FLYERS PLACE FOUR ON WAIVERS
After making 28 roster cuts on Wednesday to greatly reduce the size of their training camp roster, the Flyers made four additional cuts yesterday. The team has placed goaltender
Yann Danis, forwards
Ben Holmstrom and
Kris Newbury, and defenseman
Marc-Andre Bourdon on waivers for purposes of assigning them to the AHL's Adirondack Phantoms.
All players are expected to clear waivers. With no recall waivers anymore in the NHL, any of these players could be recalled as needed without worrying about another team making a half-price claim and leaving the Flyers stuck with the other half of their cap hits.
The 32-year-old Danis figures to split time in net for the Phantoms with
Cal Heeter on roughly the same basis that Scott Munroe (and, later, Brian Boucher) did last season. The veteran is the de facto third-string goalie for the Flyers this season and would be recalled to the big club in the event of injury to
Ray Emery or
Steve Mason.
Holmstrom, 26, is the Phantoms captain. He is returning from season-ending knee surgery last season. His most likely recall role would be as a checking line player in the event of injuries in the bottom six of the Flyers' lineup. Holmstrom remains one of the more defensively responsible depth forwards in the system and offers some grit as well.
Newbury, 31, is one of those players who has a somewhat different role at the AHL level than in the NHL. At the AHL level, he offers a veteran scoring presence (he's coming off a 20-goal, 62-point season) as well as an agitating and pugnacious streak. In the NHL, he is a fourth-liner who stirs the pot and fights. Basically, he is in a similar mold but a somewhat less accomplished version of ex-Flyers forward Arron Asham, who is of the same size as the 5-foot-11, 210 pound Newbury but has spent the last decade in the NHL instead of primarily in the American League.
Bourdon, 24, is an interesting and unfortunate case.
Bourdon first came up to the NHL during the 2011-12 season. He performed well until suffering a concussion in February, which he later admitted that he hid from the team so as not to have to leave the lineup. His play took a downturn and he was sent down the American Hockey League. Still concussed, he admitted to the injury, and was sidelined for several weeks.
The player was cleared to return to the lineup late in the stretch drive. Bourdon finished the regular season with the Flyers, playing well. He started Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals against the Penguins but had to leave the contest early. He missed the remainder of the playoffs with recurrent concussion symptoms.
Bourdon rehabbed diligently during the summer of 2012 and, when I spoke with him last summer, said he was feeling fine and had been symptom free for awhile. The player got himself into strong physical condition and said his goal was not only to compete for increased playing time with the Flyers and continue playing a physical style but also to bring out some more of the offensive game that was part of his repertoire during his junior career.
Unfortunately, Bourdon never got that chance. First the NHL lockout hit in September. As a player who was on the AHL Clear Day list the previous season, he was eligible to be assigned by the Flyers to Adirondack during the lockout.
Bourdon opened the 2012-13 season on the Phantoms' top pairing along with Erik Gustafsson. As with much of the team, they got off to a tough start. However, they had started to settle into a good groove when concussion misfortune befell Bourdon again in his 17th game of the regular season.
At first, the Phantoms called Bourdon's absence from the lineup an "illness-related" issue but as he continued to miss practices and games, the team finally admitted that he had suffered another concussion. Bourdon missed the remainder of the season, while struggling with typical post-concussion syndrome issues such as headaches, light sensitivity, dizziness and balance problems that came and went without warning.
This past summer, Bourdon reported that he was feeling much better. He was not fully asymptomatic yet but the symptoms were of much lesser frequency and intensity. However, during light contact in pre-camp practice sessions with teammates, the symptoms apparently returned enough to alarm the player and team. He was held out of the start of training camp and was not given medical clearance to resume playing.
Recently, Flyers chairman
Ed Snider said that Bourdon was likely to be placed on long-term injured reserve to start the 2013-14 season. Yesterday, the player was waived for purposes of AHL assignment. That decision caught many, including myself, off-guard. Typically, an NHL team cannot waive an injured player prior to him receiving medical clearance. There are, however, some exceptions.
Bourdon's case falls under Article 13.6 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the National Hockey League and the Players' Association. Here are the parameters set forth under the CBA:
A Player who is otherwise required to clear Regular Waivers and who becomes disabled while on an NHL roster can be placed on Regular Waivers and be Loaned to a minor league club prior to appropriate medical clearance being granted only if the Player was on NHL Recall at the time he becomes disabled and has not played ten (10) NHL Games (cumulative) or remained on the NHL roster for thirty (30) days (cumulative) since his Recall. The Player shall receive his Paragraph 1 NHL Salary and benefits until appropriate medical clearance is granted. All other Players may not be Loaned until appropriate medical clearance is granted.
