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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The Philadelphia Flyers may not be playing their best hockey right now but their season overall has been excellent.

In all of the talk about the depth of the team -- the defense, the goalie situation and all the new acquisitions -- Flyers forward Jeff Carter has been overshadowed.

Maybe it's better that way.

The Flyers signed Carter to an 11-year extension worth $58 million on Nov. 12. Carter was scheduled to become a restricted free agent on July 1. He has rewarded the Flyers with his stellar play this season and has regained his scoring touch in the second half of the season.

The season didn't start off great for Carter but he has 15 goals in his last 23 games and looks to get hot in time for another deep playoff run.

"We don’t like how last year ended," Jeff Carter said. "We have to work harder to win it all."


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Without Chris Pronger in the lineup, the Philadelphia Flyers found a way to win back-to-back games for the first time in nine games as they escaped the ACC Centre with a 3-2 victory on Thursday night.

Claude Giroux and his line contributed a goal and three assists while Brian Boucher stopped 27 of 29 shots as the Flyers pushed their lead in the Eastern Conference to four points over the Boston Bruins.

Giroux scored his 22^nd goal of the season at 14:40 in the second period when he fired a touch pass from James van Riemsdyk into an open net. Giroux's goal turned out to be the game winner.

He's the Flyers' leading scorer with 63 points.

In the first period, Giroux picked up an assist on Andrej Meszaros' power play tally at 4:55. With the power play set up, Giroux fed Meszaros a one-timing pass with traffic in front of Toronto goalie James Reimer.

The goal was Meszaros' sixth of the season.


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Philadelphia Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren apparently likes first place so much he's willing to do whatever it takes to stay there.

He made that quite apparent with the announcement today that the Flyers have traded for 24-year old Toronto Maple Leafs forward Kris Versteeg. In exchange, Holmgren sent Toronto the Flyers' first and third-round picks next year.

Versteeg is a guy the Flyers saw last season in the Stanley Cup finals when they played the Chicago Blackhawks. Chicago then traded Versteeg to the Maple Leafs in a five-player trade last year at the end of June.

In 53 games this season, Versteeg has contributed 14 goals and 21 assists.


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If you’re following the NHL in 2010-11, you’re hearing about the stellar years that Steven Stamkos, Sidney Crosby, and Daniel Sedin are having.

Sedin leads the league with 69 points while Stamkos is the league leader in goals (39) and is second to Sedin in points (68). Crosby is second in goals (32), third in points (66).

Heck, you’ll even hear about Danny Briere on the national level. Briere, who carried the team offensively during their Stanley Cup run last spring, has tickled the twine 26 times this year, good for sixth in the NHL.

But you’re not hearing about Jeff Carter.

Carter, who signed an 11-year, $58 million contract extension in November, is quietly putting together an outstanding season.

The 26-year-old forward has 25 goals and 23 assists for 48 points in 53 games; second on the team in points behind the team leader Claude Giroux.


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According to CSNPhilly.com’s Tim Panaccio and the Inquirer’s Sam Carchidi, the Philadelphia Flyers are interested in Carolina’s right winger Erik Cole.

Cole carries a $2.9 million cap hit, and can become an unrestricted free agent on July 1 when his contract with the Hurricanes expires.

The Flyers can afford to add a player with a yearly cap hit around $3 million after placing defenseman Matt Walker ($1.7 million) on waivers Thursday.

At the NHL All-Star break, the Canes are only one point out of a playoff spot. General manager Jim Rutherford will not trade Cole if he feels his team has a chance at the playoffs.

If the Hurricanes fall out of contention between now and the trade deadline, which is one month from tomorrow, the Flyers could make a run at Cole.

How would Cole fit in with the orange and black?


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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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Holmgren will be Flyers' GM for next three years.


According to Anthony SanFilippo, the Philadelphia Flyers are going to announce a three-year, $4.5 million contract extension with general manager Paul Holmgren on Thursday.

Holmgren, 55, replaced long-time GM Bobby Clarke after Clarke announced his resignation during the 2006-07. At the time, the Flyers were in the midst of their worst season in franchise history and head coach Ken Hitchock was fired.

