Flyers' season ends with frustrating 87-72 loss to Chattanooga in the NIT second round
Dayton finishes a frustrating year 23-11 overall. UD was third in the Atlantic 10 with a 12-6 conference record.Senior Nate Santos led four Flyers in double-figures with 18 points, fellow senior Enoch Cheeks and junior Javon Bennett both had 15, and redshirt junior Malachi Smith added 13. Smith had seven assists and two steals, while Santos pulled down a team-high six rebounds.
BY THE NUMBERS• 4 – Four Flyers recorded double-digit scoring performances – Nate Santos (18), Javon Bennett and Enoch Cheeks (apiece), and Malachi Smith (13)• 7 – Smith had seven assists in the game• 6 – Santos led with six rebounds• .571 – Chattanooga's .571 shooting percentage (28-49) was the highest against UD this season by 50 percentage points.
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New York Times
14 hours ago
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NHL cap accrual explained, Quinn Hughes' future and more: Mirtle mailbag, part 2
We're back. Part 1 of the summer NHL mailbag came out last week. Now, let's kick off Part 2 as we head into late August with your queries on how salary cap space works for teams that have extra room, the Philadelphia Flyers' rebuild, Quinn Hughes' future and the Florida Panthers' attempts at a threepeat. Do the Flyers make the playoffs, and more importantly, are they finally heading in the right direction? — Brian S. To recap: Philadelphia finished in 29th last season with only 76 points. Offensively, the Flyers were okay, with 2.83 goals per game, but they really got filled in the other way, allowing a whopping 3.45 goals per game, fifth-worst in the league. Bringing in Rick Tocchet behind the bench should help there, and they have some young players I really like. Cam York and Ty Foerster are really solid, developing talents that don't get a lot of attention outside the market. Emil Andrae impressed me in the games he played. I liked the low-risk flier (pun intended) they took on Trevor Zegras, too. Advertisement Nevertheless, this is still a team that's thin down the middle, and more importantly, I don't think they properly addressed last season's biggest weakness with their offseason moves. Statistically, the Flyers weren't that poor of a team defensively, finishing around the top 10 in expected goals against them. They have a lot of smart, two-way players, and they're not an easy team to play night to night. However, they were dead last, by a mile, in goals against above expected, with their goaltenders allowing 46 more goals than expected. The good news is that more than half of that deficit was due to how poorly KHL imports Ivan Fedotov (13.6 goals allowed above expected in just 26 games) and Aleksei Kolosov (nine in 17 games) played. Any replacement should be an upgrade over those numbers. A tandem of Dan Vladar (who received a two-year UFA deal for $3.35 million a season) and Samuel Ersson, however, is fairly underwhelming. Of the 65 goalies who have played the most NHL minutes the past three years, Vladar ranks 59th, and Ersson is 62nd in goals saved above expected. I do think they'll be better than last season, and they'll probably surprise some teams with how well they defend. The 20-plus point jump they'd need to make the postseason feels like a pretty big reach, though, barring something unexpected from the crease. Should the Toronto Maple Leafs enter the season with material cap space, can you explain how it will accrue over the course of the season? How would (the Long-Term Injured Reserve pool) impact this if used? What type of move could the Leafs make with the accrued space, should they hold onto it? — Tom L. I'm glad someone asked this question because it applies to far more than Toronto this season. Including the Leafs, there are 22 teams right now that have around $2 million in cap space or more. Eight of those are listed with $10 million or more. I'll use the Leafs as an example here because they're an interesting case as a contender that lost a star player who they'll be looking to replace in-season. Technically, PuckPedia lists them at the roster limit of 23 players with $1.92 million available, but they could waive Henry Thrun ($1 million cap hit) and trade a forward like David Kämpf ($2.4 million) or Calle Järnkrok ($2.1 million) and bump that up to $5 million-ish at some point. Advertisement Let's start with the lowest figure of $1.92 million, just for illustrative purposes. The way the NHL's cap works is by using a daily accounting formula, so it changes as your roster shifts throughout the year. The cap looks at player salaries as a day-to-day figure, meaning someone like Thrun will cost $1 million divided by the 191 days in the 2025-26 season for every day he's in the NHL. That's about $5,235 and change. In theory, the Leafs could leave that $1.92 million open all season. By the trade deadline, with 41 days left in the season, the amount of cap space available can accommodate an additional player (or players) worth $8.94 million, because by March 7, you only have to pay those new players' salaries for the remaining 21.5 percent of the season. Demote a Thrun to start the year, and that $8.94 million is more like $13.6 million. It's a lot of flexibility, and the Leafs aren't anywhere close to having the most room among potential playoff teams. If we're talking about a team like the Detroit Red Wings, who have $12 million in space, they could effectively add $56 million more in salaries at the deadline. What complicates this a little is that no teams have the same roster all season. There are injuries, call-ups and trades that shift the daily accounting all season. It's why you sometimes see cap-strapped teams send players up and down to the AHL between games or on off days; every practice day someone like Thrun goes to the minors, saves another $5,235 that will grow over time. (That said, these paper transactions will