Bourdon is on a one-way contract this season, so he'd have had to have been paid at a $625,000 rate even without the salary protection clause of this section. His timetable for medical clearance is still unknown of as this writing, but it is something that cannot be rushed.
It is hard not to feel for the young defenseman. He is a real likeable and ambitious young man and all he wants to do is play hockey. The Flyers aren't doing anything wrong here.
The rules allow for his AHL assignment and he'll make the same salary regardless of whether it is spent on NHL long-term injured reserve or the Phantoms' IR list. The only difference is that Bourdon's salary won't eat up non-bankable NHL salary cap space on a team that is going to need
Chris Pronger's LTIR allowance for cap compliance once the season starts. Additionally, with the numbers crunch on the Flyers' blueline, Bourdon might have had a tough time breaking camp with the big club even if he had been medically cleared in time to get into some NHL preseason games.
If and when Bourdon becomes asymptomatic, receives his medical clearance and makes a sustained healthy and productive return to the Phantoms' lineup, he may be able to work his way back into the mix for an NHL roster spot. But all that matters right now is his recovery from a dreadful medical condition that can ruin someone's quality of life let alone ending an athletic career.
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LAKE PLACID TRAINING CAMP UPDATES
Following is some news and notes from the Flyers' practice session yesterday in Lake Placid, NY.
* The biggest development of the week has been that Flyers' captain
Claude Giroux continues to make rapid progress from the late August right index finger surgery that has sidelined him during training camp.
Last Friday at the Wells Fargo Center, Giroux tested the injury by lightly shooting some pucks (ahead of his recommended timetable) during the first of two practice sessions he skated with teammates. The player indicated after the first session that he would refrain from shooting in practice again until this week in Lake Placid.
Giroux has indeed resumed shooting pucks this week and, yesterday, was practicing alongside regular linemates
Jakub Voracek and
Scott Hartnell.
* After suffering an upper body injury in the preseason opener in London, Ont., this past Sunday, Flyers winger
Zac Rinaldo has returned to practice with his teammates. Yesterday, the agitating forward skated on a line with rookie center hopeful
Scott Laughton and enforcer
Jay Rosehill.
* With 10 defensemen still in camp, the Flyers rolled out five defensive pairings in practice yesterday. Some could be the pairings come opening night.
Kimmo Timonen was paired with
Braydon Coburn.
Luke Schenn was partnered with
Mark Streit.
Nicklas Grossmann worked in tandem with
Andrej Meszaros.
Erik Gustafsson played alongside tryout veteran
Hal Gill (the two were also paired in the preseason opener). Finally,
Bruno Gervais was with rookie
Oliver Lauridsen.
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FLYERS PROSPECTS IN ACTION
* The Adirondack Phantoms begin practice on Monday morning in Glens Falls, NY. Their first exhibition game will be on Saturday, Sept. 28 at home against the Albany Devils, followed by a road match against the Utica Comets late the next afternoon. The regular season starts on Sat., Oct 5, with a road game against the Hershey Bears.
* The Greenville Road Warriors, the ECHL team with whom the Flyers/Phantoms will share an affiliation this season with the Rangers/Wolf Pack, open their regular season with road games against the Gwinnett Gladiators on Friday, Oct. 18 and Saturday, Oct. 19.
*
Robert Hägg, the Flyers' second-round pick in the 2013 NHL Draft, has opened the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) regular season on the top pairing for Modo Hockey Örnsköldsvik, paired with former Calgary Flames defenseman Richie Regehr. Through three games, Hägg has one assist and is minus-one while averaging a shade less than 19 minutes of ice time per game. This includes secondary power play and supporting penalty killing duties in addition to his five-on-five shifts with Regehr.
Hägg played a serviceable opening game in an overtime win against the Växjö Lakers and then an outstanding all-around game (including his first assist of the season) in a regulation win against AIK. Yesterday, the young blueliner had a seesaw performance in a 3-2 shootout road loss to Leksand.
Hägg was even (+0, -0) in plus-minus yesterday and had one shot on goal. Unofficially, he had two solid hits, a takeaway and blocked one shot. He stopped a one-on-one rush in its tracks early in the third period. At another point, he attempted a hip check at the blueline and, although, the Leksand forward mostly avoided the contact, he also fumbled away the puck with Modo taking possession. On another sequence, Hägg executed a perfect box-out of an attacker close to his net on a delayed penalty.
Those were his positive contributions yesterday. There were also plenty of hiccups for the 18-year-old on a night where most of the Modo team seemed a bit off its game.
Hägg unofficially had three giveaways in yesterday's game, one of which would have ended up in the Modo net if not for a great save by goaltender Linus Ullmark. On another of the giveaways, however, Hägg stole the puck right back from the same player who'd taken it from him a second earlier and then cleared it from the zone. The other giveaway came at the end of an otherwise solid shift in his final shift of the second period. Hägg tried to go up the middle on a stretch pass and it got picked off at the Leksand blueline. The opposing counter-attack fizzled out as time expired.
