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Meltzer's Musings: 6/21/11 |
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Silly Season got that much sillier yesterday amidst false Tweets that a trade sending Jeff Carter to the Columbus Blue Jackets was a done deal. It has become apparent that the possibility of trading Carter is still considered a last resort by the Flyers in their efforts not only to sign Ilya Bryzgalov but also to leave themselves enough flexibility to get their other free agents resigned and leave some flexibility under the cap.
However, the Flyers still probably need to move out two roster players from last season in order to accomplish these goals.
As stated previously, unless the Flyers could bring back an NHL-ready defenseman, I think it is extremely risky to trade Matt Carle due to all the question marks surrounding Chris Pronger's health. I don't care how good your goaltending and forwards are, you will get nowhere in a hurry with an NHL defense that basically goes three deep if Pronger is hurt. The Flyers would then have Kimmo Timonen, Braydon Coburn and Andrej Meszaros plus Oskars Bartulis and Erik Gustafsson to fill the vacated Carle and Sean O'Donnell spots and yet another callup to fill in for Pronger.
I was told yesterday that, if Carle is traded, there's a fairly high possibility (in lieu of a Carter trade) that the Flyers would try to bring back O'Donnell, who will turn 40 in October, at about the same $1.3 million he made last season. While I think it's possible to squeeze out one more season from O'Donnell -- whose smart toughness and veteran savvy were an asset to the club this past season -- he is strictly a 6th defenseman at this stage of his career. Meszaros would move up into the Carle spot on the top pair and O'Donnell would play with one of Bartulis, Gustafsson or Kevin Marshall.
Another alternative if O'Donnell doesn't come back is to attempt to do the same thing with Matt Walker ($1.7 million) in a third pairing spot. Personally, I'd prefer O'Donnell despite the age difference. But neither SOD nor Walker would address the puck-moving issues, and the club would still be in a heap of trouble on the blueline if Pronger isn't healthy.
Unless Scott Hartnell is willing to waive his no-trade clause, the Flyers may very well be looking at a scenario in which Kris Versteeg goes. If it's Carle that goes, the club will cross its fingers that it stays healthy on defense and potentially makes a move near the trade deadline.
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Strictly for argument's sake, let's say the Flyers did end up making a deal with Columbus and the deal brought back Jakob Voracek (Columbus' 2007 first-round pick), young defenseman John Moore (a Columbus 2009 first-round pick) and the 8th overall pick of the 2011 draft.
Then let's say the Flyers flipped the 8th pick plus Versteeg to Florida for the 3rd overall pick. With that pick, the Flyers would likely get one of defenseman Adam Larsson or winger Gabriel Landeskog. Florida, which needs to add a heap of salary just to get to the cap floor, would get a player Tallon knows well from his Chicago days and who could be plugged right into their top six. They would also still get a pretty good prospect with the 8th pick of the draft.
What would this mean for the salary cap? Voracek is a restricted free agent. He made about $1.27 million in his entry-level deal and it would more likely than not take a cap hit of about $2 million to get him signed to a new 2-3 year deal. Moore is still on his entry-level contract, which pays him $965,000 on the cap.
Figuring in these two salaries plus a $6 million cap hit for Bryzgalov, the Flyers would then have about $1.3 million of cap space left over under a presumed $64 million cap to sign Ville Leino, Andreas Nodl and Darroll Powe. Also figure in the need to negotiate a deal with Larsson/Landeskog.
The available cap space above includes the salaries of Walker, Michael Leighton, Johan Backlund and Ian Laperriere. Subtract Walker and the goalies and it's a practical figure of $5.9 million of remaining cap space (not including LTIR for Laperriere) to spend this summer and become compliant with the $64 million cap by opening night.
The Flyers would lose Carter and Versteeg under that scenario but, on the flip side, would be able to resign Leino, would add Voracek to the forward corps and the promising Moore (who struggled as a pro rookie, as so many young defensemen do) to the blueline mix, and add a blue-chipper either in projected future first-paring defenseman Larsson or the gritty and potentially NHL-ready Landeskog to the forward mix.
I am not saying that I think the Flyers will, should or even would be able to do this. But it some food for hypothetical thought during Silly Season. I don't think it would put Philly in better shape on paper for a 2011-12 Cup run, but I do think it could extend the Cup window beyond the next year or two.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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