It didn’t take long for Holmgren to turn the ship around.

When Philadelphia promoted him from assistant general manager to interim general manager, the Flyers were in last place and had little to no promise moving forward. It was the same story.

The core consisted of mostly veteran players with a mix of youngsters. The defense was old, and slow while the goaltending was poor. Mike Richards and Jeff Carter were in their second seasons, and weren’t progressing the way they wanted under Hitchock.

Holmgren recognized that changes had to be made in order to turn the Flyers into a Stanley Cup contender, which he accomplished in each of his first full seasons as the general manager. It all started with the acquisitions of Braydon Coburn from Atlanta, Scott Hartnell, Kimmo Timonen and Scottie Upshall from Nashville.

Wouldn’t you know, the Flyers had an Eastern Conference Finals showdown with the Pittsburgh Penguins the very next season.

Under Holmgren’s watch, the orange and black have an Conference Finals championship under their belt and have the best record in the East midway through this season. As it stands right now, it looks like another deep playoff run is in the books.

So what exactly has Holmgren done as the GM?

He has acquired Chris Pronger, Matt Carle, Ville Leino, Andrej Meszaros, Dan Carcillo and Matt Walker via trade while bringing in Danny Briere, Sean O’Donnell, Brian Boucher, Sergei Bobrovsky, Blair Betts, Ian Laperriere, Jody Shelley, Michael Leighton, Ray Emery and Nikolay Zherdev as free agent signings.

Holmgren has locked up his core for the next decade with a 12-year deal for Mike Richards and a 10-year contract for Jeff Carter. He’s inked emerging star Claude Giroux to a three-year pact this year.

While he has been an aggressive and creative general manager, Holmgren’s best acquisition is head coach Peter Laviolette. Since Laviolette has taken over the Flyers, they’ve been among the elite in the NHL.

With the extension, Holmgren will be the GM until the 2013-14 season.
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Shelley has been much more than just a fighter.


When Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren signed 34-year-old enforcer Jody Shelley to a three-year, $3.3 million contract, there was an outbreak by the fans about paying a fighter $1.1 million per season.

Shelley, who scored only two goals in 57 games with the San Jose Sharks and New York Rangers last year, was added to the orange and black’s roster to drop his gloves and bring a sheriff to the lineup lacking a true authoritarian.

For the last couple of years, the Flyers had been utilizing Riley Cote as the enforcer. While Cote played the role well, getting in 65 fights in four seasons with the Flyers, but was not a good hockey player.

Cote was a terrible skater with little to none hockey skills. He played no more than four minutes a game in his stint with Philadelphia.

In 156 games in the NHL, Cote scored only one goal and had seven career points. To be frank, some goalies have more career points than Cote. For example, former Flyers goalie Martin Biron has four more points than Cote.

Playing in only 15 games last year, it was quite clear that the Flyers had no plans going forward with Cote as a player, and Cote decided to hang up the skates to join the Adirondack Phantoms in a coaching position.

However, despite Cote retiring, paying Shelley $1.1 million to serve as the team’s enforcer didn’t go over well in Flyerdom. In today’s age of hockey, a need for a fighter is not needed as much as it was five, six years ago.

With the game wanting more offense, the NHL has made several rule changes over the years to protect players and change the image that hockey is fighting on skates. By doing so, fighters have become a thing of the past. Not every team has an enforcer on their roster, but they still do serve a purpose.

Fighting is still a major aspect of the game, and despite the attempts by the critics, it will not be removed from the game. It’s how the players police the game, and if you take it out, more serious consequences could occur.

In spite of having Dan Carcillo on the roster, Holmgren came to the conclusion that the Flyers needed someone who could intimidate opponents. Shelley was his target.

A nine year vet, Shelley was acquired by the Rangers for a 2011 sixth round draft pick in February of 2010. Prior to being traded to New York, Shelley had no points in 36 games with the Sharks, however he recorded six points (two goals, four assists) in 21 games with the Blue Shirts.

Before going to San Jose, Shelley spent six-plus years playing for the Columbus Blue Jackets where he compiled 1025 penalty minutes.