I was not very happy with the way that Hägg or Modo in general defended the rush yesterday. Both he and pretty much the entire D corps were giving up the blueline way too easily for much of the game and that, along with sloppy puck management and numerous penalties, contributed to why Leksand outshot Modo by a 44-22 margin in regulation.
The forwards had a hand in that problem, too, as the gapping was poor and Leksand had too much operating room through the neutral zone. There were a lot of shifts where the D had no choice but to give ground and backpeddle in order to cut off drives to the net. But there were also plenty of occasions where Hägg and other defensemen could and should have been more aggressive in challenging the puck carrier.
Physical mistakes will happen. But there is never an excuse for not being mentally sharp. There were two bothersome sequences in yesterday's game that perhaps showed why Hägg developed a reputation last year for wavering focus and dropped to the second round of the 2013 NHL Draft after initially being pegged as a first-round pick.
The first occurred in the first period. Hägg did everything right initially. He grabbed a loose puck on the boards, saw a few strides of daylight to move it up and made a good first pass out of the zone. Then he checked out a bit mentally, inexplicably drifting over the blueline and out of position after making the pass. Suddenly, the Modo forward lost the puck in the neutral zone and Leksand rapidly broke in on a counterattack on Hägg's side of the ice. He got back into the play too late to break up a scoring chance and would still have been on the wrong side of the puck if Ullmark had allowed a rebound.
The second mental lapse by Hägg occurred in the third period. In this sequence, he made a very strong initial play near the end boards to assist a teammate and work the puck free with Modo in initial control. But then the young defenseman let himself relax as though the play was over and his team was out of danger. Leksand forced a turnover a half-second later and, with Hägg still fairly stationary in the corner, put the puck at the net. A scramble developed in front of Ullmark's net but the goalie eventually covered the puck with help from Regehr.
Despite being massively outshot and outchanced for much of the game, which was scoreless for two periods, Modo built a 2-0 lead in the third period on a shorthanded with five minutes left in regulation. Unfortunately for Modo, Leksand struck right back during its remaining power play time and then added another power play goal to tie the game and force overtime. Hägg was not on the ice for any of the goals.
In overtime, Hägg skated one shift. Modo mostly rolled three forwards and one defenseman in the extra frame, and number 14 only got out there once on a shift that started in the offensive zone but in which the faceoff was lost. No scoring chances developed for either side.
Modo is back in action tomorrow, visiting Luleå. The Luleå HF team has developed a reputation in recent years as the stingiest defensive team in the league and has outscored opponents by a 10-4 margin through their first three games of the regular season today. LHF is coming off a 4-1 win yesterday.
*
Valeri Vasiliev, the Flyers' seventh-round pick in the 2012 NHL Draft, made an early return to the Spartak Moscow lineup yesterday after suffering a shoulder injury in the KHL team's regular-season opener that was initially supposed to keep the 19-year-old defenseman out for three to four weeks. Yesterday, Vasiliev received 14:14 of ice time in a 2-1 shootout win against Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. He was even (+0,-0) in plus-minus.
*
Samuel Morin, the Flyers first-round pick in the 2013 NHL Draft, will be in action tonight as the Rimouski Oceanic hosts the Drummondville Voltigeurs in what will be Rimouski's third game of the 2013-14 regular season. Morin, of course, played two preseason games with the Flyers and recently signed an entry-level contract prior to his reassignment to Rimouski on Wednesday. This will be his first regular season game of the year but Morin did play in a few QMJHL preseason games before leaving to attend the Flyers' rookie and full training camps.
* Left wing prospect
Taylor Leier, who was also recently signed to an entry-level contract and then reassigned on Wednesday to his Portland Winterhawks (WHL) junior club, will play his first regular season game tonight. The Winterhawks play host to the Prince George Cougars.
* Goaltending prospect
Anthony Stolarz, who appeared in the Flyers' preseason opener in London, Ont., and then remained in London to join his Knights (OHL) teammates, is also slated to play tonight. The Knights host the Plymouth Whalers.
* Defense prospect
Fredric Larsson will make his North American regular season debut tonight for the Youngstown Phantoms (USHL). The club will take on the U.S. National Development Program squad tonight and again tomorrow afternoon.
* Defense prospect
Terrance Amorosa will make his regular season debut tonight for the Sioux City Musketeers (USHL). The team is on the road tonight in Fargo.
* Defense prospect
David Drake, goaltending prospect
Merrick Madsen and the rest of the Des Moines Buccaneers (USHL) open the regular season tomorrow night. The team will host the Sioux Falls Stampede.
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