Proposed Ville Leino contract worth about $3 million per year, report says

A new contract for Ville Leino will come at a price of about $3 million per year, according to a report from CSNPhilly.com's Tim Panaccio. 

Several sources tell CSNPhilly.com that the Flyers are offering a three and four-year contract worth between $9 million and $12 million, depending upon length.

At least one prominent executive in the Flyers organization believes the 27-year-old right wing won't get a better deal in unrestricted free agency this July than what the Flyers are offering.  

Do the math there.... a three-year deal worth $9 million or a four-year deal worth $12 million. That's $3 million per year. Sure, it's probably not as simplistic as that, but it's a nice way to get a general feel for what the Flyers are offering No. 22 and what they hope to spend on the vital winger. (Well, assuming the report is true. Panaccio is usually right on these things.)

Since Leino's the one gigantic question mark surrounding next year's team, we can start to fill in the holes now that we know approximately what he's going to earn. We'll take some guesses and try to figure some things out after the jump.

Using CapGeek's fantastic Cap Calculator, let's look at what next year's team could look like with Leino earning $3 million.

CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR

FORWARDS

Ville Leino ($3.000m) / Daniel Briere ($6.500m) / Scott Hartnell ($4.200m)
James van Riemsdyk ($1.654m) / Mike Richards ($5.750m) / Andreas Nodl ($1.000m)
Eric Wellwood ($0.580m) / Claude Giroux ($3.750m) / Jeff Carter ($5.272m)
Darroll Powe ($0.725m) / Jody Shelley ($1.100m) / Blair Betts ($0.700m)

DEFENSEMEN

Kimmo Timonen ($6.333m) / Chris Pronger ($4.921m)
Andrej Meszaros ($4.000m) / Matt Carle ($3.437m)
Oskars Bartulis ($0.600m) / Braydon Coburn ($3.200m)

GOALTENDERS

Sergei Bobrovsky ($1.750m) / Brian Boucher ($0.925m)

CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)(these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion)

SALARY CAP: $61,400,000; CAP PAYROLL: $59,399,155; BONUSES: $1,700,000

CAP SPACE (20-man roster): $2,000,845

We're going with a few assumptions, which are obviously not set in stone at all. 

- For starters, we're going to assume the salary cap goes up $2 million, from $59.4 million to $61.4 million. It could go up a bit more, or it could go up a bit less. It almost certainly will go up at least a bit. 

- In goal, the Flyers will keep Brian Boucher for just about the same price. Michael Leighton will stay in the minors (again, not a safe assumption), mostly because the Boucher is a great mentor for Sergei Bobrovsky. And he's cheaper than Leighton. 

- On defense, Sean O`Donnell will not return and Matt Walker's salary will keep him off the NHL roster. Oskars Bartulis will stick around on the bottom pairing, or alternatively, Erik Gustafsson could be given a look in that spot for a similar (slightly more expensive) price. 

- Up front, Dan Carcillo won't return. Nikolay Zherdev will be out as well. That saves the team $3.075 million right there. Andreas Nodl, a pending RFA, will re-sign and earn a slight raise.

- Darroll Powe, or a free agent like him at a similar price, will fill in that fourth line spot left by Carcillo. Finally, Eric Wellwood will step in to the spot left behind by Zherdev. Not a safe assumption, either. 

This gives the Flyers 20 players -- the bare minimum (12 forwards, six defensemen, two goalies) -- with about $2 million left in cap space. There's obviously a lot that could change when you throw in the possibility (or likelihood, considering we're talking about the Flyers here) that trades will occur, but this is a decent look at what the team could look like next season at the NHL level with Leino signing for $3 million per year.