Flyers, Simmonds agree to contract extension

It was finally made official on Thursday morning, the Flyers and Wayne Simmonds agreed to a multi-year contract extension.


Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but TSN of Canada reported it to be a six-year pact worth around $4 million per season late Wednesday night. In addition, CSNPhilly's Tim Panaccio reported the average annual value was $3.84 million for the duration.

"We are pleased to announce that we have agreed to a multi-year extension with Wayne Simmonds," Flyers General Manager Paul Holmgren said on Thursday. "Wayne plays the game with courage and honor and we believe he will continue to be a very good winger for our organization."

Simmonds scored a career-high 28 goals, including 11 on the power play, and totaled a career-best 49 points over 82 games during his first year with the Flyers. He joined the team on June 23, 2011 along with Brayden Schenn from the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for Mike Richards. 

In four seasons with the Kings and Flyers, the Scarborough, Ontario native has recorded 67 goals and 142 points in 322 games. He was slated to become a restricted free agent following the upcoming season.

"I'm extremely happy to have this deal in place," Simmonds added. "We're going to have a good team in Philly for a long time and I just wanted to be able to be a part of hopefully bringing a championship back to the Philly faithful."

Report: Simmonds, Flyers agree to six-year extension

Late Wednesday night, a report surfaced from TSN's Bob McKenzie that the Flyers and forward Wayne Simmonds agreed to a six-year contract extension worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $24 million.

The 23-year-old Ontario native posted career bests of 28 goals and 49 points while playing in all 82 regular-season games during his first year in Philadelphia, adding a goal and five assists in 11 playoff appearances. He was acquired from the Los Angeles Kings in a package for Mike Richards on June 23, 2011.

Simmonds, who has one more year remaining on his current deal, was slated to make $2 million after banking $1.5 million last season, according to NHLnumbers.com.

Simmonds speaks 4/2/12

Q: Wayne, congratulations. Is this the first time you’ve been named the first star of the week in the NHL?

“Yeah it is the first time, it’s a great honor.

Q: Talk about the week that you’ve had. You did it all, you scored goals, you came back from that injury the other day…it must be pretty gratifying to have the team have the success that it’s had and you’ve become a big part of it.

“Yeah, I think I had a prolonged slump, I hadn’t scored in awhile and I got my first one, that felt good and they just kept coming from there. The team’s been really successful since the beginning of March and everything feels good right now.”

Q: How are you feeling right now? I heard that your face was kind of swollen up yesterday and that some people didn’t even think you could play. Obviously it was a rewarding week goal-wise, but one of your most painful ones…I’m guessing it’s worth it but how do you feel? Are you pretty sore?

“It’s not too bad. Yesterday I had a little bit of trouble seeing but I don’t think it made much of a difference; I still went out there and played as hard as I possibly could. Obviously I think that’s the most painful goal that I’ll ever score in my NHL career [laughter] …I don’t hope to do that again, but it was worth it.”

Q: You’re eye looked pretty bad yesterday, like you couldn’t even see out of it, how is it this morning?

“It’s a lot better. I think yesterday when I woke up it was better and then today I woke up and it’s pretty big, but I have all my vision and it feels a lot better.”

Q: Will you wear the visor for the rest of the year?

“Obviously I’ll wear the visor until the stitches come out…I’m not too sure I’m going to continue wearing it after that. Obviously I’m going to think twice about it after getting hit in the eye….I don’t know, I think I’ll make my decision sooner rather than later.”

Q: You guys are playing the Rangers tomorrow and they’ve handled you all five games this year, you could be facing them in a playoff round…do you guys see this as an important game to kind of set the tone in case you see them in the playoffs?

“Yeah, obviously we haven’t (inaudible) so far this year against the Rangers, they’ve beaten us all five games and that’s not a good thing. We need to come out hard, we have to play our game and I think in the games that we’ve played them we only played about 40 minutes of the game and they played the full 60, and you’re never going to win playing that way against that team.”

Q: Wayne, do you expect that, after what you saw yesterday, that this is the kind of playoff series you guys are going to get with them [Pittsburgh]?

“Yeah, definitely. It’s fun hockey, it’s like old school hockey. You come to the rink, you battle everyday, you know there’s going to be fights, you know you’re gonna get hit and you know you’re going to have to hit back and that’s the type of hockey that we like to play. So I think that suits our team well.”

Q: Were you going into yesterday’s game saying ‘I don’t want to get in a fight’ and then all of a sudden you’re fighting on of the toughest guys in the league…what’s going through your mind there?

