Del Zotto Re-Signs in Philly

One of the last big restricted free agent defensemen has now come off the list on Thursday, as the Philadelphia Flyers re-signed Michael Del Zotto to a new 2-year deal, reportedly carrying a cap hit of $3.875 million per year.

The deal puts him in perspective of some other defenders around his age and points from last year, including the recently signed Justin Schultz in Edmonton.  It leads one to believe that one deal helped seal the other.

Del Zotto was also set to go to arbitration this Summer, as he was set to have his hearing on the 21st.

It was an okay year for Del Zotto in 2015, having missed seven games to injury and another 11 games to healthy scratches, but he still managed to pick up 10 goals and 32 points in the 64 games he did play with the Flyers.

With a cap hit of nearly $4 million, the Flyers are going to be relying upon him to stay out of the press box over the next couple of years and start scoring more points on a regular basis.

The career numbers for the good skating defender have been really up and down, year over year.  A great rookie campaign turned into some time spent in the minors the next season.  Bounced back from that with a good year, did okay in the lockout, dropped off the face of the Earth in 2014.  His good year in 2015 has me somewhat suspicious of what we'll see out of him in 2016, so my initial projection for him actually takes a bit of a tumble.

Overall in Philadelphia, their team on paper is not striking me with very much confidence, no matter how good Claude Giroux and/or Jakub Voracek are.  Last year, they shot the lights out, but the Flyers still didn't make the playoffs.  I don't think the Flyers solved many problems in this off-season so far, so Del Zotto isn't high on my priority list.