Some arbitration cases come down to the so-called 11th hour when a new deal is reached avoiding a hearing. In Brayden Schenn's case, a new deal came in the 12th hour.
The Flyers actually reached a deal with Schenn while he was waiting for a hearing to begin.
"I was already sitting in the room, just a matter of my agents were talking to Hexy outside," Schenn said on a conference call. "It was a matter of if they were coming in the room or I was coming out and a deal was going to be done. I'm just extremely happy to be signed on for another four years."
"We had talked prior on our way in," Flyers GM Ron Hextall said in a conference call. "We got into a pretty good conversation and we ended up settling at 9:45 a.m. Hearing was supposed to start at 9 o'clock. [The arbitrator] was patient with us and allowed us time to get the deal done."
Schenn's new deal is a four-year deal worth $20.5 million. His cap hit is $5.125 million.
While the new deal leaves the Flyers in a tight spot with cap space, just over $1 million left, this was the big move the team was going to make in the offseason. Despite the delay, the terms of the deal were satisfying to Schenn, and he sees the new deal as a vote of confidence.
"They're showing confidence and they believe in me," Schenn said. "For me, for four years, I'll just go out there and keep on continuing to prove myself. I feel like I'm getting better year by year and I expect nothing else next year. I was happy with a four-year deal. I think it's a fair deal for both sides. I think our team is going to get better and I'm just happy to be a part of the plan."
Schenn is coming off a season where he scored a career-high 26 goals and had 59 points. In the last half of the season, from the turn of the new year, Schenn had 44 points in 44 games, showing the heights his game can reach. For much of the latter half of the 2015-16 season, Schenn played on the top line with Claude Giroux and Wayne Simmonds and spent a majority of the season on the top power-play unit.
With his place now solidified, Schenn hopes that the opportunity to play with the Flyers top six forwards regularly will help him continue to bring his game to new heights.
"I expect to come in and continue to prove my game in all areas of the ice," Schenn said. "When you get the chance to play with good players they make you better as well. We got some good pieces that are part of the Flyers. We have a good team moving forward here. You want to get better individually, but I think the team as a whole will be better this year as well."
"Brayden is a very good young player who has continued to get better and we hope he continues to get better," Hextall said. "The good thing for us and Brayden is he's gotten better every year. He's a hard worker and he's starting to figure out some of the little intricacies of the game. He had his best year to this point this past season so hopefully he continues to build on that. I believe he will."
With a long-term contract and the vote of confidence from the GM and the organization, Schenn gets his chance to be a regular at the top. Of course, his season will be delayed slightly. Schenn has to serve a three-game suspension at the start of the 2016-17 season for a hit on T.J. Oshie in Game 6 of the Flyers series against the Capitals in the playoffs last April.
Despite that, the sense of responsibility is something that Schenn takes pride in and will carry into the new season in October.
"I have to be counted on each night and I feel like I'm part of the core group," Schenn said. "There's a bunch of us that have been there for a while now, and to be signed on for another four years, it obviously shows their confidence in me as a player. Now it's for me to me to go out there and continue to prove myself and try to grow my game."
Kevin Durso is an editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
