With just a month to go before the start of training camp, the Flyers finally have their entire roster of players under contract.
They completed that business on Saturday by re-signing defenseman Travis Sanheim, who was a restricted free agent, to a two-year contract worth $4.675 million per season.
Sanheim, 25, will be embarking on his sixth full professional season. He appeared in 55 games for the Flyers last year, posting three goals and 12 assists for 15 points.
The Elkhorn, Manitoba, Canada native has appeared in 255 games for the club over the past four seasons, recording 22 goals and 63 assists for 85 points. He has also appeared in 20 Stanley Cup playoff games, picking up two goals and six assists for eight points.
Sanheim turned pro at the end of the 2015-16 campaign when he appeared in four games for the Flyers’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, following the conclusion of his junior career.
He spent the entire 2016-17 season and part of the 2017-18 campaign with Lehigh Valley, registering 12 goals/56 points in 98 games. He also had a goal and five assists over the course of 12 career Calder Cup playoff games.
The 6-foot-3, 181-pound Sanheim played a three-year junior career with Calgary of the Western Hockey League, where he scored 35 goals and added 127 assists for 162 points in 186 career games.
He represented Canada at the 2016 World Junior Championships, as well as the 2014 Under-18 WJC. Sanheim was selected by the Flyers in the first round (17th overall) of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft.
Sanheim was paired with former Flyer defenseman Phil Myers for much of the past two seasons but with Myers traded to Nashville in the Ryan Ellis deal, Sanheim will now have a new partner presumably on the second unit and the favorite for that spot is Rasmus Ristolainen, the former Buffalo Sabre backliner.
After a stellar 2019-20 season, Sanheim slipped back a bit last season and had some tough nights, including a minus-6 performance against the New York Rangers.
During a press conference just after the season ended, Sanheim admitted he has to put much of what took place during last year’s 56-game pandemic-shortened season behind him.
“You’ve got to jump right back into a full schedule again,’’ Sanheim pointed out. “There’s a lot of areas that were stressful on our group. Me going minus-six against New York, to be able to mentally come back the next night and play against the Islanders, that’s challenging. That was a good experience for me honestly. It’s going to make me a better player. It’s going to make me understand those situations better because it’s going to happen again.
“At the end of the day, some of the best players in the world still have off nights, have nights where the puck’s just not going their way. Learn from those areas and be better next season.’’
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