“Obviously it wasn’t ideal for me to fight in that situation but, Danny took a solid hit there and obviously I’m going to go to my player’s defense, that’s the type of player I am. It doesn’t matter if I have stitches in my eyes, I have to go in there and stand up for my teammate.”

Q: Is it a real toll on you, whether or not to keep wearing a visor?

“Yeah, this year is my first year without a visor and I’ve taken a few shots to the face but…obviously it’s something I’ll keep mulling over but, I don’t know. I like it without the visor but then again, I want to have my eyes after I’m done playing hockey.”

Q: Why did you decide to stop wearing the visor?

“I don’t know. I honestly couldn’t tell you. I just took it off in the summer and it felt good so I continued that into the regular season…exhibition and stuff like that and I was playing pretty well so I didn’t want to put it back on.”

Q: You said earlier in the season that your mother doesn’t approve of you playing without a visor, she even called your agent. What has been her response to you scoring a goal with your face and everything?

“I don’t think she’s too happy right now [laughter] but obviously, that’s my mother, she’s not going to be happy with anything I do. She told me I should put on a full cage but it’s not college hockey, you can’t play like that.”

Q: Has this week been a culmination of sort of a dream year for you? No one really knew what to expect when you got here, they knew you were kind of a gritty player but, the goal production, everything that you’ve done here –does this give the whole year a little bit more recognition?

“Yeah, I think that since I came here I wanted to prove my worth and Lavy has put me in ideal situations offensively all season. I’m just trying to take those situations and do the best I possibly can and things turned out perfectly for me this year.”

Q: Getting back to the Rangers for a second, one of the players said after a loss in NY, the goaltending was the difference. Now that the goaltending has been better do you think that puts you on the same level as the Rangers?

“Our goalies have been playing awesome for us, whether it be Bob or whoever it is in the net. We’re completely confident in them. I think since the All-Star break both of them have been a big help for us …Obviously they have Lundqvist in net there and he’s one of the better goalies in the league and the goaltender does have a huge outcome on the game. I think we’re fully confident that we can beat New York with the goaltending that we’re getting.”

Q: You had 14 goals last year and you have 27 this year…Did you set a goal coming into the season for how many goals you wanted to score? And now that you’re pushing 30, do have in mind what you think you’re capable of?

“You know what, I think at the beginning of the year, I never—I don’t want to put numbers on myself, I don’t want to create pressure for myself…I came in and wanted to be a lot better offensively than last year. I think my second year in the league I had 40 points and I think that was the main number I wanted to get to. I wanted to get back to the production than I had in my second year. I think last year was a bit of a down year for me and I knew I was a lot better player than that so anything after 40 would be awesome for me and it’s been great. Like I said, I’ve been in most situations, I never really played power play before this year and I think that’s helped out a lot.”

Campbell addresses Avery-Simmonds incident; both players escape punishment

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

National Hockey League senior executive vice president of hockey operations Colin Campbell on Tuesday issued a statement regarding an incident during a Monday preseason contest between Rangers forward Sean Avery and Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds.
 
Allegedly, anti-gay and racial slurs were exchanged in heated discussions between both players.
 
Campbell's statement said the league has looked into the allegations but has not been able to substantiate what was said and by whom. His statement said Simmonds "expressly" denied using the homophobic slur he's alleged to have said, and none of the on-ice officials close to the altercations heard what was said.
 
Campbell said the league is unable to take disciplinary action because of the lack of information, but reserves the right to revisit the issue.
 
"All players, coaches and officials in the National Hockey League deserve the respect of their peers, and have the absolute right to function in a work environment that is free from racially or sexually based innuendo or derision," the statement, issued Tuesday, said. "This is the National Hockey League's policy and it will remain so going forward.
 
"It also is important to emphasize that the National Hockey League holds, and will continue to hold, our players to higher standards with respect to their conduct both on and off the ice. While we recognize that the emotion involved in certain on-ice confrontations may lead to the use of highly charged and sometimes offensive language and commentary, certain lines cannot be crossed. Specifically, we have for many years emphasized to our clubs and players that commentary directed at the race or ethnicity of other participants in the game (or even non-participants), or that is otherwise socially or morally inappropriate or potentially hurtful -- including as it may relate to sexual orientation -- is absolutely unacceptable and will not be tolerated."
 
Read the full release here.
 
Despite the fact that neither player will be penalized, Avery still appears to come out on the winning end because Simmonds refused to divulge what slur was directed towards him, along with the video evidence (whose offending word has been either bleeped or blanked out upon repeated televised replays) of Simmonds' rant towards the perennial pest.
 
The Flyers won the game by a 5-3 count. The clubs will have plenty of time to either whip up the rancor or tone down the discord, as they do not meet again until November 26 at Madison Square Garden.

