Chris Pronger is arguably one of the best defensive defensemen in the league.

His talent and production in all three zones makes him irreplaceable in the Flyers lineup. The only positive with this injury is that he will be better rested for the long playoff haul.

The Flyers, like every other team in the NHL facing injuries, have backup plans for their team. Let's take a look at five of those potential backup plans to replace to production of Pronger.

Nick Boynton

Nick Boynton is not the best defender in the league, but he doesn’t have to be with the Flyers.

He just has to be good enough to fill in at the sixth defender position and eat up some regulation time minutes.
Boynton is solid enough on the ice to where he isn’t a liability and his Stanley Cup experience is something you can’t teach.


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According to TSN’s Bob McKenzie, the Flyers have placed defenseman Matt Walker on waivers on Thursday.

Walker, 30, dressed in only four games for the orange and black after being acquired in the Simon Gagne trade from Tampa Bay. He didn’t register any points.

With Chris Pronger back from injury, it was only a matter of time before the Flyers deemed it best to waive Walker and his heavy $1.7 million cap hit.

What this means for the Flyers is that they’re content with their depth at the NHL level with Oskars Bartulis being their seventh defenseman, but they would like to keep Walker in the system.

Should Walker clear waivers, he’ll be assigned to the Adirondack Phantoms.

It also may be a sign that the Flyers plan to being active at this year’s trade deadline, which is Feb. 28th at 3 PM.

The Flyers can afford a player with a yearly cap hit around $3 million per Dustin Leed of The Fourth Period.

Another possibility is that a contract extension with pending free agent Ville Leino could be in the fold sometime in the near future.

Because the Flyers weren’t forced to dump salary, it’s safe to speculate that general manager Paul Holmgren is up to something.

What it is, however, nobody knows.
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Coming into the 2010-11 NHL season, hockey bloggers and writers around the puck universe made preseason predictions on just about every aspect of the game.

Who's going to win the Stanley Cup, who's going to represent each conference in the Finals, will Henrik Sedin repeat as the Hart Memorial winner (awarded to the League's most valuable player).

So on and so on.

Each category had it's favorites. For example, many believed the Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, Detroit Red Wings and Vancouver Canucks were all heavy favorites to win their respected conferences.

That brings us to the subject at hand: the James Norris Memorial Trophy.

Of course, "experts" pegged Detroit's Niklas Lidstrom, Los Angeles' Drew Doughty, Philadelphia's Chris Pronger and defending Norris' winner Chicago's Duncan Keith as the preseason favorites.

No one would have thought that Andrej Meszaros would be putting together one heck for a case for the Norris Trophy halfway through the season.


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With Pronger back, the Flyers are elite in the east.


Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren released an injury update for defenseman Chris Pronger, who has been out of action since mid-December with a broken first metatarsal bone in his right foot.

Pronger underwent a CAT scan on Tuesday by Dr. Steve Raikin, and the results came back positive for the Flyers.

Holmgren said that the 36-year-old has been cleared for light skating tomorrow, and will be re-evaluated on Jan. 12th.

It has been three weeks since Pronger had surgery to repair the bone. He was scheduled to miss four-to-six weeks. The likelihood that he returns to game action next week is highly unlikely.

The Flyers could be aiming for mid-to-late January.

Pronger has 15 points in 31 games in his second year with Philadelphia. He’s a plus-six, and has 24 penalty minutes. He is third among Flyers defenseman in points behind his partner in crime Matty Carle (18) and Kimmo Timonen (16).

The Flyers have been using 23-year-old Oskars Bartulis, who is a minus-three in nine games.

For the most part, the Flyers have managed without their anchor on the blue line, but that’s because of the play of Andrej Meszaros. In the six games without Pronger, Meszaros has two points, a plus-six rating and is averaging 21:21 minutes of ice time.

On the season, Meszaros has 14 points in 38 games and leads the NHL in plus/minus with a +25 rating.

Without Pronger so far this season, the Flyers are 4-3-1.
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Pronger had surgery on Friday to repair broken toe.


For the first time this season, the Philadelphia Flyers are going to have to handle some adversity.

Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren confirmed a TSN report that defenseman Chris Pronger will miss 4-6 weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a broken first metatarsal bone in his right foot. Pronger suffered the injury in the second period on Wednesday's 5-3 win in Montreal.

In 31 games, Pronger has four goals and 11 assists. He's a plus-4 with 24 penalty minutes, and had just start looking like the Chris Pronger of last year.

The 36-year-old anchor missed all of preseason and the team's first two games because of a surgically repaired right knee. When it was announced that he had a "lower-body injury" on Wednesday night, many wondered if he re-injured his knee.

That's the good news, it's not his knee, however the bad news is, well, he's going to miss up to a month.

Without Pronger in the lineup, the orange and black will turn to 23-year-old Oskars Bartulis, who hasn't played since Nov. 1. Bartulis will be paired with 39-year-old Sean O'Donnell while Andrej Meszaros will replace Pronger on the team's top pairing with Matt Carle.

Bartulis has played three games this year, registering no points, two penalty minutes and a +1 rating.

For the Flyers, the schedule helps them out a bit. In the next four weeks, they'll play 11 games; 17 games the next six weeks. At the same time, they'll be without their top defenseman for their west coast trip that includes games in Vancouver, Los Angeles, Anaheim and Detroit.

It's going to be a big test to how good this team really is, but Holmgren has put this team in very good position to be able to withstand a month without their best defenseman.

Can the Flyers survive without Pronger in the lineup?

For sure.
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Pronger being called for unsportsmanlike conduct.


During the 2008 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, with the New York Rangers on a 5-on-3 power play against the New Jersey Devils in the second period of a Game 3 tied game, Rangers pest Sean Avery parked himself as a screen, facing Devils goalie Martin Brodeur only to begin moving his arms back and forth.

Later in his shift, Avery would score a goal to put the Rangers up 2-1, however his antics led to the league implementing a rule change which was an interpretation of Rule 75, better known as the "Sean Avery" rule.

Senior Vice President and Director of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell released the following statement:

"An unsportsmanlike conduct minor penalty (Rule 75) will be interpreted and applied, effective immediately, to a situation when an offensive player positions himself facing the opposition goaltender and engages in actions such as waving his arms or stick in front of the goaltender’s face, for the purpose of improperly interfering with and/or distracting the goaltender as opposed to positioning himself to try to make a play."

During the overtime portion of the Flames' 4-3 shootout win over Philadelphia in a Black Friday matinee, Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger was whistled for unsportsmanlike conduct that took away what should have been the game-winning goal scored by Mike Richards.

With Calgary's Mark Giordano in the sin bin for holding the stick, Pronger was positioned in front the net with his back turned to from Flames goalkeeper Miikka Kiprusoff as the orange and black set the power play up. Pronger took his hand of his stick to call for a shot, which moments later, Richards fired the puck into the cage.

But Don Vanmassenhoven immediately waived the goal off for reasons beyond everyone at the Wells Fargo Center.

Richards didn’t think Pronger was doing anything to attempt to further screen Kiprusoff, instead he said that Pronger was calling for the puck.

"I saw Prongs call for the puck. I knew he wanted it," Richards said after the game. "As I was walking up, he made the motion that he was by himself, which he was, and it was more of a shot for his stick. I just tried to float it in there. He missed it, and then it went in."

When Pronger was asked after the game by reporters what happened, he said:

"The puck went into the net and that [wave] was five seconds before the puck went into the net. I wasn’t turned around at him, waving in his face. I was right here, put my arm out and put my arm back on my stick and the puck went into the net."

Not to mention, seconds before the puck going into the net, Kipper had a good slash to Pronger's leg, which was not a penalty to Vanmassenhoven. That's some food for thought.

The biggest beef with the call was that it was whistled late rather than when the act actually took place. In other words, because the Flyers scored, the refs decided to waive off the goal and send Pronger to the penalty box. The result of the play was the reason for the call.

Had the Flyers not have scored on the shot, would Vanmassenhoven called Pronger for unsportsmanlike conduct? More likely, no, but the act alone was not enough to warrant a penalty.

