Fantasy Impact: Petr Mrazek Traded to the Flyers
steve laidlaw
2018-02-19
Fantasy Impact: The Philadelphia Flyers acquire goaltender Petr Mrazek from the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for a conditional fourth-round pick in 2018 and a conditional third-round pick in 2019.
The Flyers get: A proven professional goaltender that they desperately need with Brian Elliott out until April and Michal Neuvirth now day-to-day.
The Red Wings get: A couple of lottery tickets to help their rebuild and cap space for a player they were willing to let go for free in the expansion draft. They also eat half of Mrazek’s salary in this deal but it’s an expiring one so there is little impact.
Here are the elaborate conditions on the picks Detroit acquired:
DET guaranteed no less than a 4th round for Mrazek. If PHI makes playoffs and Mrazek wins 5 games for PHI in reg season, 4th becomes a 3rd. If PHI advances to CF, and Mrazek wins six playoff games, the 3rd becomes a 2nd. If PHI re-signs him next season, DET gets PHI 3rd in 19.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) February 20, 2018
Fantasy Players Impacted: Mrazek benefits immensely. It’s tough to remember, but Mrazek was once one of the most promising young goaltenders in hockey. He put up 27 wins, four shutouts and a 0.921 save percentage in 2016 for a bad Red Wing team that just barely scraped into the playoffs for the last year of their incredible streak. Last season he fell off a cliff and out of favour in Detroit but has been better this time around boasting a modest 0.910 save percentage with three shutouts in 22 appearances. Getting out of Detroit and onto a competitive Flyers team will be huge.
Of course, Flyers and goalies never seem to work out as well as you’d hope. Steve Mason was a solution until a disastrous final season. Elliott’s tenure started poorly before ultimately settling in. The Flyers’ penalty kill ranks 28th in the league in efficiency at just 75% and could drown Mrazek before he even gets his feet wet. He’s worth taking a swing at as a third goalie, especially as appealing options drop by the wayside.
These circumstances aren’t all that dissimilar from the ones that landed Mason in Philadelphia in the first place and he proved an excellent reclamation project for a few seasons. We might even see the Flyers bring back Mrazek for next season but there are a lot of road blocks in the way of that.
Mrazek’s qualifying offer starts at a ridiculous $4.0M, which the Flyers won’t extend. That essentially makes him an unrestricted free agent. Meanwhile, the tandem of Elliott and Neuvirth locked up for one more year at a combined $5.25M. On expiring deals either Neuvirth or Elliott could be appealing to another team. If all goes well, perhaps there is a future for Mrazek who is the right age (26) to bridge to the next generation with prospects like Carter Hart.
Mrazek’s arrival means that we won’t see much of Alex Lyon who played well in relief of Neuvirth over the weekend. Mrazek’s departure from Detroit also means Jared Coreau will be recalled from Grand Rapids. The Red Wing goaltending spots aren’t so appealing that Coreau is one to get excited about, however.
Fantasy Players this helps, in order:
Jared Coreau
Fantasy Players this hurts, in order:
Alex Lyon
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This helps Howard too. Don’t think Coreau will see as many starts as Mrazek did while being showcased
i saw they activated stalock yesterday too, was hoping to see him in action soon