Ottawa does this deal in 2 seconds lol. They get a 2nd for Andy and clear Neuvirth after this year

Don't mind this for both sides. Phila would want around $1.2 Mill or more in salary retention to be able to sign someone or offer Simmonds a new contract

Is Anderson better than Elliott? I'm not sure he is so why do this?

That's fair, and for a 2nd rounder I could easily see Ottawa be willing to do that.



Very clearly better than Elliott, also has been a significantly better playoff goalie in his career than Elliott. Not saying it's a huge upgrade in the regular season, but I think it would make a huge difference come playoffs, as Anderson has shown several times in his career that he is capable of flat-out stealing playoff series. Obviously he had a rough year last year, and that could be him just declining, but I think it's a worthwhile risk considering the Flyers would still hold onto Elliott so it's low-risk and the upside is significant.

The risk is a 2nd round pick. The way Hextall drafts it is WAY more valuable than Anderson for 1 year. Guess what round Hart was drafted in...

why would they need retention? they are not near the salary cap. Plus with how cheap Ottawa is idk if they would want to do that.

Its not much of an upgrade for the Flyers, but if you want to be able to offer Simmonds a front-loaded contract, you will need every bit you have in year 1. There is space in 2019, but as you go on: Prov needs a contract, Kenecny need a contract, Sanheim is not far off, extensions (if necessary) for weal, raffl... So yeah, they need all the space they can get for the Simmonds offer

he only has two years on his contract, they have 12mil in space this year, simmons, raffl, weal, Elliot are ufa. They wouldn't need Elliot in this scenario after the year so that's more space. Even if they front load it money wise it doesn't matter cap wise so they have plenty of cap room, so unless the team is cheap they don't need retention since they will have easily over 20million in cap room for 2019 without retention.