[Rex]

HOMER MAKES IT RAIN.

TFH Exclusive - The Flyers spent July 1st fine tunning their lineup that finished just three wins shy of a Stanley Cup Final appearance only a month and a half ago.

A day filled with huge signings around the league, the Flyers maxed out their salary cap from within. Restricted free agent Randy Jones signed a two-year, $5.5 million dollar deal. Jones, who had five goals and 31 points last year, will absorb a cap hit of $2.75 million until the completion of the 2009-2010 season where he will become an unrestricted free agent.

The Flyers opened the day by sending defenseman Denis Gauther to the Los Angeles Kings for prospects Patrick Hersley and Ned Luckacevic. Both players will wear the orange and purple of the Phantoms in the American Hockey League this coming fall.

Feeling as they were not at need for any big name free agents, the Flyers settled on four, lesser known players who are expected to come in and fill the holes left by departing players.

Ossi Vaananen, a Finnish defender, is expected to take the spot that Jason Smith occupied last year. What many describe as a bigger version of current Flyer Lasse Kukkonen, Vaananen is a good skater with a solid shot from the point, while also having a knack for blocking shots. Vaananen, who played in Finland last year, signed a one year deal that will pay him a million dollars.

The Flyers replaced Jim Dowd's center spot on the fourth line by signing forward Glen Metropolit. With the Boston Bruins last year, Metropolit scored eleven goals and 33 points. What is speculated to be a modest million dollars over his new two-year deal, Metropolit can also play on the wing as well, giving the Flyers a versatile player that they lost in R.J. Umberger.

Philadelphia also signed forward Nate Raduns and defenseman Sean Curry, both of whom will be with the Phantoms next season.

While General Manager Paul Holmgren has noted that the Flyers are done making their moves, he did note that they have one offer on the table for another player, yet seemed very pessimistic about it.

It is believe that the Flyers have also re-signed tough guy Riley Cote to a three year deal that will be a $560 thousand dollar cap hit. There is no word on a deal with Patrick Thoreson, yet it is possible that the Flyers might settle on re-upping the center if they are unable to find a better replacement.

Currently, the Flyers are about $1.4 million dollars over the cap at the end of the day. A deal may be worked out to shed some dollar over the coming weeks, or we could see Derian Hatcher put on the Long Term Injury Reserve, thus freeing up his $3.5 million cap hit.

On day that the Flyers were rumored to be talking to veteran Brendan Shanahan, and even trying to work out a deal for defenseman Dan Boyle of the Lightning, the Flyers stayed low key and hope that these adjustments can get them over the hump that ended their season last year.

PROJECTED LINEUPS
Gagne-Briere-Knuble
Lupul-Richards-Giroux
Upshall-Carter-Knuble
Downie-Metropolit-Cote

Timonen-Vaananen
Coburn-Parent
Eminger-Jones

Biron
Niittymaki

Kukkonen - Scratch
Hatcher - LTIR

[Rex]

Sorry for a shorter article, and any grammatical errors I might have missed.

Time for bed.

[BLT10]

HOMER HANDS OVER MONEY TO SHIT PLAYERS.

[FlyersGirl_929]

Well done, Rex!
I'm glad to see that Homer did NOT mess with the core of the team. ALL of the important guys are signed! That's all that matters!
Go Flyers Go!!
A ;p

[Ryan20]

I like what we did. Anybody who thought we'd go right after the biggest name players out there, were out of their god damned minds. The Metropolit signing is one I really like. He'll be a great checking line guy and on the PK. He'll get his share of points too.

Of course everyone will bitch non-stop because of all the minor leaguers we signed. ZOMGZ! teh Flyers did not signs the best guyz available!!!1one! Why do we keep signing these AHLers??!?!? The team will now be teh suck. Trade everyone!!1one!

There's nothing wrong with stocking the farm. Some of these guys might get a shot down the road. I'm a bit high on Hersley and Lukacevic, as I've seen the play here in Reading. Hersley needs some time to adjust to the game in NA. But he can skate well, and has a decent shot from the point. Matte (Teus) may be able to add a little more on him. Lukacevic can absolutely fly, and has a great scoring touch. He could be one of those 3rd/4th line guys that can put up some decent points.

Onto Hatcher for a second. Sure it wasn't exactly the best news to hear he plans on playing. But if he feels he can play at a decent level, then I don't see the problem. He's obviously not gonna do everything. Hatcher is great on the PK, and provides the physical presence we need back there.

Plenty of time until camp starts, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a few other minor moves made by then. It'll be interesting to see how this all shakes out.

[Chris]

Holy overpayment. I guess that's the nature of the market now, though.

I really wish Hatcher would retire, and I'm waiting for this to come bite us in the ass. He'll get hurt in camp and try to skate on one leg for the remainder of the season. Just wait for it. We keep going back to talking about how 'good' he was the year before. Face it, he's running out of years. Selfish jackass.

As for yesterday, I'm happy with the moves we made for the most part. It would have been nice to see us be a little more active with some bigger names, but we really had nothing to go after, and had to be aware of where we stood financially (once again, thanks, Hatch!).

Oh well, we've got a strong core and I just hope we're not being too complacent and watching the teams around us get better.

[siflyguy]

I notice you project Knuble on 2 lines. Did you mean to place Hartnell on one of the lines? How about Hartnell to Carter's line? I think the defense looks a little weak. perhaps a healthy Hatcher will toughen it up.

[Blindside]

There is absolutely no fucking way Jones is worth the cap hit of $2.75M a year. With the potential in our defense corps and even lower down in the organization (Syvret and Ramholt were previously very highly regarded, Marshall, Bodrov and Bartulis all looking to play AHL reasonably soon), what was the harm of letting Jones sit and pull his head out of his ass? If he got signed for $1.6M/yr like he's worth, we wouldn't be over the cap at all, which would allow us to keep more of the core of the 07-08 team together. As it stands now, we're over by >$1M and need to pare down the roster somewhere, which may still leave us little to no wiggle room come October.

[Rex]

No news on Thoreson yet. I'm kinda shocked.

The guys that actually go out and risk a nut (literally) for their contract are the ones that get shafted.

[Drew]

Now THAT is some expensive Roast Beef.

[Hextall_Fan88]

I wonder, that whore that kept popping on here with Roast Beef news is probably trying desperately to get a piece of Randy now...

[MikeyB99]

Fil is kool!

[flyersfan4life]

Great article Rex!
Reading this actually made me feel a little better about the choices that have been made....
... I think we'll pull through! Still not as sure about winning the cup as I was at the end of the season... but I guess this is what makes it exciting!