Photo courtesy of @AbbyKaryn
Wayne Simmonds seemed to fit in perfectly with the orange and black last season. Simmonds had one year remaining on his contract, but the Flyers have decided to make Simmonds' tenure with the Flyers a lot longer.
The Flyers acquired three players in the trades for Mike Richards and Jeff Carter – remember that other No. 17 who recently just won a Stanley Cup. Brayden Schenn is still too young to enter free agency. Jakub Voracek was recently inked to a four-year deal. Now, Simmonds gets his, signing a six-year extension with the Flyers.
Simmonds was among the team leaders in goals and points, scoring 28 goals – tied for second on the team behind Scott Hartnell and Claude Giroux – and 49 points – tied for fourth on the team with Voracek and Danny Briere.
As Tim Panaccio of CSN Philly notes, this comes on the heels of Montreal Canadiens forward Max Patioretty signed an extension of equal length worth $27 million, a cap hit of $4.5 million a season. Pacioretty also turned in a career year in 2011-12, registering 33 goals and 65 points. He turns 24 this November. Simmonds will turn 24 next week.
Panaccio projected a $4 million a year figure, which TSN's Bob McKenzie reports is the range of the average annual salary. No terms of the deal have officially been announced, and Paul Holmgren was unavailable for comment. More details on the new contract will likely come out in the next 48 hours.
Kevin Durso is a contributor for Flyerdelphia. You can follow him on twitter @KDursoPhilsNet.
