part of the reason behind Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim and Sam Morin being sent back down so soon.
While Miller posits that Hextall isn't likely to see anything more than a third-round pick in return for Schenn, a change of scenery may be in both the team's and the player's best interest. Schenn, despite his salary, is no lock to make the Flyers top-six and could, depending on the play of Radko Gudas and Brandon Manning, find himself a healthy scratch with Philadelphia more often than not.
