Veteran Elliott provides depth, may battle for top goalie spot
The way Brian Elliott told it Saturday, he’d received a call from Flyers general manager Ron Hextall recently, one for which he’d waited some time.
“When you’ve got Ron Hextall calling you and he says, ‘I’ve liked you for a long time,’ and wanted to get me on his team, it’s pretty special,” Elliott said. “I want to take advantage of that opportunity. Coming to a great city like Philadelphia, I’ve always enjoyed playing there. It’s such a great crowd and atmosphere and arena, I wanted to be on the home side of that.”
Elliott will be there this season, even if he arrives amid a not-so clearly defined role. Once a viable starting goalie in St. Louis and Ottawa, an older Elliott was among the first announced unrestricted free agents when the market opened for business Saturday at noon.
Hextall signed Elliott to a twoyear, $5.5 million deal, as had been previously reported. That means the Flyers will presumably have two goalies fighting for playing time when the club opens for regular season business in October.
“They’re one of those teams that are right on the cusp of making the playoffs,” Elliott said. “They’re an aggressive team that tries to play at all ends of the ice. I thought they had a really good opportunity to take that next step and make it to the playoffs and do something special. “I wanted to be a part of that.” As for how much of a part he’ll play, that remains to be seen.
Just late last season, goalie Michal Neuvirth was signed to a two-year, $5 million contract extension. While Elliott got a small bump above Neuvirth in salary, then, it certainly doesn’t mean anything when it comes to playing time. Both goalies are expected to split time this season, based on performance.
From a style standpoint, the Flyers’ new net tandem doesn’t change much from what it’s been the past two years with ousted Steve Mason and Neuvirth. Mason signed a two-year deal Saturday to be a starter in Winnipeg, at an average salary of $4.1 million, the same as he was making with the Flyers.
Elliott, 32, isn’t Mason’s size, but he is the bigger goalie now at 6-2 and about 210 pounds. He wasn’t drafted by the Senators until the ninth round in 2003, but after four years at the University of Wisconsin and a few stops and starts with the AHL club in Binghamton, he became a starter in Ottawa for the 2009-10 season. He hit his prime a few years later in St. Louis. His first full season there he went 23-10-4 with a 1.56 goals-against average and a .940 save percentage, but that was in only 38 games in 2011-12. The next year, Elliott would play just 24 games.
His most active season with the Blues was 2014-15, when he appeared in 46 games, going 26-14-3 with a 2.26 GAA and only .917 SP. Last season, Elliott moved on to Calgary, where his numbers remained relatively steady (26-18-3, 2.55 GAA and .915 SP) while playing in 49 games, 45 of them starts. Yet Elliott had one run from late February through mid-March in which he won nine consecutive starts, flashing a 1.74 goalsagainst average and a .943 save percentage with two shutouts. That run essentially boosted the Flames into the playoffs, but there they went down in four straight in the first round to Anaheim, with Elliott not playing up to par. It wasn’t long before the Flames told him his services would no longer be required.
So now, Elliott is here to share with the oft-injured Neuvirth. At least until either the Phantoms’ Anthony Stolarz or (more likely) juniors Carter Hart or Felix Sandstrom emerge as a youthful franchise goalie.
“I’ve kind of been in the same type of situation my whole career,” Elliott said. “It’s not something I shy away from or am concerned about. Obviously, you want to play as many games as you can. There’s still competition, but you want to be the guy who can be counted on game in and game out. If you’re playing well, it’s a league where you get rewarded if you’re playing well. I’m assuming that if you’re going to keep winning, you’re going to stay in the net.”
*** Hextall signed forward Mike Vecchione to a one-way, two-year deal Saturday at $1.8 million. He’d signed on a free-agent basis last March 31, after completing his season with Union College, where he’d once been a teammate of Shayne Gostisbehere.
Vecchione was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award last season. He played in two games with the Flyers in the season’s final days, not scoring a point.
With Union in his senior season, he scored 29 goals and 63 points in 38 games. He figures to have a fair shot at making the club out of camp as a lower line center.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity and they have a lot of faith in me,” he said. “It means a lot for them to give me this contract.They have high expectations for me, so it’s just more reason for me to go out there, work hard and win a spot this year.
Vecchione said he was “happy I got my feet wet” in his brief time on the ice for the Flyers last April, which burned a year off the usual rookie contract.
“My expectations are to make the team and have a long career in the NHL,” he said. “For them to give me that contract, obviously they want me to go out there and produce and play for the big team. I don’t want to let them down. I’ll work as hard as I can to help prove them right.”
*** In addition to signing Elliott and re-upping Vecchione, the Flyers re-signed minor league forward Corban Knight and signed fellow AHL veteran Phil Varone to a two-way deal.
Knight, 26, scored 11 goals and 40 points with the Phantoms last season. He has 29 career NHL games on his resume between Florida and Calgary. Varone, also 26, spent the past two seasons with the Ottawa organization, mostly with Binghamton of the AHL. Varone played seven games for the Senators last season.