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Flyers waive MacDonald, he of the $30M contract

Andrew MacDonald

Andrew MacDonald

AP

In April of ’14, the Flyers signed d-man Andrew MacDonald to a six-year, $30 million extension.

Less than 18 months later, they’re placing him on waivers.

Philly GM Ron Hextall confirmed the move Monday morning, announcing that MacDonald would hit the wire at Noon ET. The decision comes with MacDonald still having five years and nearly $26 million left on his contract.

It’s a tough situation for both MacDonald and the club.

The Flyers acquired the 29-year-old from the Isles at the ’14 trade deadline and, at the time, MacDonald was one of the NHL’s biggest bargains, carrying just a $550,000 cap hit.

Philly thought it’d found a diamond in the rough, even though underlying possession metrics -- and pundits that specialize in them -- suggested otherwise. After watching MacDonald play just 19 regular-season and seven playoff games, then-GM Paul Holmgren made a big splash to retain his services.

From there, things went badly.

McDonald had a rough ’14-15 campaign, sitting as a healthy scratch on a number of occasions. Following the year, he expressed his dismay with how things went.

“It was disappointing,” MacDonald said, per the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Obviously, it’s not nearly the way I envisioned things going and I was pretty disappointed in myself and my own play, and just felt like things kind of snowballed throughout the year and really just didn’t work out.”

As for the future, it seems highly, highly unlikely MacDonald will be claimed on waivers. Should he clear, Philly will have the option to send him to the AHL, and receive $950,000 in salary cap relief.

That would, however, still leave the team with roughly $4 million of dead money.