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Meltzer's Musings: Free Agency Friday |
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UPDATE 2:40 PM
Of all the Flyers' moves today, the signing of Maxime Talbot makes the most sense. He may not have Handzus' size but he is a pain to play against, kills penalties and is younger. Also the signing hurts a divisional rival.
UPDATE 2:30 PM
As a short-term stop-gap 6th or 7th defenseman at a cheap cap cost, Andreas Lilja is... well, still barely serviceable at this point of his career. I'd have preferred the club to have re-signed Sean O'Donnell.
UPDATE 1:52 PM
Jakub Voracek's new deal is a one-year contract at a reported $2.5 million. I also think that's rather high for a one-year.
UPDATE 1:30 PM
The Flyers one-year signing of Jaromir Jagr would seem to suggest that Ville Leino will not be brought back. Jagr is not the number 68 of old, but he can still put the puck in the net (as Team USA found out at the World Championships). The reported $3.3 million signing price is ludicrous, however.
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I will keep this morning's blog brief, but update it as needed during the day. There is a variety of potential moves the Flyers are considering on the first day of free agency, and much of it is contingent on how the Ville Leino negotiations turn out.
Paul Holmgren contacted Leino's agent, Bill Zito, on Tuesday and the two sides have spoken several times since then. Although a deal was not imminent as of late last night, there is still apparently a better than 50-50 chance that Leino re-signs with the Flyers even if noon comes around and he hits the unrestricted free agent market.
There is a good chance that some teams would blow the Flyers' offer to Leino out of the water. However, the teams that would are most likely to be clubs that need to add huge chunks of salary to reach the salary cap floor. As we saw with Christian Erhoff turning down more money from the New York Islanders than he accepted from the Buffalo Sabres, Leino may also be faced with a choice of going for the most money possible or playing in a winning team environment.
Of course, anything can happen once the free agency period starts. But the fact that Jussi Jokinen just resigned for 3 years at $9 million pretty much indicates about what Leino can get if he stays here. In the last two years, Jokinen has had 30-goal (2009-10) and 52--point (2010-11) campaigns. Leino had a huge 2010 playoff (which, in many ways, is of comparable monetary value as a 30-goal regular season) and a 53-point season this past year.
On the flip side, the Florida Panthers just paid Tomas Kopecky $12 million over 4 seasons, and that player has not been nearly as good as Leino or Jokinen the last two years. But Florida agreed to the inflated deal because of their need to get to the cap floor.
The Flyers also clearly have interest in Erik Cole, who is almost definite to hit the open market today. Cole, of course, is bigger and more of a power forward than Leino. He is also more of a goal-scorer than the playmaking Leino. But Cole is also five years older than Leino, would likely cost more money, and has frequently been injured in his career (although he dressed in all 82 games this past season).
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A source close to former Flyers' center Michal Handzus acknowledged late last night that the player is aware of interest from his old club in bringing him back to play a third-line center role. However, there are reportedly several other teams with varying degrees of interest as well. Handzus is going to have to take a pay cut wherever he goes (he made $4 million on the cap in his now-expired contract), but how much of a cut he takes depends on the offers that come in, and would affect the Flyers' ability to sign him.
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Yesterday afternoon, a rumor spread like wildfire that the Flyers were going to put in a last-moment bid for Jaromir Jagr. It was said the team would at least put in an offer to his agent Peter (not Petr, the ex-Flyer) Svoboda.
However, with a growing belief that Jagr would only be using a Flyers offer to drive up the price in Pittsburgh (or Montreal or Detroit), the team's interest may have cooled.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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