Offseason Do's and Don'ts: Lecavalier

With the draft upcoming, teams are making their offseason trade plans.  For the Flyers, the most likely piece to trade is Lecavalier.  After only one year here, many in Flyerdom are sour on him.

He arrived here last year as a 33-year old free agent to play under Peter Laviolette, amid some hope of reviving the second line.  He did get 20 goals last year, so it's not a disaster, but time on the 4th line in the playoffs leads the presumption he has no future on the Hextall/Berube Flyers.

I thought he showed some chemistry with Schenn early in the season, but his season was derailed by back ailments and he never found his place under Berube's system.  He also seems ill-suited to play wing at this point of his career, and Hextall's youth focus presumably means the second line center spot is reserved for Schenn.

So what are the trade options?  They are probably more limited than most think.  He is owed $16.5m over the next 4 years, at a cap hit of $4.5m/season.  He is seen as a player on the decline around the league, and a team trading for him probably will require the Flyers to eat some of his salary in any trade.  Lecavalier also must approve of any trade.

It has been easy for everyone to speculate that Nashville is a fit for Lecavalier.  Laviolette is the new coach there, and they are definitely lacking offensive centermen.  I haven't actually heard anything from the Nashville end, and my worry is that Nashville will only give up something like a mid-round pick and still expect the Flyers to pick up salary.  Do the Flyers want to be rid of Lecavalier so much that they'll eat salary and accept only a token return?

The other day it was reported Lecavalier would allow a trade to Florida, but again I haven't heard of actual interest from Florida.  I think it's safe to presume a Lecavalier trade will not return Florida's #1 pick in the draft, which they are shopping...

Lastly, the Flyers could give Lecavalier another year here.  Let him play second line center and see if he can fit in.  The bonus of this plan is, Lecavalier's contract pays him reduced amounts the remaining years following one more season.  $4.5, $3, and $3 million to be exact.  At that point, the Flyers could trade him to a small market team that is not up against the cap, and not have to eat any salary or cap hit from Lecavalier (said team wouldn't care about the $4.5m cap hit, and will appreciate his lower actual salary due on a smaller real budget).

All in all my takeaway is, shop him, but you don't NEED to dump him this offseason.  If the Flyers really wanted to add salary this offseason they'd need to create cap space, but I don't think Hextall is in the big acquisition mode, nor should he be.