While he hasn’t won over the fan base yet, Shelley is proving to be a good signing by Holmgren. The price tag may be a rad rich for everyone’s liking, but he’s playing the role of “enforcer” as good as anyone in the league.

Shelley, who has seven fights in 38 games with the Flyers, knows when to drop the gloves and when not to. That’s huge for a team because sometimes, it’s best not to fight. For instance, with a three goal lead against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.

Not only does Shelley know how and when to fight, he also is a hard working player. He doesn’t skate around looking for fights, but rather plays his position rather well and delivers hits when they’re available.

On a line with Blair Betts and Darroll Powe or Carcillo, Shelley averages around six minutes a game. Playing on the fourth line, Shelley has the trust of head coach Peter Laviolette, something that Cote never was able to gain.

His hard work pays off every once in awhile as it did against Atlanta a couple games ago. After blocking a shot in the defensive zone, Shelley skated up the sideboards all alone before sniping Thrashers’ goalie Ondrej Pavelec.

The Flyers are paying him to win fights, not score goals, but whenever he lights the lamp, it’s a welcomed addition.

Just like Shelley has been to the Flyers.
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Langenbrunner could be a valuable piece for Philly.


It has been a season to forget for the New Jersey Devils as they sit in last place in all of hockey with only 22 points and 10 wins—as horrendous as the Phantoms have been this year, Adirondack still has more wins than the Devils in less games.

Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello appears to have reached the point where he’s decided it’s time to shake things up a bit. According to Rich Chere of the Star Ledger, Lamoriello has asked his captain Jamie Langenbrunner, who was a healthy scratch on Thursday against Philadelphia, to waive his no-trade clause.

The Flyers are one of “several teams” to have interest in the 35-year-old right wing, and are offering New Jersey two draft picks—a third and fifth rounder as reported by the Inquirer’s Sam Carchidi.

Langenbrunner carries with him a $2.8 million cap hit, and will become an unrestricted free agent at the conclusion of the 2010-11 season. If you’re wondering if the orange and black have enough room to bring him into the fold, the answer is yes.

The Flyers have $3.6 million in acquisition space available; they only have $413,000 in cap space, however they’re permitted to to add a full season cap hit to the current roster because long-term injured reserve is factored into the total (per Capgeek.com).

Langenbrunner, who has been the New Jersey’s captain for the last three-plus years, isn’t having the best of seasons, but then again who is for the Devils? In 31 games, the Minnesotan has four goals and 10 assists for 14 points and is a brutal minus-15 this year.

It’s believed that he wants to stay on the East Coast.

Why are the Flyers interested in Langenbrunner?

Pretty simple: playoff experience, depth and one heck of a resume.

Langenbrunner has 232 goals and 388 assists in 996 games in his 15-year NHL career. He has four 20-goal seasons under his belt, and has won two Stanley Cups—one with Dallas in 1999 and New Jersey in 2003. In terms of playoff experience, Langenbrunner has played in 137 postseason games and has 86 points.

The Flyers, who were a Michael Leighton five-hole save away from possibly extending the Stanley Cup Finals to a Game 7 in Chicago, could always use another veteran leader to use in the playoffs. Remember the role Billy Guerin was going to fill when he signed a tryout deal with the team during the preseason? Langenbrunner would fill those shoes.

On paper, depth up front is not a necessity for Philly as they’re already very deep up front. With three solid lines in place already, adding Langenbrunner would only create a bigger logjam for coach Peter Laviolette. Considering Dan Carcillo, Jody Shelley and Nikolay Zherdev are already rotating press box duties, two of the three would become healthy scratches for each game.

That is unless Flyers GM Paul Holmgren decides to waive or trade one of Carcillo, Shelley or Zherdev.

Should the Flyers acquire Langenbrunner, he would be a huge upgrade at right wing. He brings another scoring option despite a miserable season thus far, and a winger who can play Laviolette’s system. He can play in all aspects of the game, and back checks very well.

Imagine a line consisting of Andreas Nodl, Mike Richards and Langenbrunner. Talk about one heck of a shutdown line with some scoring touch to boot.