"I know why there is a rule that got put in place for that," Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette said, "but Chris Pronger is looking out at the shot, like it was going to be called or should have been called right away and not three or four seconds afterwards. If you’re going to call that, then I guess call it right away."

Let's go back to the statement released after the Avery incident a couple years, Campbell directly said "when an offensive player positions himself facing the opposition goaltender." Pronger wasn't facing Kiprusoff when the penalty was called, therefore a bad interpretation of Rule 75 by Vanmassenhoven.

If the interpretation of the rule says that "an offensive player positions himself facing the opposition goaltender," shouldn’t it be legal for an offensive player to position himself with his back turned to the opposition goaltender like Pronger was?

You should not be able to call a penalty on Pronger for the "Sean Avery" rule when the rule is set in stone that a player has to be facing the goalie, when Pronger was not. Just look at what happened when the Avery debacle occurred. The officials couldn’t call anything on Avery because he wasn’t doing anything against the rules.

Neither was Pronger.

By rule, a player can position himself in front of the goalie with his back turned away from the net. If it’s not written in stone, then you can’t call it.

Here's where it gets fishy: the "Sean Avery" rule is not actually listed as a part of Rule 75. What we're going on is strictly Campbell's interpretation of the rule in 2008, have things changed since then that we don't know about?

Vanmassenhoven declined to comment after the game, which Pronger responded to reporters when asked:

"Because they know they screwed up, that’s why."
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Meszaros has been a welcomed addition in Philadelphia.


When the Philadelphia Flyers acquired defenseman Andrej Meszaros from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for a 2012 second round draft choice, I was a little skeptical at the price tag surrounding the underachieving blue liner.

Meszaros, 25, scored eight goals and 25 assists in two very disappointing seasons with Tampa Bay where he was a -18 in 133 games.

At first glance, he didn’t present a huge upgrade to the Flyers defensive unit while carrying a bigger cap hit than Lukas Krajicek, Ryan Parent and Oskars Bartulis.

The Slovakian defender was two years into a six year, $24 million contract extension ($4 million cap hit) that he signed after the Lightning acquired him from Ottawa in August of 2008.

Tampa Bay paid a steep price to obtain Meszaros from the Senators in the first place, parting ways with defenseman Filip Kuba and Alexandre Picard, and the San Jose Sharks’ 2009 first round draft pick.

Technically, Tampa only acquired the negotiating rights to Meszaros since he was a restricted free agent, however then-general manager Brian Lawton quickly signed him to his lucrative deal.

Lawton has since been relieved of his duties as Tampa’s GM, and former Detroit Red Wings great Steve Yzerman has taken over the reins as the signal caller for the Lightning.

Part of Yzerman’s gameplan for turning the Tampa organization around was moving bad contracts.

Meszaros was his first victim.

The Flyers came calling, parting ways with their 2012 second round pick.

In general manager Paul Holmgren’s eyes, Meszaros was the best fit for the Flyers.

Holmgren had the option to either wait until noon to try to convince a big name free agent like an Anton Volchenkov or Paul Martin to come to Philadelphia, or pull the trigger to acquire Meszaros.

Fans called for Volchenkov, Holmgren went with what he thought was best for the team, trading for Meszaros.

To make matters worse for the perception of the trade was that Homer gave up his second round pick in 2012. A very valuable pick for someone who hadn’t lived up to his $4 million per season salary.

Fifteen games into the regular season, Meszaros is quickly proving that he’s worth the cap hit and the pick it took to acquire him.

The 6’2″, 223-pound defenseman has three assists in 14 games this season. He’s third on the Flyers in plus/minus with a +5 rating, and has only four penalty minutes.

Meszaros is contributing to all game situations for Peter Laviolette, and is earning more responsibility with each passing day. He’s playing on power play, and killing penalties for the 10th ranked PK unit.

One of the biggest needs of the Flyers was a fifth defenseman who could play at least 15 minutes a game. Thus far, Meszaros is averaging 18:03 per game. He’s playing 2:12 on the power play per game, and 2:34 on the penalty kill per game.

