Flyers Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down: Travis Sanheim failed to live up to his contract

Travis Sanheim signed an eight-year contract extension before the Flyers' season even began, but struggled mightily throughout the campaign.

The date was October 13, 2022. The Flyers were just an hour away from playing their season-opener against the New Jersey Devils, and fans were quickly filling up the parking lot outside Wells Fargo Center as a new hockey season dawned in South Philly.

But before the game, the Flyers made a surprise announcement. The club agreed to terms with defenseman Travis Sanheim, who still had a full season remaining on his contract, to a whopping eight-year extension worth $50 million. Then-Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher clearly viewed Sanheim as an integral piece for the team's future and felt his new $6.25 million annual cap hit would be worth the gamble in the long run.

Well, the first year of Sanheim's extension hasn't even kicked in yet, but based on his performance throughout the 2022-23 season, it's already looking like the decision to re-up the 27-year-old so soon could come ultimately back to bite the Flyers.

With a new, lucrative deal inked, hopes were high that Sanheim would take another step forward after a very strong 2021-22 season in which he was awarded the Barry Ashbee Trophy.

Unfortunately, Sanheim regressed considerably. He began the season being held to just two points in the Flyers' first 17 games, and while he did manage to heat up in mid-November, logging nine points in as many games over a two-week span, his play slowly reverted back to its early-season form.

In total, the Flyers' first-round pick from 2014 managed seven goals and 23 total points while appearing in almost every game of the Flyers' season.

Every game except for one. A pretty significant one.

On February 20, the Flyers played a road game against the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome — a building Sanheim is quite familiar with.

Sanheim spent his entire junior hockey career playing for the Western Hockey League's Calgary Hitmen, who have played under the roof of the Saddledome since 1995. Sanheim has a lot of memories in that building and always looks forward to visiting the arena he spent three years playing in as a teenager.

But that night, with many of Sanheim's friends and family in attendance, Flyers head coach John Tortorella opted to scratch him.

Sanheim hadn't been playing his best hockey in the games leading up to that night in Calgary. The Flyers were riding a four-game losing skid and were fresh off a pair of embarrassing 6-2 defeats — one against the Seattle Kraken, and another against the Vancouver Canucks. In those two games, Sanheim was on the ice for five goals against.

One play in the Canucks game was particularly ugly. As Canucks star Elias Pettersson surveyed the ice for a passing lane, Sanheim appeared hypnotized by the three-time All-Star and allowed Andrei Kuzmenko to find a soft area in Carter Hart's blind spot. Moments later, Kuzmenko buried an easy backdoor goal off a feed from Luke Schenn, who spotted Kuzmenko completely uncovered beside the net.

Subpar performances notwithstanding, the benching in Calgary has left many, including Sanheim, scratching their heads to this day given the game's importance to the six-year NHLer. Nevertheless, Sanheim still insists he has a healthy relationship with Tortorella.

"Still haven't figured out why, but that's in the past. I'm over that and we've moved on," Sanheim told the media during his end-of-season media availability. "I think our relationship is just fine. I think we understand each other. I think he's got a better understanding of my game now and I got a better understanding of what he expects of me. Hopefully going into next season we get a better outcome and I can play a little more consistent in those areas.

"The scratching I think obviously hurt me, and probably something that I wasn't expecting, especially with where it was. I think there are certain games throughout a year, it gets long. You circle some dates that are meaningful to you. Obviously, playing in that building for three years and having a lot of great memories there, I think it means a lot to play there. Not getting the chance obviously hurt. But like I said, I've moved on and gotten over it, and we're on the other side of that."

Sanheim wasn't pleased with his performance for much of the season, and the benching in Calgary didn't exactly do him any favors. In the Flyers' 25 games after he was scratched, Sanheim managed a grand total of just seven points and logged unremarkable play-driving numbers at 5-on-5, including a 47.15 Corsi For percentage and 2.28 Expected Goals For per 60.

Even still, he did manage to show glimpses of his old, confident self from time to time, especially in the Flyers' March 21 game when he netted a pair of goals to help earn his team a win against the Florida Panthers.

At this point, Sanheim's focus is being directed toward improving his consistency and building confidence as the 2023-24 season approaches.

"Guys go through ups and downs, especially when your team's struggling, it's pretty easy to fall out of place. Obviously, I had a good run there. Thought I put some good games together towards the end of the season, and obviously some bad ones in between. It was and up and down season. Learned a lot mentally and went through some stuff, and I think I'm gonna be better for it. Hopefully I can limit those.

"To say next season that I'm gonna perfect and not have a stretch where I'm gonna have some bad games, I'd be lying to you. It's just trying to clean those up, trying to make them as small as possible."

Sanheim's top moment from the 2022-23 campaign would likely be his two-goal game against the Panthers, but another moment that stands out was this play against the Vegas Golden Knights in December when he was playing some of his best hockey of the season.

After his slow start to the season, Sanheim was putting his confidence and creativity on full display as the Flyers went toe-to-toe with the best team in the NHL. For a brief moment, he showed he is still capable of being the dynamic, smooth-skating defenseman Flyers fans saw during the 2021-22 season.

Perhaps that version of Sanheim will make a return in 2023-24.

When Sanheim is on his game, he's a solid blueliner who can play in any situation imaginable. It's just hard to tell when he'll be on his game, and for how long he'll be able to sustain that level of play.

Sanheim admittedly wasn't at his best this season, and he knows it. It's certainly possible he'll be able to return to his 2021-22 form next season, but if he doesn't, his new $50 million contract will be quite the obstacle as the Flyers begin their rebuild.

Verdict:

Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and NHL.com.