If Holmgren can pull off this deal, it will go down as another positive mark on his resume as general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers.
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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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With Bob and Boucher, Leighton was the odd man out.


Wouldn’t you know, Michael Leighton finds himself in a familiar situation.

Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren placed the 29-year-old Leighton on waivers on Monday after not being able to find any takers via the trade market according to the team’s twitter account.

With the emergence of 22-year-old rookie Sergei Bobrovsky and the solid play from 34-year-old veteran Brian Boucher, it should come to no surprise that Leighton was the odd man out in the orange and black’s crease.

If there was any surprise, it’s that they placed him on waivers rather than trying to seriously find a trade partner for him. With Tampa Bay acquiring Dwayne Roloson, the list of teams that are in need of goaltending became shorter and thus made it a lot easier for Holmgren to place Leighton on waivers.

The Flyers hope he clears waivers so they can send him to Adirondack.

The only team that could be a threat to claim Leighton is the New York Islanders, who traded away Roloson. Their current goalie situation consists of Rick DiPietro and 27-year-old rookie Nathan Lawson. The Islanders (11-19-6) have $19,070,347 in cap space (per capgeek.com), and could easily afford Leighton’s $1.555 million salary.

Leighton played in one game for the Flyers after returning from back surgery earlier in the season to repair a herniated disc. He let in four goals in a 7-4 win against the Kings. Despite earning the victory, Leighton was awful.

What this means for the Flyers is that Boucher and Bobrovsky have earned the trust from the coaching staff and front office to be the team’s netminders. Who gets the most starts from this point forward is still in question, but at this time, Boucher has moved into the No. 1 spot on the depth chart.

Then again, we all know Bobrovsky is not a backup goalie.
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Gustafsson could make his NHL debut this Thursday.


According to Frank Seravalli of the Philadelphia Daily News, the Flyers have recalled 22-year-old rookie defenseman Erik Gustafsson from Adirondack. Gustafsson leads the Phantoms in points (26) and assists (22) in 33 games.

Gustafsson could make his NHL debut on Thursday in Los Angeles as the orange and black continue their crucial west coast swing against the Kings if defenseman Kimmo Timonen cannot play.

Timonen suffered an injury in Tuesday’s loss to the Canucks. No update has been released on his injury status has of yet.

The decision to call up Gustafsson over former Flyer Danny Syvret, who was reacquired via trade with Anaheim earlier in the season, is a little surprising considering a few factors.

Syvret, 25, played in 21 games with the Flyers last season. You may know him as the lone Flyer to score a goal in the 2010 Bridgestone Winter Classic. He had two goals and two assists for four points for Philly.

In six games this year, Syvret has one goal and one assist while playing for the Ducks. Since being acquired in November, Syvret has 11 points (5 goals, 6 assists) in 14 games for the Phantoms.

Another reason why he made sense is because he earns $300,000 less than Gustafsson. Although the Flyers have roughly under $2 million in cap space, Syvret also has NHL experience over the offensively gifted Gustafsson, who makes $900,000 counting against the cap.
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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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Zherdev could be on his way out of Philadelphia.


For the first time since he suffered a sprained knee against Ottawa last month, Dan Carcillo returned to the lineup in the Flyers 2-1 overtime win in Boston Saturday night.

To clear the way for Carcillo’s return, coach Peter Laviolette made Nikolay Zherdev a healthy scratch for the third time this season.

Zherdev was signed by the orange and black during the offseason for $2 million for one year.

Through 31 games, Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren’s flier isn’t working out as originally planned.

In 28 games, Zherdev has nine goals and one assists with a +2 rating and 10 penalty minutes.

When bringing the 26-year-old to Philly, Holmgren knew what he was getting; pure offensive talent with major flaws in his all around game and attitude.

His thinking was that a year in Russia would remind Zherdev how much of a decrease in competition and lifestyle playing in the KHL is compared to playing in North America.

While it’s still early enough to made a noticeable impact, Zherdev has displayed all the negatives that led to him playing in Russia last year.

