The Philadelphia Flyers could find themselves in hot water with the NHL after they may have violated the collective bargaining agreement last week. The Flyers, as a team, boarded a flight and departed for Nashville at 8:24 p.m. ET on Dec. 26, according to Chris Johnston of Sportsnet. The new collective bargaining agreement that was ratified coming out of the most recent NHL lockout, prohibits any team activities, including travel, from Dec. 24-26.
According to Johnston, the Flyers would not comment and the league did not respond to requests for comment, so it is unclear if the team will be under investigation.
This may seem like an innocuous infraction, but the Flyers are the only team that traveled during the holiday break, according to the report. By leaving the night before a road game, one could perceive that as a competitive advantage, since the other teams that played road games Dec. 27 did not travel early. The Flyers did end up losing that game against the Nashville Predators anyway.
It will be interesting to see what the league decides on this as violations of the CBA typically are not taken lightly.
Three NHL teams reportedly held practices on Dec. 26, but those ended up being deemed informal skates that were organized by the players and not team officials. The Anaheim Ducks were under investigation for their informal skate but were cleared when it was determined that captain Ryan Getzlaf had organized the session.
The Flyers could be looking at a fairly significant fine if they are to be found to be in violation of the CBA. The Los Angeles Kings were fined $100,000 for allowing suspended defenseman Slava Voynov to practice with the team, as noted by Johnston.
This probably doesn't rank as high as something like that, but the fact that this has taken a few days to come out -- especially after other teams were investigated for other potential violations of the break -- looks a little bit sneaky. If what was reported is confirmed, expect some kind of reprimand from the league.
