Flyers defenseman Andrew MacDonald, who is in the third year of a six-year, $30 million contract, has not had a particularly good 2016-17 season to date. We can argue about how not-good it has been, or what the causes of it are, but we'll save that discussion for another time (for instance, almost any of our Morning Observations posts of late).
No, here we're going to talk about a reason why he's still in the lineup. Or, more specifically, not a reason why he's still in the lineup.
Many fans have watched Dave Hakstol place MacDonald in the lineup many nights despite him, in their view, not being one of the team's six best defensemen.