The book on the former first rounder was that he floats in the defensive and offensive zone, takes shifts off and is lazy.

Nothing he has done thus far suggest he’s a better player.

Blessed with natural talent, Zherdev thinks he doesn’t have to skate in the offensive or defensive zones, only in the neutral zone.

His style of play and Laviolette’s system is like fitting a square peg in a round hole.

With an inconsistent work ethic on the ice, Zherdev starts out each game on the fourth line with Blair Betts and Jody Shelley. Lavy’s plan is to make the Russian earn his playing time. In most games, Zhe usually makes it up to the third line with Jeff Carter and Claude Giroux.

Laviolette has shown in his year-plus tenure that no player is given ice time based on pure ability. Look at Ville Leino, who couldn’t crack the lineup until an late season injury allowed him to play in the playoffs.

Leino is now a second line winger on Danny Briere and Scott Hartnell’s line.

Earlier this year, Laviolette sat Homer’s second overall pick in 2006 James van Riemsdyk because he couldn’t light the lamp if the puck was on his tape with an open net.

Since JVR cracked his way back into the lineup, he has been a different player. More like the kid who showed up in the preseason than the player who wouldn’t use his size to his advantage.

van Riemsdyk has five goals since returning to the lineup.

The Flyers said that they expected a physical contest against the Bruins, hence the decision to insert Carcillo for Zherdev.

From this point forward, no one knows when Laviolette plans to put him back in the lineup, if at all.

Taking into account the looming roster decisions Holmgren has to make when Michael Leighton returns from back surgery, it’s not a stretch to wonder if Zherdev will be a cap casualty.

The Flyers have the scoring depth to be able to survive without Zherdev’s nine goals. Four players already have double digit tallies with Briere leading the way with 16.

In order to activate Leighton from the lone term injured reserve, the Flyers will have to clear $1.555 million.

Then, if they go with Leighton as the backup to rookie Sergei Bobrovsky, Holmgren will have to make two moves.

For example, waive or trade Brian Boucher and Matt Walker, Carcillo or Zherdev.

As it looks today, Boosh isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon.

Rather than losing defensive depth in waiving Walker, shopping Nik Zherdev for a draft pick would be wise.

It’s never too early to admit a mistake. If Zherdev isn’t playing the system, wouldn’t it make sense to trade him rather than paying him $2 million to sit in the press box?
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Michael Leighton gets two more games of conditioning.


On Monday afternoon, Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren told reporters on a conference call that goalie Michael Leighton is not ready to return to the Flyers after a six-day conditioning period with the Adirondack Phantoms.

Holmgren said that he filed for an extension for the conditioning assignment per the CBA, and a couple hours later, the NHL granted his request. Since the league approved the request, Leighton will return to the Phantoms for two more games.

According to the Flyers website, Leighton will play for Adirondack this coming weekend when the Phantoms play Syracuse and Portland on Friday and Saturday.

That will mean Holmgren will have to make a decision on Sunday on what to do with Leighton, unless they decide to play him on Sunday against the Connecticut Whale in Hartford, Conn. If he plays Sunday, that gives the Flyers an extra day to make a roster decision.

As it stands now, the Flyers have $556,876 in cap space (per CapGeek.com). When Leighton is healthy enough to come off the long-term injured list (LTIR), his cap hit will be $1.555 million, which means Holmgren will have to make a move.

In the conference call, Holmgren said he expects to carry three goalies for “the short term.”

If you’re asking yourself what “the short term” means, Holmgren meant that he’ll have to wait and see what happens before he makes an ultimate decision on what to do with his goaltending situation.

What we know is that Sergei Bobrovsky is not going anywhere, and is the team’s starting goalie.

“Sergei seized the opportunity,” Holmgren said. “We certainly have no intention of sending Sergei down right now because we can, he doesn’t need waivers or anything. We’re not thinking like that.”

Sometime in the next few weeks, the Flyers will move a goalie, whether it’s trading or waiving Brian Boucher or Leighton, but that’s not the move Holmgren will make this weekend.

And with that, what are the Flyers options?

