Could Ersson's Contract Extension Be Strategic Genius By Briere?

The other is that they intend to trade Hart either when he's cleared, or as soon as a GM is willing to give up the value the team believes the goalie has.

To be fair, I'm not ruling either of those scenarios out with this article. Both are still plausible theories, no doubt. However, there's still room to add more to the list, and I'm going to throw a theory out in this article that I haven't seen anyone mention anywhere.

What if Briere and company aren't privy to any "inside info" on the 2018 Team Canada Investigation, and as of now have absolutely no plans to trade Hart. What if the Ersson extension was simply just a strategy to make sure they didn't back themselves into a sticky corner come next off-season?

Obviously, this coming season will play a huge part in certain deciding factors for both goalies, but for arguments sake in this article we're going to look at the "positives" of what could have happened without the recent extension to push the Flyers front office into a potentially sticky corner come next off-season.

Without the extension two weeks ago, Ersson was headed into the final season of his ELC in the same season Hart was headed into the final season of his first standard contract, making both goalies RFA's at the exact same time.

Despite making it clear he's not a coach that pays much attention to the goalies, John Tortorella also made it no secret what his preferred goalie tandem was last season. Even going as far as scratching Felix Sandström from the lineup during a Western Conference road trip where Ersson was re-called as "insurance" in case something happened while the team was out west. In addition to having Ersson serve as Hart's backup for a couple of games on the trip, he also had him play in at least one of the games in a back-to-back scenario on that trip. Even though he was re-called as "insurance" the move made it abundantly clear Tortorella saw him as more of the backup with Sandström as the "insurance".

When it comes to Hart and Ersson, it's also worth noting that Tortorella has only ever uttered fairly good things about both goalies. Rarely pointing out anything negative in either goalie's game style or pre-game routines.

While Sandström on the other hand found himself on the negative end of comments from the head coach on a few different seperate occasions last season. Tortorella even went as far as saying at one point in the season that the goalie just needed to "make more saves". To his credit, Sandström did rebound a little bit by the latter part of the season, but by then the coach already has his clear cut favorites.

All of that to say, if Briere doesn't lock Ersson into his extension two weeks ago, and Tortorella gets his wish from last year, and the team goes with a Hart/Ersson tandem this coming season, a trade never materializes mid-season, and both goalies manage to hold their own by keeping their save percentage above .900 and their GAA somewhere around or even below 3.00 behind what can only be described as a skeletal crew of a defense then the Flyers are faced with a new dilemma next off-season. Do they try to trade one of the two young goalies for less than their fair value to avoid potential cap issues, or do they attempt to get both re-signed with significant pay raises and find the needed cap relief elsewhere?

By signing Ersson to the extension this off-season, rather than waiting until his ELC expires next off-season, Briere has given himself some much needed breathing room. He doesn't have to worry about the potential scenario of trading a goalie for less than what he thinks they're worth, or re-signing both and trying to trade others to find the cap relief. If they can't or don't want to find a trade partner for Hart, they can try to re-sign him likely with a raise, and not worry too much about it because Ersson has already been re-signed, and didn't command a significant pay raise.

Without the recent extension, and a good upcoming season, Briere and company find themselves in a sticky corner they don't necessarily want to be in because on top of Ersson and Hart being RFA's together, Sandström would have also been a UFA, leaving them with Cal Petersen as the only goalie under contract. Depending on how this coming season plays out, the Flyers could have run the risk of losing 2 or 3 goalies in one off-season.

Building from the net out has always been the suggested way to build a team, so when a team has two talented goalies and a potentially respectable backup, potentially losing 2/3rd's of the talent in the crease would be a big blow to an already fragile team, and could send the rebuild backwards rather than helping it move forward.

So what if the Ersson extension was simply just Briere getting himself out of a sticky situation before the sticky substance has even been dumped on the canvas to trap him?

In addition to the other two theories making the rounds, this theory is also worth a thought. After all, they're just theories. Until Briere makes a move we can't possibly know what his true intentions are.