Brian Elliott and Michal Neuvirth are going to be your Flyers goaltending tandem these next two seasons. Andy Strickland of Fox Sports Midwest reports that the Flyers and Elliott have agreed on a two-year deal worth $2.75 million per year.
Now that it’s Saturday afternoon, the deal is expected to be made official, and multiple reporters are confirming the original report from Strickland.
The two-year deal is down one year from what was the early talk on Thursday, which had it pinned at a three-year term. Meanwhile, Steve Mason has signed with the Winnipeg Jets on a two-year deal worth $4.1 million per year, which is the same as what he earned on his last deal.
Needless to say, a two-year term makes more sense for the Flyers. There are so many young goalie prospects in the system, from Anthony Stolarz and Alex Lyon at the AHL level, to Carter Hart in the WHL, to Felix Sandstrom in Sweden, and others. Two years is a lot of time to figure out the future of these guys, and it’s smart not to get locked into anything long term with an NHL goalie right now given the position of the franchise.
Elliott, in the meantime, is a good stop-gap. The money and the term is right, and he and Neuvirth will both be looking to bounce back after down years in 2016-17. They will probably head into camp needing to fight for the job, and hopefully it will create a positive competition that neither Neuvirth nor Steve Mason thrived on last year. At the very least, we will hope for one of these guys to have a solid bounce back season and run away with the starting job.
Now all we need is for Elliott to wear bright orange pads like he did with those terribly awesome Flames pads a year ago.
For more on Elliott, check out our profile of him from Thursday morning. For more on the salary cap as it stands with Elliott and other moves in the picture, check with this rundown published this morning.