For starters, they’ll have to either waive/trade a player or opt to place Ian Laperriere or Matt Walker on LTIR. As Broad Street Hockey pointed out last week, LTIR may not be the best road to take.

If the Flyers place Laperriere on LTIR doesn’t take his salary off the cap; adding him to LTIR will only allow them to add a player they otherwise could not afford according to George Detweiler of BSH

Another alternative is to transfer Walker from injured reserve to LTIR, who hasn’t played this year after undergoing hip surgery on Oct. 20, or simply waive the 30-year-old defenseman.

Walker has a $1.7 million cap hit, and is expendable given the Flyers’ depth on the blue line.
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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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No showdown, but the Flyers pulled out the late win.


Coming into Monday night's game between the Philadelphia Flyers and Montreal Canadiens, much had been made of the blossoming rivalry between Flyers' captain Mike Richards and Canadiens' rookie PK Subban.

In a post game interview following a 3-0 loss to Montreal last Tuesday, Richards had some harsh comments about the multi-talented Subban.

"He's a guy that's come in the league and hasn't [earned] respect. It's frustrating to see a young guy like that come in here and so much as think that he's better than a lot of people. You have to earn respect in this league. It takes a lot. You can't just come in here as a rookie and play like that. It's not the way to get respect from other players around the league."

He wasn't done yet.

"Hopefully someone on their team addresses it, because, uh, I'm not saying I'm going to do it but something might happen to him if he continues to be that cocky."

When ESPN.com asked Subban his opinion on Richards' comments, Subban fired back.

"I think that I'm confident, but I think that there's a lot of players that are confident in this league," said Subban. "I'm not the only person that's confident when I play the game. Maybe the fact that I'm a young guy coming in, maybe people don't take well to that."

"As long as my teammates and the coaching staff are happy with what I'm doing, I'm going to continue to do that."

Less than a week later, the Flyers and the Canadiens squared off for the second time as the orange and black enjoyed sweet revenge with a 3-2 comeback win against Carey Price and Montreal at the Well Fargo Center.

The storyline surrounding the contest was what was going to happen with Richards and Subban. Were the two going to go mano y mano to solve their off the ice matter or was the situation overblown by the hockey world?

Surprisingly, no extracurricular activities took place during the game, which wasn’t expected after how chippy the third period was the last time these two teams played.

Nothing happened between Richards and Subban, neither played dropped their gloves to please the sold out crowd at the Wells Fargo Center. Instead, they both concentrated on playing their games.

"I'm not going to answer, I'm not going to start anything up," Richards said after the game via Delco Times Flyers beat writer Anthony SanFilippo. "It got a lot bigger than I thought it would."

Facing a 2-0 deficit after one, the Flyers once again had difficulties beating Price, who stopped all nine shots faced during the first stanza. However, Philly got to the Habs' net-minder in the second period.

Ville Leino scored a goal from the left circle after being setup by Danny Briere to end a scoreless streak of 164 minutes against Montreal in the last two regular seasons.

Trailing 2-1 in the third period, Claude Giroux provided the Flyers' faithful with another clutch goal as he tied the game at two with a tip-in following some hard work by Darroll Powe on the forecheck. It was Giroux's team-leading 12th goal of the season.

Six minutes later, a miracle happened for the Flyers.

James van Riemsdyk, who was the subject of rumors of a possible benching for recently recalled Eric Wellwood, took a crisp pass from defenseman Braydon Coburn on the power play, and sniped the left corner for his first tally of the season.

For scoring his first goal of the year, JVR couldn't have chosen a better time to light the lamp.

With the win, the Flyers move into first place in the Eastern Conference.

*Don't forget to check out 2M2MG's breaking news section! It's an up-to-the-minute running post to keep you informed on all the goings-on around Philly sports. Bookmark it today!

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Danny Syvret is back in Philly and the orange & black.


According to Frank Seravalli, the Philadelphia Flyers have traded forwards Pat Maroon and David Laliberte to the Anaheim Ducks in a four-player trade that brings Danny Syvret back to Philadelphia along with 22-year-old center Rob Bordson.

