Are Philadelphia Flyers Giving Brayden Schenn a Raw Deal by Sending Him Down?

Yesterday, the Philadelphia Flyers announced that they had waived three players (Blair Betts, Matt Walker and Oskars Bartulis) and had loaned three more to the Adirondack Phantoms of the AHL (Harry Zolniercyzk, Erik Gustafsson and Brayden Schenn) in preparation for the submission of their final team roster today. Many of these moves were anticipated, but the absence of Schenn on the starting roster imposes some intriguing questions.

Is this move simply about money?

Has Schenn’s uninspiring preseason made Paul Holmgren think twice about keeping him in the NHL?

When will we see Schenn in a Flyers uniform this year?

When the highly-touted prospect was acquired in a trade involving former Flyers’ captain Mike Richards in June, he was considered not only the crown jewel of that transaction, but also the biggest return on a day that saw both Richards and top goal scorer Jeff Carter depart from Philadelphia. Fans spent the summer assuring one another that they would forget all about Richards and Carter once Schenn took to the ice.

Now, if Schenn begins the season with Adirondack, the Richards trade becomes that much harder to swallow.

Money Talks

Granted, the move is a financial no-brainer for the Flyers. The structure of Schenn’s contract is the catalyst behind the decision, as playing even one game in the AHL drops Schenn’s cap hit from $3.11 million to approximately $1.7 million. 

For a team struggling with the cap ceiling and still searching for a seventh defenseman for the roster, having Schenn at clearance price creates new options to round out the depth chart.

At the moment, the Flyers have three players on the roster who would be playing their first NHL seasons in 2011-12, if the team remains the same: Zac Rinaldo, Matt Read and Sean Couturier all carry cap hits lower than Schenn’s (even at the reduced number).

Teenage Dream

Paul Holmgren assured the media yesterday that this move would have happened no matter what Schenn did in the preseason, even if he had scored “19 goals.”

Schenn did not score 19 goals. In fact, Schenn had an unimpressive preseason, as other youngsters like Read and Couturier garnered the majority of attention for their performances.  Couturier was so good that the team signed him to an entry-level deal, despite the fact that this puts them above the 50 contract limit for the start of the season.

Unfortunately for Schenn, Couturier’s success may, for now, be inversely related to Schenn’s. 

There is not a lot of free space on the Flyers’ roster, and the third line center role seems to be one of the few spots available for a fresh face.  Both Couturier and Schenn are centers, and their youth makes them obvious choices to fill the role that would limit their ice time but allow them to grow at the NHL level. 

Schenn’s scouting report touted his defensive prowess and bright future as a penalty-killer.  Despite being merely eighteen years old, Couturier has looked equally stellar as a defensive forward, impressing Laviolette so much that he even got time as the center on a 5-on-3 penalty kill.

When a player moves right to the NHL from the moment he is drafted, maturity is usually the primary concern.  While the regular season will be a whole different experience, Couturier is yet to give the Flyers a reason to think he cannot play against players more than twice his age.

Is Schenn’s Fate Tied to Couturier?

Barring extenuating circumstances like multiple injuries early in the season, it is extremely unlikely that Schenn and Couturier will play in the same building this season. Simply put, if one is on the roster, the other one is not.

We know that Schenn will play at least one game for the Phantoms, in order to reduce his cap hit.

We also know that Couturier can play nine games in the NHL before his contract permanently counts against the Flyers’ salary cap. The team exercised this strategy in 2008 with defenseman Luca Sbisa, signing him to an entry-level deal and making the decision to keep him on the roster after he played nine regular season games with the team.

Couturier will likely play nine games as well, at which point his performance will be measured against other third line centers, like Schenn in Adirondack, and Paul Holmgren will decide whether or not to send Couturier back to Drummondville in juniors.

Having both Schenn and Couturier on the roster together makes little sense; when one is playing, the other is likely to be a scratch.  This prevents both players from developing properly and makes it harder for Holmgren and Laviolette to evaluate Couturier.

As a result, Schenn will spend more than a single game in the minors. His role on the Phantoms is not a season-long sentence, but it will be a trial period. 

Fair or not, the team’s permanent third line center will be the player who shows the most potential in the first nine games: Couturier on the Flyers or Schenn on the Phantoms.

Is Schenn Getting a Raw Deal?

When he came to Philadelphia, Brayden Schenn was greeted as a savior and a predetermined fan-favorite. It seemed that many Flyers fans were already prepared to give Schenn the Calder Trophy and his jersey was ready to fly off the shelves by season’s end.

In a city like Philadelphia that is so hockey-crazy, fans and the media can jump to conclusions a little quickly, and perhaps expectations for Schenn’s immediate impact were set a bit high.

Paul Holmgren is making the decision that is best for the team and gives him the most flexibility in determine the best final roster by the tenth game of the year. It is unfortunate that Schenn appears to be the odd man out for the time being, but he can rest easy knowing that the front office is watching his performance in Adirondack as intently as they watch the performance of anyone on the NHL roster.

Schenn is not getting a raw deal, he is simply getting a dose of the reality of the NHL: decisions are made for the team, not the player. Holmgren, the fans, and the Schenn-sation himself are all confident that his time will come.

It just might have to wait a few weeks.