Arbitration decisions are still nearly two months away but one player may already be leaning toward going in that direction. Anthony Di Marco of Daily Faceoff reports that Flyers forward Noah Cates is not believed to be interested in signing a long-term deal and instead, prefers to simply file for arbitration and take a one-year award.
The 26-year-old has only one RFA-eligible season remaining so such a route would walk him right to UFA eligibility, certainly not an ideal situation for Philadelphia. However, Cates has had some ups and downs in recent years which makes forecasting the right price tag for a long-term agreement a little trickier.
In 2022-23, Cates had a solid year, tallying 13 goals and 25 assists in his first full NHL campaign. But with his limited track record, the two sides decided that a bridge agreement would make the most sense, settling on a two-year, $5.25MM deal that summer. The deal carried a uniform $2.625MM salary, making that the qualifying offer Philadelphia will have to tender him next month.
Unfortunately, the first season didn’t go particularly well as he was limited to just six goals and a dozen helpers in 59 games while seeing his playing time drop by nearly four minutes a night. Cates fared better this year, rebounding to 16 goals and 21 assists in 78 contests while logging nearly 16 minutes per game of ice time, gaining back a little more than half of his lost ice time the year before.
While that certainly helps his case heading into restricted free agency this summer, the inconsistency still makes it difficult to find a long-term price tag that both sides would likely be happy with. Di Marco suggests that the team likely views him somewhere in the $3.5MM to $4MM range on a longer-term contract which isn’t that big of a jump from what he has made the last two years.
Given the bounce-back effort this year, Cates’ camp probably feels that they can reach at least the $3MM mark simply by going to a hearing so it’s understandable that a longer-term pact worth not much more than that might not be the most appealing. If the Flyers are uncomfortable going higher than that long-term (which is also understandable given his inconsistency), opting for the hearing makes a lot of sense.
That approach may lead GM Daniel Briere to examine potential trade options for Cates. If there’s a team out there willing to meet the higher asking price or even offer a medium-term deal more in his price range, Cates might have more trade value now when that contract could still be signed compared to possibly being an in-season rental player. Given that Cates predominantly played down the middle this season, Briere should be able to generate some strong interest if he decides to go that route. Otherwise, it appears we might be seeing Cates among the group to file for arbitration in early July.