One of more interesting decisions the Flyers need to make this offseason is whether to re-sign unrestricted free agent left winger Simon Gagne. The 33-year-old former All-Star scored five goals and 11 points in 27 games after being reaquired from Los Angeles.
At various times during is return to the Flyers, Gagne played on various different lines. He spent a two-week stint on a defensive-oriented line with fellow veterans Ruslan Fedotenko and Mike Knuble and, later, was promoted for a time to playing on the top scoring line with Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek.
Late in the season, Gagne publicly stated that he'd like to return to the Flyers, and would be willing to take a paycut off his $3.5 million contract to do so. Of course, things can change once free agency season actually rolls around.
Gagne still offers good speed and a two-way game. He averaged 12:11 of even strength ice time, 1:34 of power play game and a bit less than one penalty killing shift per game (average 0:22) during his return to the the Flyers this past season.
The forward's goal-scoring touch, which always ran a bit streaky except at the peak of his prime when he played with Peter Forsberg and Knuble, has shown signs of decline or least lowered self-confidence the last couple of years. There are also injury concerns to consider. Gagne has been banged up a lot in recent years, including concussion and neck issues.
Ultimately, his return to Philly next year is likely depends on the team's budget and just how much of a pay cut he's willing to take with the salary cap decreasing. It also depends on what the team's other signing and trading priorities may be.
As I stated in a previous blog, I could see a situation with Gagne somewhat akin to the handling of Jaromir Jagr last summer. When free agency starts, Paul Holmgren may ask Gagne to wait until the team finds out about other free agents. Once that is done, the team would then circle back to Gagne with an offer that fits the remaining budget.
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I was trying to come up with a list of players who had at least two stints as a Flyers player, broken up by time in another organization.
I am not including players who were originally drafted by the Flyers but did not suit up on the NHL team until many years later (such as Peter Forsberg). I'm also not including players who made their rookie debut with the Flyers, spent lengthy subsequent stints of a full season or more with Philly's AHL farm team and then later resurfaced with the big club again (examples would be Dan Kordic and Al Hill).
Instead, I am confining the list only to those who played in the NHL for the Flyers, got traded/released/left as a free agent/etc and then came back later on for a second-go around as a Flyer.
In the comments section, please feel free to add anyone that I missed and their names will be added to the list. Thus far, I came up with six goalies, 15 defensemen and 22 forwards:
GOALIES
Brian Boucher
Sean Burke
Ron Hextall
Michael Leighton
Bernie Parent
Pete Peeters
DEFENSEMEN
Steve Duchesne
Karl Dykhuis
Ed Hospodar
Kerry Huffman
Moe Mantha
Kevin McCarthy
Jack McIlhargey
Terry Murray
Darren Rumble
Kjell Samuelsson
Mike Stothers
Danny Syvret
Chris Therien
Jim Vandermeer
Dmitri Yushkevich
FORWARDS
Craig Berube
Jesse Boulerice
Dave Brown
Eric Chouinard
Todd Fedoruk
Ruslan Fedotenko
Simon Gagne
Josh Gratton
Boyd Kane
Mike Knuble
Ken Linseman
Rick MacLeish
Mike Maneluk
John Paddock
Vaclav Prospal
Dan Quinn
Mark Recchi
Mikael Renberg
Bill Sutherland
Rick Tocchet
Peter White
Larry Wright
Can you think of any others?
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