The Myth About Joffrey Lupul's "Untradeable" Contract

One of the most common conversations I see among Flyers fans, or hockey fans in general, is that the Flyers are in cap “hell.” With big contracts in place for Richards, Carter, Gagne, Timonen, Hartnell,  and Briere, the extension for Joffrey Lupul kicking in next season, the expiring Hatcher contract, and the perpetual resident of Long Term Injured Reserved Mike Rathje, it isn’t a horribly farfetched statement. The common rebuttal to such a statement is that the Flyers can just trade Lupul because, frankly, he’s unnecessary (an argument for a later time), and gain roughly an additional $4.25 million in cap space. That is of course barring taking back any roster players. More often than not, these people are scoffed at for believing that Joffrey Lupul has any trade value.

Many people think Lupul will have to be “Gauthiered” meaning the Flyers will basically have to pay a team in draft picks to take his contract; much like the Flyers did with Denis Gauthier in giving LA a 2^nd round pick in order to take him off of their hands. After all, who wants a horribly inconsistent ~25 goal scorer/~50 point player for $4.25 million over the next four years? Well the fact of the matter is, Lupul isn’t any more inconsistent than any other 50 point player. In my opinion, if 50 point players weren’t streaky, they probably would be 80 point players. Additionally, I don’t believe Lupul is overpaid. I believe he is being paid market value, and therefore the Flyers would not have any trouble finding a suitor for Lupul’s “untradeable” contract.

So let’s take a look at comparable players. For argument’s sake we will look at wingers (because centers are just more valuable, so we’ll compare apples to apples), who have played at least 70 games this past season, are 30 years of age or younger, and +/- 8 pts of 50 pts on the season.

Name  -Games Played-Goals-Assists-Points-Cap Hit

Jiri Hudler 82 GP 23G 34A 57PTs 1.015 RFA

Milan Michalek 77GP 23G 34A 57PTs 4.333

Kristian Huselius 74GP 21G 35A 56PTs 4.75

David Backes 82GP 31G 23A 54PTs 2.5

Tuomo Ruutu  79GP 26G 28A 54PTs 2.25 RFA

Michael Ryder 74GP 27G 26A 53PTs 4.0

Dustin Brown 80GP 24G 29A 53PTs 3.175

Chris Kunitz 82GP 23G 30A 53PTs 3.725

Kris Versteeg 78GP 22G 31A 53PTs 0.484 RFA

Alex Burrows 82GP 28G 23A 51PTs 2.0

Joffrey Lupul 79GP 25G 25A 50PTs 4.25

Martin Erat 71GP 17G 33A 50PTs 4.5

David Perron 81GP 15G 35A 50PTs 0.918

Andrew Ladd 82GP 15G 34A 49PTs 1.55

Sergei Samsonov 81GP 16G 32A 48PTs 2.533

Jason Williams 80GP 19G 28A 47PTs 2.2 UFA

Pierre Marc Bouchard 71GP 16G 30A 46PTs 4.08

Ryan Malone 70GP 26G 19A 45PTs 4.5

Blake Wheeler 81GP 21G 24A 45PTs 2.825

Drew Stafford 79GP 20G 25A 45PTs 0.984 RFA

Antti Miettinen 82GP 15G 29A 44PTs 2.333

Lee Stempniak 74GP 14G 30A 44PTs makes 3.5 next year but I think the cap hit may be lower

Ales Kotalik 75GP 20G 23A 43PTs 2.5 UFA

Patrick O’Sullivan 81GP 16G 27A 43PTs 2.388

Erik Cole 80GP 18G 23A 42PTs 4.00 UFA

Milan Lucic 72GP 17G 25A 42PTs 0.850

Wojtek Wolski 78GP 14G 28A 42PTs 2.8

So looking at the comparable players, what do we see? Well most of those players are on their entry level contract so they haven’t hit free agency. In other words, they haven’t had a chance to go out and make the money someone like Joffrey Lupul does. Those players that have had the opportunity to re-sign with their clubs, or hit free agency, have gotten contracts that are more or less comparable to Lupul’s. Some are a bit less, some are a bit more. Many of them are soon to be restricted free agents, as well as a couple unrestricted free agents. After those players have gotten new contracts it should further clarify the market value for players of this caliber; but it appears to me that Lupul’s contract is in line with the rest of the league.

So is Joffrey Lupul’s contract a great contract? No, probably not. Will some teams balk at dealing for him? Absolutely. In fact, I may concede that he is slightly overpaid. I would have preferred to see something between 3 and 4 million. But the fact of the matter is that if you are a bad team, Atlanta for example, you are going to have to overpay any free agent in order to get them to come and play for you. Atlanta would have had to offer Lupul exactly what he is making, if not more in order to acquire him in free agency. The same can be said for many other teams. Joffrey Lupul’s contract is far from untradeable. The Flyers might not be able to get as much as they’d hope in a trade, depending upon the team they are dealing with, but they shouldn’t have any problems trading him if that is what they wish to do.