Flyers Give van Riemsdyk Six-Year, $25.5 Million Extension
With Mike Richards and Jeff Carter now out of town, eyes will turn to guys like Claude Giroux and James van Riemsdyk for offense.
Giroux got his deal last year. Now James van Riemsdyk has one of his own. In his sophomore season, van Riemsdyk scored 21 goals and 19 assists in 75 regular season games. He also turned his game up in the playoffs for seven goals in 11 games.
As van Riemsdyk announced on his Twitter account, the deal is for six years. He will make roughly $25.5 million over the course of the six year deal, keeping his cap number fairly low at $4.25 million. Giroux’s cap hit is $3.75 million for the next three seasons.
“He wanted to work with the Flyers to get a good cap number,” van Riemsdyk’s agent, Alec Schall, told Philly Sports Daily. “He wanted to help the team move forward long-term.”
van Riemdsyk would have been entering the last year of his entry-level contract that would have had him as a restricted free agent after the 2011-12 season. With performance bonuses under his entry-level contract, he would have made a little more than $1 million this season.
Now he’ll be making much more.
While some have questioned his consistency, the new-look Flyers roster will give him more opportunities to succeed. If he plays as he did in the 2011 postseason, the Flyers have found themselves a bargain. If he produces as he did in the regular season, they’ll have a still-budding winger locked down for years to come.
There’s still some proving to do for the former No. 2 overall pick, but it appears as though he’ll be in orange and black for quite some time.
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