Saturday, June 21, 2008

Draft Day News

The first day of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft was unusually eventful, and the Flyers' day was no exception. Long before the first pick was even made, the Flyers reportedly signed Jeff Carter to a three-year deal worth at least $15 million (the report, made by sportsnet.ca, hasn't been confirmed yet). The deal was not as long as one might have expected, but the Flyers did a good job of getting one of their key players signed early.

Earlier in the week, Philly.com reported that according to Paul Holmgren, Derian Hatcher, even though he is scheduled to make a high $3.5 million this season, is probably going to return. Even with this in mind, the Flyers continued to build up their defensive core in the draft, selecting defenseman Luka Sbisa with their 19th overall pick. How did they get that pick, you ask? They did so by trading the rights to R.J. Umberger to the Columbus Blue Jackets for the 19th and 119th overall picks. Umberger's return seemed unlikely to start with due to the the Flyers tight cap space and abundance of forwards. With less competition in Columbus, Umberger is expected to make a big impact there.

The Flyers probably traded up because they had their eye on Sbisa, because they did away with their original first-round slot pretty quickly. They gave the pick to Washington for defenseman Steve Eminger and the 84th overall pick. Eminger has had a disappointing career thus far, but at only 24, he could still have a bright future. Eminger, like Umberger, is a restricted free agent, so the Flyers will still have to work out a deal with him.

Of course, trade rumors involving Scottie Upshall and Mike Knuble are still going around.

So, with all this taken into account, the Flyer lines, at the moment, would look something like this (future signings, re-signings, and trades aside)...

Gagne/Richards/Hartnell
Lupul/Carter/Briere
Upshall/Downie/Knuble
Giroux/Tolpecko/Cote
-----
Timonen/Coburn
Eminger/Hatcher
Kukkonen/Parent


Now, there are always the free-agents we have yet to deal with. At the moment it appears that we'll have about $3-4 million to work with here, unless we make some trades.

Restricted:
Patrick Thoresen
Stefan Ruzicka
Randy Jones
Nate Guenin

Unrestricted:
Jim Dowd
Riley Cote
Jesse Boulerice
Jason Smith
Rory Fitzpatick
Jaroslav Modry

1 comment:

Steve said...

Reggie "The Rifle" Leach

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http://www.petitiononline.com/TheRifle/petition.html

Cheers,

Steve Taylor

Riverton, Manitoba

(204)378-2873