Caleb Weiler
On Friday, the Philadelphia Flyers inked Shayne Gostisbehere to a six-year deal worth $27 million, which averages out to $4.5 million a year. With the salary cap in the NHL projected to stay flat around $73 million, Ghost’s contract will only take up a maximum of 6% of the Flyers’ cap.
Gostisbehere broke into the mainstream Flyers scene when he played for Union College in the NCAA championship game at the Wells Fargo Center. He had three points and was a plus-7 in a game where his team won 7-4. After that game, he only played 21 games in his three brief stints with the Phantoms before getting called up to the big club.
Gostisbehere tore his ACL in the 2014-15 season after only five games with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, shelving him for the rest of the season. After playing 14 games with the Phantoms the next season, posting 10 points in 14 games, he became a Flyer for good. He posted a phenomenal 46 points in 64 games with the big club, propelling the Flyers into a playoff spot.
Many expected Ghost to continue his high-end offensive production, however this last season he only posted 39 points (seven goals and 32 assists) in 76 games. If we were only to look at his dip in offensive production, .72 PPG as opposed to .51, it would be valid to wonder why the Flyers inked him for six more years when there was a big decline in point production.
A big factor in Gostisbehere’s dip in production is the fact that his shooting percentage dropped 7.7% from 11.2% to 3.5%. It seems as though he just had bad luck shooting the puck. If Ghost would have shot at 10%, which is still less than his rookie year, he would have had 20 goals on the year, 13 more than what he posted.
While Gostisbehere’s offensive production dipped he played significantly better defensively this last season. His Corsi-for went up 3.1%, 50.6% to 53.7%, from 2015 to 2016. While Ghost makes his bread and butter in the offensive zone, it was obvious that coach Dave Hakstol wants him to round his game out for the future.
With the obvious defensive improvements, the fact that the Flyers are presumably getting better on defense with younger players coming up, and the puck luck in regards to his shooting percentage Gostisbehere is primed for a bounce back year.
The Flyers have a good collection of two-way defensive prospects, so Ghost will more than likely cap out as a third or fourth defenseman as well as being a power play specialist. He’ll definitely have the chance to earn his money.
Looking at the defensemen the Flyers have coming up, none of them have the offensive upside that Ghost has, which makes this a great signing for the Flyers. If Ghost can get back to scoring at .70 points per game this contract is a steal. If he only scores .50 points per game but continues to grow his game defensively while also focusing on the things he is already good at the Flyers will have a great player for the next six years.
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