Philadelphia Flyers re-sign their forward Wayne Simmonds in a six year deal for $23.82 million
Wayne Simmonds, a professional ice hockey player, who previously played for Los Angeles Kings in the National Hockey League (NHL) but switched to Philadelphia Flyers last year, has signed a new deal with Flyers for six years.
Simmonds had one year left with his contract previous contract and he had earlier said that he would play the last year of the contract with a tension of what is going to happen next season but unexpectedly the new deal was announced on Thursday.
The 6-year deal is from 2013 to 2019 and Simmonds would be given a salary of $23.92 million, with an average of $3.97 million every year.
Talking in a press conference, on Thursday, 23-year-old, Simmonds, who plays in the position of a right-winger, told that he did not anything about his future and was not sure about the contract but Paul Holmgren, his own agent and he sat together to finalise the things, before the decided about the new contract. He thinks it is a good idea as he said,
"I thought I had a pretty productive season last year, but coming into the summer I didn't know exactly where I stood or what would happen. I talked to Homer [Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren] a little bit, but I still wasn't sure on the contract front. … When Homer came to us with the contract extension, the three of us [Holmgren, Simmonds and Simmonds' agent] thought it was a good idea."
The Scarborough, Ontario resident was originally selected 61st overall in the 3rd round of 2007 NHL draft by Los Angeles Kings and made NHL debut with them in the following season. First season was not so good for him as he featured in all the regular season games but scored 23 points, 9 goals, 14 assists in 82 games. He could not help his side qualify for playoffs.
Second and third season were much better for him as he scored 40 and 30 points respectively. On 23rd June 2011 he was traded to Philadelphia Flyers and he scored his NHL career highest points by scoring 28 goals, 21 assists and 49 total points.
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