Flyers defenseman Niskanen retires
Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher could have prepared for a relatively quiet and altogether virtual NHL Draft, scheduled to be online only Tuesday and Wednesday.
But those peaceful thoughts ended with the news that veteran Matt Niskanen has decided to retire.
Niskanen, 33, had one year remaining on a seven-year deal he signed with the Washington Capitals with an average annual value of $5.75 million. He came to the Flyers in the summer of 2019 in a deal for fellow defenseman Radko Gudas. In 68 games, Niskanen scored eight goals and registered 33 points. He was a steadying force on the penalty kill, a secondary weapon on the power play and was most impactful in freeing up top-pair colleague Ivan Provorov to freelance in the offensive zone.
Provorov scored 13 goals and 36 points while frequently pushing 30 minutes of excellent ice time nightly.
Fletcher said Niskanen called him on Sept. 6 to tell him of his decision to retire while driving back to Minnesota the day after the Flyers lost Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals to the New York Islanders. Fletcher requested that Niskanen take time to consider the decision, saying the playoff loss and the time spent in the Toronto bubble was an emotional time for players.
“It caught me off guard, absolutely,” Fletcher said. “I didn’t anticipate that. I know it’s been a difficult year with the pandemic and going back to play in the bubble and there’s a lot of uncertainty about next year. It’s difficult for some players.”
But Niskanen remained firm, citing the need to spend more time with his young family.
“He’s resolute in his desire to retire,” Fletcher said, “and we have to completely respect that. He’s earned that right.”
Niskanen earned the respect of his Flyers teammates almost immediately. Fletcher said Niskanen “did as much as anybody to change the mindset of our team. He’s the consummate professional and teammate.”
“Besides his on-ice contributions, he contributed so much to our group from the way he prepared, the way he practices, the way he did everything the right way,” Fletcher added. “That was a great lesson for our young defensemen to watch day in and day out.”
No immediate comment from Niskanen was available outside of a text he sent to a team spokesman, which read: “Thank you to the Flyers organization for the opportunity to play in Philly last season. I’d also like to thank the fans for their support and lastly, I wish my teammates the best of luck.”
Shortly after the decision was released Monday, the Flyers announced they had given fellow veteran defender Justin Braun a two-year contract extension worth a total of $3.6 million. Fletcher re-signed pending restricted free agent Robert Hagg last week.
The Niskanen decision should also bode well for Shayne Gostisbehere, who had two knee procedures during the season and whose game has fallen off from a stellar rookie campaign. Gostisbehere was Provorov’s frequent partner until Niskanen came onto the scene.
Gostisbehere has three years remaining on a deal worth an average of $4.5 million. At the trade deadline and again recently, his name has been prominent as a potential target for teams in need of blue line mobility. Although Gostisbehere occasionally impressed in the post-pause training camp and early playoff games, he was a healthy scratch for all but Game 1 of the Isles series.
Then there’s the draft. No longer a must-trade event around the league, and certainly not while going virtual, Fletcher nonetheless might feel the need to make a move for another defender should the opportunity present itself. The Flyers go into the draft with the 23rd pick in the first round. They’ll have single picks in the second, fourth, fifth and sixth rounds and two in the seventh.
“Obviously, you will consider moving anything if the trade makes sense,” Fletcher said recently. “Certainly this year, and Brent (Flahr, assistant GM) can probably speak to it later on, it’s a pretty good first round. We should have the ability to draft a pretty talented player with that pick. I think we’re going in with the mindset that we are using the pick, but obviously when you talk to teams, if there’s something that we can do that would make our team better that would make sense, we’ll look at that.”
To this point, Fletcher and Flahr were thought to be steer
ing toward drafting one of several talented forwards that may or may not still be around at No. 23, such as University of Wisconsin center Dylan Holloway or junior hockey wingers Jacob Perreault (Sarnia, OHL) or Ridly Greig (Brandon, WHL), the son of former shorttime Flyer and current scout Mark Greig.
You could say that Fletcher might be more likely to at a defensemen in the first round, but blue-liners (Provorov being an exception) usually take a few years after they’re drafted to be NHL-ready. The Flyers drafted University of Michigan defender Cameron York with their first selection (14th overall) in 2019.
While well stocked with talent, Flahr said the draft should be considered a bit of a crap shoot after the first dozen or so picks.
“I think there’s some depth through the first round. Lots of different types of players,”
Flahr said. “It’s going to be real interesting after a certain point to see where these players go and see who’s left when we’re picking at 23.”
If it is a top-heavy draft in the first round, could Fletcher try to make a difficult move up to grab a talented defensive prospect such as Jamie Drysdale or even the U.S. National Team’s Jake Sanderson, one of the highest-ranked defenders in the draft?
“It’s really going to depend on how our list shapes up,” Fletcher said. “There’s different groupings of players, even more so in how you number them. If you have a chance to move up into a higher group, you’ve got to look at it. Having said that, based on our preliminary thoughts at 23, we think there’s going to be somebody fall to us that we like. There may be several players that fall to us that we like, in which case we can entertain moving back.”