Ryan Johansen Update; Flyers Won’t Find Immediate Solution

We have an update on the Ryan Johansen vs. Philadelphia Flyers situation: there is no update. Well, that’s not entirely true.

The skinny is that the Flyers’ Johansen saga won’t be coming to an immediate solution, so we are still a ways away from getting a verdict there.

NHL insider Elliotte Friedman reported in his “32 Thoughts” column on Saturday afternoon that neither the Flyers nor Johansen are particularly in a rush to get through this process.

Here’s what Friedman had to offer on the situation thus far: “The NHL and NHLPA did not ask for an ‘expedited grievance’ regarding Ryan Johansen. Plain English: no one is in a hurry to have it adjudicated. So we might not know the outcome for a bit.”

The NHLPA filed a grievance on behalf of Johansen on Sept. 26, just over a month after the Flyers terminated Johansen’s contract, citing a “material breach”, on Aug. 20. Johansen’s agent, Kurt Overhardt, had published a statement defending Johansen and bashing the Flyers; Overhardt and the Flyers have a history after the Cutter Gauthier debacle that took place over the last 18 months.

Johansen previously had one more year left on his contract at an $8 million cap hit, for which the Flyers were responsible for half of. The contract has been officially terminated since and the Flyers currently have $726k in cap space as a result.

Friedman previously reported that the “. . . Flyers wouldn’t pursue this without a behind-the-scenes wink from the NHL,” and noted, “The NHL and NHLPA hate risking precedent from an arbitrator, so a settlement is always the preference without an air-tight case.”

It is currently unclear how the Flyers’ cap space situation would be affected should a settlement be reached, and the team’s injury situation presently offers further complications.

With Cam York, Ryan Poehling, and Sam Ersson all injured and/or on injured reserve, the Flyers have needed to call up players from the AHL, eating further into the salary cap.

This could have consequences later, as NHL teams accrue salary cap daily throughout the season. The more cap space a team has on a given day, the higher their accrual rate is. This means that the Flyers are technically losing money, which could prove impactful down the line depending on how this ordeal with Johansen plays out.