That’s a significant upgrade from 16 minutes per game Krajicek was contributing to the Flyers last season. And that’s not factoring the 10 minutes he played per game in the playoffs.

The Flyers wanted to acquire more defense so their top defenders Chris Pronger and Kimmo Timonen didn’t have to play more than 25 minutes a game.

So far, Holmgren’s plan is working out tremendously.

Pronger is averaging only 21:49 per game, significantly lower than his 25:55 he played per game last season. Timonen leads the Flyers defense in ice time, averaging 23:13 per game, which actually more than what he averaged last year.

For the Flyers, acquiring Meszaros may have been their best acquisition of the offseason.

Of course, that’s because they signed goalie Sergei Bobrovsky near the end of last season.
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Bobrovsky will start in place of the injured Leighton.


Philadelphia Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette told the Flyers official website that 22-year-old rookie phenom Sergei Bobrovsky will start in net for the Flyers against the Pittsburgh Penguins in their season opener.

Bobrovsky was the best goalie in the preseason for the Flyers while posting a 1.76 goals-against average and .939 save percentage with a 3-0-1 record. He will make his NHL debut against Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin later on tonight.

It’s a tough break for Brian Boucher, who told Philadelphia Inquirer’s Sam Carchidi that he “was shocked” about the decision to start Bobrovsky. Boucher was expected to be the starter in the absence of Michael Leighton, who is out at least a month with a bulging disc in his back.

By no means did Boucher play bad in the preseason, or lose the job to Bobrovsky. In fact, he had about the same save percentage as Bob. It’s all about how well Bob has played.

The Sergei Bobrovsky era has begun in Philadelphia. They’re throwing this kid into fire against one of the elite teams in the NHL, let’s see how he reacts.

In other news regarding tonight’s opener in Pittsburgh, Chris Pronger (knee) remains a game-time decision, however there are reports surfacing that he is out. Oskars Bartulis will be in the lineup while Matt Walker will take a seat in the press box.

For the Penguins, former Flyer Arron Asham has been placed on injured reserve with a shoulder injury, meaning there’s no chance for fight with his former mates. Defenseman Kris Letang is a game-time decision due to an illness.
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The Flyers have league's best defense, led by Pronger.


With NHL training camps set to open up in the coming weeks, we're going to start off the preseason fun with a season preview of the Philadelphia Flyers.

2009-10: 41-35-6 (7th in East, Stanley Cup Finals appearance)
General Manager: Paul Holmgren (4th Season)
Head Coach: Peter Laviolette (1st Full Season)

Arrivals:

The Philadelphia Flyers have been one of the NHL's most aggressive teams in the offseason despite being strapped by the salary cap, as usual.

General Manager Paul Holmgren made it a point to build the best defense possible in front of goalie Michael Leighton, who re-signed for two years after earning the right to compete for the starting job, by acquiring blue liners Andrej Meszaros and Matt Walker from Tampa Bay in separate trades.

Meszaros should add another defenseman with top-four potential with the ability to move the puck, and score from the point, but his best asset is his physical presence. In 81 games with the Lightning, the 6'2", 223 lbs. Meszaros led the team with 112 hits.

The 24-year-old also isn't afraid to block shots, an important part of the game that the Flyers stress in their defenseman as he blocked 108 offerings last year.

Enough about his defense, Meszaros is an excellent puck-moving defenseman with a big shot from the point. He will give coach Peter Laviolette another option to use on the power play.

In two seasons with the Bolts, Meszaros recorded 33 points (8 G, 25 A) in 133 games. If he can produce like he did with Ottawa (110 points in 246 games), the Flyers will be heavily rewarded with Meszaros as their fifth defense.

One thing is for certain, he's an upgrade over Ryan Parent, Oskars Bartulis, and Lukas Krajicek.

Walker, who was acquired in the Simon Gagne trade, figures to be the team's seventh defenseman if Holmgren decides not to bury his $1.7 million cap hit in the American Hockey League.

