Kate Frese/Flyerdelphia
Before the start of the 2014-15 season, Philadelphia Flyers general manager Ron Hextall brought in Nick Schultz to add depth to the defensive core. At the time, it seemed like a mundane move.
The journeyman defenseman has become a staple for the back end. The pairing of Mark Streit and Schultz was the top option to try and slow down Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals first line in their playoff series.
It was a matchup fit to make Flyers fans hold their collective breaths until they lost consciousness. But Schultz surrendered his body in the effort as the 33-year-old blueliner blocked 20 shots in the six playoff games.
With the season over and one last year remaining on Schultz’s contract, it’s not a matter of if Schultz will be traded but more like when and to whom.
What kind of return can Flyers fans expect though? When considering Schultz’s trade value, it’s interesting to note how he began his tenure in South Philly.
Initially, he started out as the seventh defenseman, sitting out the first game in the press box. Since then, Schultz has played 161 out of 163 contests for the Flyers.
This season, Schultz led the Flyers with 174 blocked shots and with his 2.1 blocks per game, he finished behind only Andrew MacDonald and his 2.5 per game total.
Those high block totals should be expected as Schultz started 60 percent of his shifts in the defensive zone, a five-percent increase from his first season in Philadelphia.
Schultz was already a stay-at-home defenseman under former head coach Craig Berube. When current bench boss Dave Hakstol took over, he not only increased his defensive zone time, but used the veteran defenseman primarily as a penalty killing expert.
No Flyer received more ice time on the penalty kill than Schultz. Yet, he finished seventh among defensemen in average ice time and ninth in even strength minutes during the regular season. During the playoffs, his ice time was the lowest among all six Flyers defensemen.
So this needs to be considered if and when Hextall looks to deal Schultz. Any team that may be interested in the veteran blueliner will want to improve their shot blocking and penalty killing efforts. Yet, at best, use him as a depth defenseman when at even strength.
A team that needs help in both departments and could be losing a few veteran defensemen this summer is the Florida Panthers.
Both Brian Campbell and Willie Mitchell are set to become unrestricted free agents, if the Panthers cannot re-sign one or both, it would leave the team with a very young blueline.
Florida also finished 24th in penalty killing and 29th in shot blocking. If the Panthers wanted to add a seventh defenseman type for a pick at the draft, Schultz could hit the bill. Though any Draft Day deal would likely have to involve a pick coming back to Florida as they only five selections this year.
With 10 picks, the Flyers could part with one or two along with Schultz to potentially move up in the draft for another first round selection or add a forward. Regardless of speculation, any deal involving Schultz will have to include a more enticing piece or be a simple one-on-one swap for a late-round pick. Think "throw-in" value.
But, then again, Zac Rinaldo yielded a third-round pick last summer, so who knows?
Nevertheless, a deal for Schultz would round out the Florida defensive core leaving their front office to concentrate on extending Vincent Trocheck and re-signing Teddy Purcell or Jiri Hudler.
Though that’s likely not something the Panthers really want to pursue in place of re-signing Campbell, who is much more valuable to the team than a defenseman like Schultz. However, they have a lot of potential free agents after the 2016-17 season so the Panthers may be better served saving some cap room for locking up Aaron Ekblad, Reilly Smith and Jonathan Huberdeau long-term than throwing more money at Campbell.
That’ll be the rub in any deal, Schultz likely wouldn’t be the second or even the third option for potential suitors so the Flyers may have to wait for the free agency frenzy to subside or make a deal during the season.
It also isn’t completely out of the question for the Flyers to hold onto Schultz and go into next season with eight defensemen again if Ivan Provorov does, in fact, make the team.
Hextall’s strategy for young players is patience so keeping the likes of Samuel Morin and Robert Hagg in Lehigh Valley is likely the plan for the 2016-17 season. And if he thinks a potential deal isn’t worth losing the team’s PK specialist, then Schultz may play out his last year in Orange and Black after all.
Dan Heaning is a contributing writer for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Dan_Heaning.
