The Philadelphia Flyers raised some eyebrows around the NHL when they signed winger Owen Tippett to an eight-year contract extension worth $49.6 million on Friday. Tippett, 24, otherwise would have been a restricted free agent this summer.
With a sizable cap hit of $6.2 million, it’s fair to wonder if the Flyers overpaid a bit. After all, Tippett was in the AHL just two years ago before being traded to Philadelphia. According to the numbers (and the eye test), Tippett’s contract extension was well-deserved.
Over the last two years, Tippett has established himself as one of the league’s better goal-scorers. At the time of this writing, the 24-year-old is 72nd in the NHL in goals-per-game, with 0.37. That might sound bad at first, but it’s comparable to Brad Marchand (0.37), Brandon Hagel (0.35), Alex DeBrincat (0.34), Evgeni Malkin (0.34), Mika Zibanejad (0.42), Tim Stutzle (0.40), and Jesper Bratt (0.40).
Of those seven, Marchand and Malkin are the only two making less than Tippett and will turn 36 and 38 before the start of next season, respectively. Hagel’s eight-year, $52 million extension starts next season, and he’ll have a cap hit of $6.5 million.
Sure, Tippett might be less productive overall than most of those players, but the Flyers don’t have the same dynamic talents that help support Tippett on the ice, especially on the power play. On the contrary, Tippett has been the one driving most of the play for the Flyers this year. Simply put, Philadelphia has found a gem in the man who was sent to Philadelphia to replace Claude Giroux.
If (when?) the Flyers find their own David Pastrnak, Sidney Crosby, Artemi Panarin, Nikita Kucherov, or Jack Hughes, it’ll help take Tippett’s game to a whole new level. The Flyers will have to wait and see if Matvei Michkov can do that, but one thing is clear: they’re more than happy with Tippett, and he’s here to stay for a long time.
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