The Philadelphia Flyers find themselves at the top of the news cycle today after signing defenseman Travis Sanheim to a new deal prior to arbitration. It’s an important deal for the team, as they’ve assured one of their best young players is under contract for the next two seasons.

But with his $4.675MM cap hit come some financial consequences for the Eastern Conference squad. The signing puts them roughly $650,000 over the salary cap Upper Limit of $81.5MM. While perfectly legal during the offseason, Philadelphia won’t be able to carry a full 23-man roster into the season as it stands. The good news is that the team and general manager Chuck Fletcher have two main options to become cap-compliant, but each of those carries some consequences of its own.

The easiest option would be to purely not carry the full 23-man roster with three healthy scratches. Philadelphia has three fringe players, all forwards, currently listed on the 23-man roster who aren’t waiver-eligible: Tanner Laczynski, Jackson Cates, and Morgan Frost. It’s easy enough to send one or two of these younger players down to the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, creating a cap-compliant opening night roster for Philadelphia.