The 30-year-old Walker is stay-at-home defenseman with a right-handed shot and tremendous size, standing at 6'4", 215 lbs. Walker had 82 hits in 66 games last season to finish the season third on the Lightning.

Like his Tampa Bay teammate, Walker has shown that he's not afraid to block shots as he was tied with Mattias Ohlund on Tampa with 116 block shots in one fewer game than Ohlund.

In seven seasons in the NHL, Walker has four goals and 26 assists to his name in 306 games with the St. Louis Blues, Chicago Blackhawks and the Lightning.

Whether Walker is still on the roster come opening night is still up in air, he does provide some defensive depth to a team who's third pairing really hurt their chances in the Final against Chicago.

The Flyers also upgraded the defense via free agency when Sean O'Donnell signed a one-year, $1.3 million contract to play with his 2007 Cup winning teammate Chris Pronger, and provide a steady sixth defenseman for the Orange 'n' Black.

O'Donnell, 38, appeared in 78 games with the Los Angeles Kings in 2009-10, compiling 15 points (3G, 12 A) and 70 PIM with a plus/minus rating of +14.

A 15-year veteran, the Flyers will be O'Donnell's seventh team as he has suited up for the Kings, Minnesota Wild, New Jersey Devils, Boston Bruins and the Ducks. He has made two Stanley Cup appearances; winning the Cup with Anaheim (2007) and with the Devils (2001).

O.D. should provide a solid sixth defenseman with some miles on the tank, which is a good thing. With good size (6'2'', 237 lbs.), O'Donnell is another stay-at-home defenseman willing to drop his gloves. He adds toughness to the bottom six, something Parent, Krajicek or Bartulis didn't bring to the table.

Defense wasn't the only thing on Holmgren's mind in the offseason as he has made a couple moves up front. Most notably was signing unrestricted free agent forward Nikolai Zherdev to a one-year deal.

Zherdev will add something lacking from the Flyers lineup for many years, pure offensive skill. The former No. 4 overall pick by Columbus, Zherdev is one of the most offensively gifted individuals in the world in terms of pure skill with blazing speed and outstanding stick handling.

He played in Russia last year and returns to North America to prove that he has matured. Thought of as a lazy, selfish player, Zherdev has something to prove to his peers.

In 52 games with Atlant Moscow Oblast of the KHL, the 25-year-old winger recorded 13 goals and 26 assists. Playing for the New York Rangers, Zherdev tallied 58 points (23G, 35A) and 39 PIM.

If Zherdev pays off like the Flyers believe he will, Holmgren will be compensated for another low risk, high reward move. Zherdev will be playing on the team's first line, most likely with Mike Richards centering him and either Jeff Carter or Claude Giroux manning the other wing.

The Flyers added tough guy Jody Shelley to a three-year, $3.3 million contract. A very questionable move, Shelley will carry a $1.1 million cap hit to sit in the press box for a good portion of the season.

Shelley, 34, played in 57 games in the 2009-10 season with the San Jose Sharks and the Rangers, scoring only two goals and seven assists. His two goals came against the Flyers in the last two games of the season.

A good locker room presence, Shelley will play the role of protector on the Flyers while he may see a significant increase in ice time per game. He has never averaged over eight minutes per game in his career, but this may be his first season getting 10 minutes of ice time.

In simple words, the Flyers have replaced the low paid Riley Cote, who sat in the press box almost every night, for a million dollar spectator for half the games.



Departures:

As much as Holmgren wanted to build the best defense he possibly could, it came at a cost.

A major blow to the team, and the fan base.

The Flyers traded away their longest tenured player in Simon Gagne in what basically was a salary dump. Despite acquiring Walker from the Lightning along with a fourth round draft pick, Philadelphia didn't receive fair value for Gagne.

Gagne is ninth in goals (259), 10th in points (524),sixth the in game-winning goals (47) and tied first with Eric Lindros in overtime goals (5) in Flyers franchise history.

Losing Gagne is a tough pill to swallow, but it's something that the Flyers had no other choice. By signing Zherdev, and committing $8.4 million to O'Donnell, Zherdev, Shelley and Meszaros, everyone knew someone was going to fall casualty to the cap.

