Sometime tomorrow morning, the Flyers are expected to announce they have agreed on a two-year contract with goalie Marty Biron worth approximately $6.8 million, according to my sources.
Agent Gilles Lupien told me this afternoon he was going to call general manager Paul Holmgren tonight to finish the deal.
The last time the Flyers entered a season where they had a clear cut, No. 1 goalie was 1999-00 when John Vanbiesbrouck was the designated starter under coach Roger Neilson.
“We’re getting there and we could have some news for you by [Tuesday],” Lupien said. “For us, we want a shorter term. One year was too little. Five years was too long. We feel two years gives us some flexibility for Marty in future free agency.”
Holmgren said he and Lupien are playing phone tag and he doesn't expect the deal to be done until Tuesday.
"We haven't talked today," Holmgren told me.
Biron met with Holmgren last week.
“When I talked to him, we talked about moving on trying to get this done,” Holmgren said. “We want a guy to move forward with and [he’s the guy.
“When we made deal to get him, we did it with the idea of keeping him. We like Marty. With Don Luce here, we had knowledge about his character and him as an individual and I think it has shown through. He’s good in the locker room, on the bench and he’s played well for us.”
Marty seemed pretty content today at practice.
“We’ll see what comes in the next few days but it’s going in the right direction<” Biron said. “It looks like a good thing for both sides. It’s not like one side is trying to take advantage of the other side. We’ve had nothing but positives.
“This is an organization that has shown over the years that it is going into the right direction. They make the playoffs 99 percent of the time the last 11-12 years … Two years down the road are prime years for this group … This is an exciting time. This team could be a team that goes from where we are this year to battling for something good next year.”
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