Dave Isaac

USA TODAY Sports

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Philadelphia Flyers general manager Ron Hextall had a rough enough summer trying to fill gaps on his first roster with limited salary cap space.

Throw into the mix that he was trying to find a new home for disgruntled center Vinny Lecavalier and he really didn't quite know what to plan for.

That mission is still ongoing, but Hextall says the market for Lecavalier is "all quiet."

Lecavalier, 34, will be a healthy scratch Tuesday when the Flyers play the Columbus Blue Jackets. It's the fourth consecutive game that the Stanley Cup winner and four-time All-Star has sat out. He was absent from Tuesday's morning skate because he was sore.

This season Lecavalier has been the second-line center, fourth-line center and fourth-line right wing before being removed from the lineup. While Lecavalier isn't the same player he used to be for 14 seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning, he did manage to score 20 goals last season and is confident that if he can play his natural center position and get some ice time, he can still produce.

"Oh, definitely," he said last week when he was benched for the first time in his life against the San Jose Sharks. "Yeah. I'm not a different player than last year. I didn't think I had a really good season last year. I had a great start and had a lot of opportunities the first 20 games and then I got hurt (for nine games with a back injury) and after that not as much. I just want to work hard and get back out there. I know what I can do. I believe in what I can do."

Last season, the Flyers asked Lecavalier to play wing for the first time in his pro career and it didn't work out well. Unsurprisingly, putting the skilled player on the fourth line was also a failed experiment. That's where he ended up this season, too. In 16 games, he has two goals, four assists and is averaging 13:28 of ice time per game, a career-low season average.

With each game Lecavalier sits out, he becomes increasingly frustrated. He didn't think it would come to this when he signed a five-year, $22.5 million contract with the Flyers in July 2013.

He doesn't want to be a distraction to the team and demand to be traded, but there don't appear to be any takers. Lecavalier's agent, Kent Hughes, was given permission in the summer time to look for a team that's interested in him. If the Flyers are able to make a deal – they have roughly $1.16 million in cap space – they would likely have to eat some of the salary.

Just like the summer, that market is still quiet.