It was either Jeff Carter or Gagne, and the latter's time was up.

For the Flyers, Gagne was the only significant loss as Arron Asham and Krajicek were not retained; Asham signed with the Penguins while Krajicek remains a free agent, and Parent was traded to Nashville.



Biggest Question:

It's all about the goalie.

Michael Leighton was spectacular for the Flyers during the regular season, posting a 16-5-2 record with a 2.48 goals against average and a .918 save percentage. Taking over for the injured Ray Emery, Leighton shocked the hockey world by showing that may be more than the journeyman he had been.

In the playoffs, Leighton was good. Coming in relief of an injured Brian Boucher, Leights had a 1.33 GAA against the Boston Bruins, helping the Flyers comeback from a 3-0 series deficit to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Against the Montreal Canadiens, Leighton was superb as he blanked the Canadiens three times in five games. At the end of the day, 29-year-old allowed seven goals on 140 shots faced (1.41 GAA, .950 SV%).

Then came the Finals where Leighton struggled big time. In six games against the Chicago Blackhawks, Leighton allowed 20 goals on 161 shots faced (3.96 GAA, .876 SV%). He was pulled twice in the series, both times in Chicago.

The Flyers lost in six games to the Blackhawks, and their Stanley Cup drought goes on. It has been 35 years since Philadelphia last hoisted Lord Stanley's Cup.

While Leighton was terrible versus Chicago, it wasn't all his fault. The Blackhawks physically and mentally dominated the Flyers in all their victories. And in their losses, they still put up a good challenge.

Philly's defense was a non-factor against the Hawks, the biggest reason why they reached the Final in the first place. Leighton was good against the Habs, but it was due to the defense absolutely shutting Montreal out every night.

The Flyers had no third pair to use against Chicago, and had to overuse Chris Pronger, Kimmo Timonen, Braydon Coburn and Matt Carle. Their third pair consisted of two of the following: Ryan Parent, Oskars Bartulis and Lukas Krajicek.

That will be different in 2010-11 as Holmgren has significantly upgraded the Flyers defense with the additions of Meszaros, O'Donnell and Walker. By doing so, Holmgren has put all the burden on Leighton's shoulder for the coming season.

There's no more excuses for Leighton.

Leighton has to continue to improve as an NHL goalie; he earned the right to be Philadelphia's No. 1 goalie with his play in the regular season and playoffs.

It's all on you, Leighton.



Rookies to Watch in 2010-11:

The good news for the Flyers is that they will not be relying on rookies to contribute to the team this season as they have their opening night roster pretty much locked up.



The bad news is Kevin Marshall will have to wait another year for his shot at the NHL.

Marshall, 21, is ready to make the jump to the NHL, however there's no room for him on the Flyers' blue line. Marshall is a hard-working, stay-at-home defenseman who moves the puck efficiently and skates very well according to scouting reports.

Drafted in the 2nd round of the 2007 NHL Draft, Marshall turned heads in last year's training camp but disappointed the Flyers front office by not playing very well with the Adirondack Phantoms.

In 75 games with the Phantoms, the 6'1", 207 lbs. Marshall posted nine points (2G, 7A) and 80 PIM.

Besides Marshall, the Flyers do not have many players who have a chance of making the team out of training camp. One other possibility is Mike Testwuide, who is a power forward right winger with good size (6'3", 216 lbs.).

Testwuide is a good skater, and has a good scoring touch. The chances of him beating out Darroll Powe, Dan Carcillo, Shelley or any other Flyers forward in camp are slim to none.



Prediction:

As hard as it is for team who lose in the Stanley Cup to make it back to the Finals in the following year, I believe the Flyers have as good as a chance as anyone to get back to playing hockey in June.

The Flyers are not built for the regular season so don't expect them to finish in the top-three of the Eastern Conference, however expect them to make it back to postseason.

In the playoffs, the Flyers have the defense and the scoring to repeat as Conference Champions, but it's up to the goaltending to bring home the team's first Stanley Cup since 1975.
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