no longer be allowed once the new CBA takes effect in 2026-27.) The benefit for teams using long-term injured reserve is that they can exceed the cap using an injured player's salary. Many, many teams have done this to great effect during the flat-cap era to add key pieces for a playoff run. With so many teams flush with space, though, that's likely to become less of a factor, as those clubs simply won't need to go over the cap anymore. Accrual will also be a very real benefit to the teams that can keep a few million free throughout the year. The downside to LTIR is that you don't accrue the extra space; if you go over the cap by $2 million due to an injury, LTIR only frees up $2 million, so it's definitely better to accrue than to use LTIR, especially once the new playoff salary cap rules kick in for 2027. The challenge in this environment right now is that if everyone has cap space, it becomes a less valuable asset. Plus, the real assets a team like Toronto will want at the deadline — good players — are scarce. I think we could theoretically see some weird things like contending teams with a lot of cap space (the Carolina Hurricanes?) taking on bad money in a deal just to increase the likelihood they get the deadline acquisition they want. Absorbing cap dumps may no longer be only the domain of the rebuilders. Advertisement All of this is to say that cap space is going to be less of a barrier than ever for a lot of teams, and this could be an advantage for Detroit, Carolina, the Ottawa Senators, the Winnipeg Jets, Toronto and maybe a few other plausible playoff teams come the deadline. They won't necessarily need retention to get deals done, and they won't have to worry about sending salaries back the other way. The bigger challenge will be finding the right talent to use that cash on and outbidding all the other teams with plenty of money to spend. Do you honestly see the New Jersey Devils trying to make a deal to acquire Quinn Hughes? I just don't see the timeline fitting in with their cap situation. — Mike S. Let me get into the Vancouver Canucks side of this a bit to start. I feel for fans here, as this is a team in a pickle. They finished 18th overall last year with 90 points. There are scenarios where you can see them getting a bump higher than that this season, but the middle of the pack is likely where they belong. With huge question marks around Elias Pettersson and Thatcher Demko, the ceiling feels too low to compete with the real contenders in the West. If you're Hughes, indisputably now one of the best players in the league and with two years left on your deal, it feels natural to wonder about your future if this Canucks team isn't going to break through and win. Maybe Vancouver surprises and has a huge bounce-back season that convinces their captain to stay. Feels unlikely to me, to be honest, but that's their best-case scenario. Otherwise, they have to start contemplating what a blockbuster trade might look like and whether it's all about futures. For the Devils, if Hughes wants to go there to join his brothers, how do you not make that commitment next summer? By the time he gets a massive new extension in 2027-28, New Jersey has acres of cap room: $62 million, before accounting for a potential RFA deal for Luke. They're going to be out from under Ondrej Palat and Brenden Dillon by then, who combine for $10 million, and Dougie Hamilton will only have one year left on his deal. Plus, the cap will be at least $113.5 million, so I don't see the finances as the barrier here, especially when you consider any potential trade with the Canucks could also involve salary going the other way. Even if Quinn is commanding $15 million-plus in 2027-28, that still fits — and it's not like he's going to be particularly old by then. This is a nice-looking group to try and build around. Obviously this is a team overloaded on the back end even years from now, and I'm not including intriguing prospects Seamus Casey and Anton Silayev, who will be factors by 2027. With how few top four D are making it to free agency every year, there's going to be considerable trade value there for whoever they decide to move. Advertisement The fact that they have Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt on such bargain deals with term gives them the flexibility to add one of the biggest salaries in the league, too. I've left out a new contract for Nico Hischier, which would also be a priority, but with $30 million in cap space, the kids coming on D and the ability to deal someone, it all leaves them a lot of different lanes to go down if Quinn does become available. I don't really see the downside, to be honest; the Devils are fortunate that a perennial Norris Trophy candidate likely has them at the top of his to-go list. It could be a game-changer for a team on the cusp of taking another step. The (Panthers) have almost all of their team back, and most of the core signed long-term. Bobrovsky and Mikkola's contracts expire next year, but the Cats will have plenty of cap space to re-sign them and almost whomever else they want over the next few years. Is anyone a realistic threat to challenge their potential dominance in the foreseeable future? — Amir C. Well, as they say, Father Time comes for everyone. Sergei Bobrovsky is 37 next month; at some point, there will have to be a succession plan in the crease. Could he have another big year, though, especially in the playoffs? Absolutely. You're right in that the Panthers look formidable again, and they're the betting favorites to take the Stanley Cup with about 7 to 1 odds, depending on where you look. However, that's still only a roughly 12.5 percent chance of winning, making the field the stronger pick. Matthew Tkachuk's injury and absence early in the year is one concern I have for them. The Olympics will also potentially take some energy out of a lot of Panthers players. 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