Syvret, who has played in six games this year with Anaheim, played in 21 games with the orange and black last season. You may remember him most for scoring the Flyers’ lone goal in the Winter Classic in Boston on New Years Day.

The 25-year-old was originally acquired by Philadelphia from the Edmonton Oilers in the summer of 2008 in exchange for Ryan Potulny. Syvret played mostly for the Philadelphia/Adirondack Phantoms in his two seasons under team control.

In 90 games playing for the Phantoms, Syvret was a point machine as he recorded eight goals and 53 assists for 70 points. He also quarterbacked the power play as he scored 11 times on the man advantage for the Phantoms.

Syvret fell victim to the numbers game in Anaheim as they have too many defenseman playing for their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch. He has four assists and is a -5 in eight games with Syracuse.

Bordson was signed by the Ducks after his junior season playing for the University of Minnesota-Duluth where he registered a point per game. Bordon scored 12 goals and 28 assists in 40 games with the Bulldogs in his junior season.

Before his junior season, Bordson never really enjoyed much success in his collegiate playing days as he had only seven points in 42 games in his freshman and sophomore years, but he did have a productive season in the USHL.

Playing for the Cedar Rapids Rough Riders in 2006-07, Bordson scored 35 points (six goals, 35 assists) in 47 games.

Bordson, who has an AHL salary of $67,500, has only three points in 15 games with the Crunch this season.

Three weeks after he was dismissed from the Phantoms for behavior issues, the Flyers finally was able to trade Maroon. At 6’4″, 225-pounds, Maroon was the leading scorer for Adirondack at the time of his dismissal.

Philadelphia’s sixth round pick in 2007, Maroon had a promising future with the orange and black, but behavior issues and his unwillingness to listen to the Flyers’ advice to lose weight led to him getting traded.

Maroon, who scored 95 points in 64 games with the London Knights before being drafted, had five goals and three assists for eight points in nine games for the Phantoms this season. Last year, he scored 11 goals and 44 points and two seasons ago, he recorded 23 goals and 31 assists for 54 points.

Whether it was Maroon or the Phantoms ex-coach Greg Gilbert, something happened in Glen Falls that led to Maroon getting sent home. Gilbert was fired days later.

Laliberte, 24, has some NHL experience as he skated in 11 games with the Flyers last season where he scored three goals and an assist. He filled in for injuries at times last year, and was very impressive in doing so.

For the Phantoms, Laliberte gathered plenty of points four years in the AHL.

The St. Liboire, Quebec native has 112 points in 182 games in Adirondack. This year, he was the team’s second leading scorer with three goals and six assists for nine points. Yeah, that tells you how bad the Phantoms have been.

The last two years, Laliberte has been a consistent goal scorer for the Phantoms as he scored 28 in 2008-09 and 18 in 2009-10. Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren told Sam Carchidi that he “hated the part with Laliberte, he likes the experience Syvret brings and he is high on Bordson."

Laliberte looks to have some NHL potential, and he may get a chance to crack Anaheim's roster at some point this season, but for now, he'll provide depth up front for Syracuse.

For the Flyers, Syvret will add more depth on defense to a team that already has eight defenseman once Matt Walker returns from injury on the NHL roster.

Syvret makes it nine.

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Carter's extension should be beneficial for both sides.


Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren continued to take care of business with off the ice matters on Saturday when he announced that Jeff Carter agreed to terms to an 11-year, $58 million contract extension.

Given his new deal, Carter will be 36-years-old next time he's eligible to hit the free agent market.

The contract is a very reasonable deal for both sides as Carter will make his money at a reasonable cap hit of $5.27 million for the Flyers.

It breaks down to: $6 million in 2011-12, $6.25 in 2012-13, $6.5 in 2013-14, $6.75 in 2014-15, $7 million in 2015-16 and 2016-17, $6.5 in 2017-18, $5 in 2018-19, $3 in 2019-20, and $2 in 2020-21 and 2021-22.

Carter has a full no-trade clause beginning in the 2012-13 season through 2014-15, and a modified NTC from 2015-16 through 2021-22.

