One years ago, Buffalo's own Patrick Kane scored in overtime to beat the Philadelphia Flyers in the Stanley Cup Finals. Last month, they beat a 'coming' Sabres team before getting shellacked by the eventual Stanley Cup Champions. Not too shabby, right?
Today, according to various sources, they signed the top Free Agent goaltender in Ilya Bryzgalov to a nine-year, $51 Million contract that will make him (as of this writing, according to Sportsnet.ca 's Mark Spector) the highest paid NHL player next season at $10 Mil, and traded away center Jeff Carter to Columbus to clear up some cap room in exchange for a couple picks and a Jakub Voracek.
And they traded away Mike Richards. Their Captain.
O.O
Richards is heading West to the Los Angeles Kings for the rights to RFA Wayne Simmonds and World Junior Championship MVP Brayden Schenn. Richards was, as noted above, the Flyers captain and number one center, Carter the number two. To say that their roster has been 'shook up' is like saying that Niagara Falls is 'kinda impressive'.
And the Flyers certainly aren't done. Even if Danny Briere moves back to center, they still need another guy up the middle. With word that Brad Richards is likely looking at either the Toronto Maple Leafs or New York Rangers, it likely means more trades. There was an early word that Kris Versteeg was also moving, to Florida, but that was almost immediately poo-pooed by Panthers management. They also have the 8th overall pick in tomorrow's draft and cap room to work with.
It's going to be an incredibly exciting off season around the league, if it hasn't already gotten to that point just with these trades.
No comments:
Post a Comment