No trade here as Flyers sign Nick Siler to 4-year contract extension

VOORHEES, NJ – Nick Sellers resides in Philadelphia.

The Flyers signed the “glue man” defenseman to a four-year, $10.8 million contract extension on Wednesday. The annual deal value is $2.7 million.

The contract contains a no-trade clause for years 1 and 2, according to Bookpedia.com.

Seeler, a team-oriented and defense-first blueliner, has been one of the Flyers' best at the back end this season. He leads the NHL with 184 blocked shots and owns a plus-15 rating while playing a career-high 16:58 minutes per game.

The 30-year-old has blocked four or more shots in 19 games this season. The Flyers have at least a point in 15 of those 19 games (13-4-2).

“We like what Nick Siler has given us,” general manager Danny Briere said in January. “We thought he was going to be our sixth and seventh outfielder and he played much higher than that, he played in our top four for most of the year.”

Seeler is in the final year of a two-year contract with a cap hit of just $775,000.

He got more from his new deal.

“Sales is that guy, I don't know how he does it, but he has no fear when he plays,” Travis Konecny said in November. “He makes big blocks big time in the game, makes big plays, offensively as well, he's been contributing. He's just a guy you want on your team. When the team is down, he's always there to get guys going with a big block or a big play.”

Due to his playoff-like effectiveness in his deal and the expiration of his contract, Seeler was a popular name until Friday's NHL trade deadline at 3pm ET. But the Flyers, a rebuilding playoff team, valued him highly.

“We said from the beginning that we were not looking to trade Sales,” head coach John Tortorella said four days ago. “He's a big part of the competitiveness of the room, what brings that room together. He's one of the true competitors I've ever coached in terms of how he handles himself.”

Seeler has taken a great path to this contract extension. He did not play hockey in 2020-21, when the NHL had a shortened 56-game season due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“I wasn't sure what my plan was when I took a year off,” Seller said in February 2023. “I just needed some kind of mental and physical break. A few months went by and I started to get that fire and that passion.” “Again, that’s real passion for the game.”

To return to the game, Siler signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Flyers and earned a training camp job for the 2021-22 season. Last season, he had to win over a new coach.

In the 2023-24 season, he was a key cog in the Flyers' second defensive pairing alongside Sean Walker, who was traded to the Avalanche on Wednesday.

The Flyers had to place Siler on injured reserve on Wednesday. They will be without him for at least two games (Thursday and Saturday) after he suffered an injury on Monday when he hit a ball in the area of his left ankle and foot.

The club, at a critical time, became weak in defence. Jamie Drysdale and Rasmus Ristolainen are out from week to week due to injury. Four of the Flyers' six healthy defensemen are 24 or younger in Cam York: Igor Zamula, Ronnie Attard and Adam Jenning.

“You've got some young kids back there, and now they're getting some time maybe in our next game here,” Tortorella said Wednesday after practice. “This is the way we should look at it. Just fill it up and hope Sells comes back as soon as possible.”