Because of the Ilya Kovalchuk debacle that took place over the summer with the New Jersey Devils, from this point forward any long term contract will more likely spark the discussion of cap circumvention.

For those unaware of what took place in New Jersey, let me catch you a bit.

Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello presented the league with a contractual agreement with Ilya Kovalchuk for 17 years, $102 million in which the NHL rejected for cap circumvention.

Like most double-digit deals, the contract was heavily front-loaded. Kovalchuk would have earned $95 million in the first 10 years of the deal, and only $7 million in the final seven years.

The contract's cap hit was only $6 million, relatively small for a player to Kovalchuk's caliber.

It didn't take a genius to know that Kovalchuk's contract with the Devils was illegal.

Now, we have another contract for more than a decade with Carter's extension with the Flyers, and considering Holmgren has been suspected of cap circumvention previously with Chris Pronger, it's safe to assume there will be some questions about Carter's deal.

Before we move forward, the NHL has approved Carter's extension. They've deemed it a legal contract with no circumvention.

However, I've had several queries from readers who believe it was a little bit of circumvention.

To understand what cap circumvention really is, you have to know the definition of circumvention. If you look in the Webster's dictionary, it defines circumvention as a verb: to go around or bypass.

It occurs when a team tries to get the better of the league's salary cap, using a loophole in the system that allows teams to sign a player for a long period of time at a low cap hit to make it easier to fit the player under the cap.

Often times, the player will see a huge drop off in salary near the end of the deal rather than a slow decrease as the player gets older. In most suspected circumstances, the player at question is either over the age of 35 or will be in their forties when the contract expires.

Players contracts that have been suspected of circumvention are Roberto Luongo, Marian Hossa and Pronger, however since the league approved those deals, they couldn't justify revoking their approval.

Kovalchuk was the NHL's guinea pig to put their foot down on a problem that if they didn't stop, would become an easy fix to get around the league's salary cap.

That brings us back to Carter's contract, and did the Flyers commit cap circumvention in re-signing the 25-year-old sniper.

The answer is no, not even close.

Let's go back to Kovalchuk's contract, the 27-year-old lethal goal scorer signed for 17 years. That's nearly two decades, and no one believed that Kovalchuk would be playing hockey at the age of 44.

Carter is only 25-years-old, and is about to enter the prime of his career. It's completely in reason to believe that he will still be playing in 11 years.

Don't believe me?

There are plenty of players still playing at or above the age of 36. For instance, Phoenix's Ray Whitney (38), Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson (37) and Alexei Kovalev (37), Boston's Mark Reechi (42), Anaheim's Teemu Selanne (40) and Jason Blake (37).

With that settled, let's look at how much Carter will make over the years. Is he making $50 of the $58 million in the first five years, or is it evenly distributed over 11 years?

Carter will see raises for the first four seasons before earning $7 million in years five and six. The drop off begins after year six when he turns 33 when the money begins to go down.

In the final two years of the deal, Carter will make $2 million. You tell me, that's pretty fair for a 36-year-old center, am I wrong?

To my final point, we all know that the Flyers wanted to work out an agreement with Carter that would be cap friendly, you could say. And, this contract is indeed friendly to the cap for Philly.

The $5.27 cap hit puts Carter in the same earning range of Andy McDonald, Martin Erat and former Flyer Simon Gagne. Not too bad for the Flyers to lock up a 40-goal scorer for relatively cheap.

While the Flyers achieved their goal, they did so fairly. They did not break any rules of the NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), and did not try to get around the cap.

They did what the Devils tried to do, but in a legal, fair way. Maybe, just maybe, Mr. Lamoriello can learn a thing or two from Holmgren.

I have yet to mention that the Flyers made it known that this is still captain Mike Richards' team as Carter will make $11 million less than Richards.

In the last week, Holmgren has locked up two of the Flyers' core players for multi-year contracts. Claude Giroux was first with a three-year, $11.25 million extension on Tuesday, and Carter was next.

Holmgren has one more player to lock up before he can call it a day at the office as Ville Leino is set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2011.

An interesting note, Holmgren was spotted by the media talking to Leino after announcing Carter's extension.

Homer's a busy man these days
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