Simmonds issues statement on banana incident

A Phanatic Editorial

On Friday morning, Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds issued a statement regarding an incident at the John Labatt Centre in London, Ontatrio, where an unidentified fan threw a banana onto the ice while Simmonds took his turn in the shootout.

“It was unfortunate that this incident happened but I am above this sort of stuff. This is something that is out of my control. Moving forward, this incident is something I will no longer comment on so I can just focus on playing hockey for the Philadelphia Flyers.”

Simmonds scored on a nifty backhand as if nothing really happened, but the Flyers dropped a 4-3 decision to the Detroit Red Wings.

On Friday, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman issued his "condemnation" of the incident.

"We have millions of great fans who show tremendous respect for our players and for the game. The obviously stupid and ignorant action by one individual is in no way representative of our fans or the people of London, Ontario."

What Bettman misses in his obvious attempt to merely smooth things over, is that when you're dealing with something like racism, the actions of one person are simply going to taint everyone around that individual.

While it's a given he'll defend hockey fans as a whole to stem the tide of media hyperbole, who cares if the people of London, Ontario are or aren't racists? It's a minor-league town with a long and proud tradition of junior hockey, but after what happened last night, really not worth courting its fans to buy into the NHL product.

Time to move on, Mr. Bettman. Plenty of other towns to stage a preseason exhibition. 

As far as Simmonds is concerned, it's his life and his career, but I am disappointed that he's not taking a stronger stand. Nobody's expecting the young man to be hockey's version of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, but some pointed words on the 23-year-old's end will absolutely be crucial in not letting this incident pass. 

Perhaps his quick dismissal -- mistaken for being classy and taking the high road -- and hopes that life will return to normal without further discussion is an implicit reminder that speaking out may not be the best choice for him to be able to continue his career.

If his own teammates, including James van Riemsdyk, who said "we've got his back" in reference to the Ontario native, truly want to make an impact, they should not simply circle the wagons. That's convenient against an attack by an opposing player or outside threat, like the media or the public away from the rink.

But for an internal threat such as fan behavior inside an arena during play, they're better served to band together and suggest a boycott of London outright -- even though it's going to cause a problem high up since Global Spectrum -- a cousin entity to Comcast, which owns the Flyers, also owns and operates the Labatt Centre.

There are nearly 30 players of at least part-African descent in the NHL, and they are not on the margins.

Try telling that to Winnipeg's imposing Dustin Byfuglien, or Colorado's slick-skating forward Chris Stewart, or Trevor Daley of the Dallas Stars, who rose above an ugly name-calling incident in juniors by John Vanbiesbrouck to become an impact defenseman on his club.

It would be easy to use that collective influence from the team reps to the NHLPA leaders and so on up the chain, to let the real power-brokers know that nothing of this sort should be tolerated anywhere and for any reason.

Flyers drop shootout to Red Wings; Simmonds target of racist prank

The Flyers lost a 4-3 shootout decision to the Detroit Red Wings in the club's annual game at the John Labatt Centre in London, Ontario on Thursday night.

But that wasn't the most surprising outcome in a game which saw Philly rally from a late 3-1 deficit to force extra time.

New forward Wayne Simmonds, a Canadian of African descent, was the target of a racist prank when an unidentified fan threw what was later confirmed to be a banana at the player while he skated in on his shootout chance.

Simmonds scored. And the outrage has begun. More on this story tomorrow, when everyone under the sun will chime in with an opinion.

Richards shipped to Kings for two players, draft pick.

by Bob Herpen
Phanatic Hockey Editor

The Philadelphia Flyers continued to deal on Thursday, trading captain Mike Richards to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for forwards Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds, as well as a second-round draft pick in 2012.

The 26-year-old struck for 23 goals and 66 points in 81 regular-season games in 2010-11, adding one goal and seven points in 11 playoff tilts. He was in the early stages of a 12-year contract worth more than $68 million to which the club signed him back in December of 2007.

Richards spent his entire six-year career with the organization, and was named captain prior to the 2008-09 season. He departs Philadelphia with 133 goals, 349 points and 397 penalty minutes in 453 contests.

His best performance came in the 2010 playoffs, when he tallied seven goals and 23 points in 23 contests as the Flyers made a surprise run to the Stanley Cup Finals before losing to Chicago.

Simmonds recorded 14 goals and 30 points in 80 games with LA last season. Over his three-year career, all with the Kings, the 22-year-old racked up 39 goals and 93 points in 240 appearances.

Schenn, a 19-year-old native of Saskatoon, spent nine games with the Kings over the last two seasons, but spent the majority of time in the Canadian juniors' Western Hockey League.