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The Philadelphia Flyers have their No. 1 goaltender -- well, for 22 days at least. Ilya Bryzgalov has been traded to the Flyers, and the team will try to sign the pending free agent before July 1.
For at least the next 22 days, Ilya Bryzgalov is a member of the Philadelphia Flyers. The Phoenix Coyotes traded their Vezina Trophy nominee goaltender to the team for soon-to-be free agent minor leaguer Matt Clackson, a 2012 third round pick and a conditional pick (on which we do not know the condition).
It's a simple move for the Coyotes. They knew they weren't going to sign Bryzgalov before or after July 1 when free agency opens, and opted to get something for him in return instead of letting him walk for nothing. Happens all the time, could have been expected.
For the Flyers, the motivations are also pretty clear, even if that's not also true of their priorities. Owner Ed Snider said in many, many end-of-season interviews this season that his team would get a No. 1 goaltender (finally) this season, and this is obviously the first step in that quest.
It gets convoluted, however, when you look at the price tag on Bryzgalov's ear. Quite simply, he wants to be paid over $5 million, possibly even closer to $6 million, and the Flyers simply don't have that kind of salary cap space. In fact, as of Wednesday with 18 players signed for next season, they have just $430,845 in space, according to CapGeek.com.
That could change with some alterations, of course. Signing Ville Leino, a pending free agent, seems out of the cards if they want to get Bryzgalov in the mix, and it's likely that somebody else could have to go as well. General manager Paul Holmgren is a huge fan of the no-trade clause, however, which limits the number of legitimate trade options the Flyers have if they need to shed significant salary.
It'll be interesting to see what comes next in Philadelphia, but there are still moves to be made for sure.
For more on the Flyers, check in with Broad Street Hockey and SB Nation Philly.
Ilya Bryzgalov Signed To Nine Year, $51 Million Contract With Philadelphia
The Flyers obtained the rights to Ilya Bryzgalov on June 8th and one day before the draft is done, the Flyers finally get the deal done with Bryzgalov. The deal is for nine years and a total of $51 million. The Flyers had to make some deals to get themselves under the cap which constituted of the team moving Mike Richards to the Los Angeles Kings and Jeff Carter to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
This deal would make Bryzgalov the ninth most paid goaltender according to CapGeek.com. Bryzgalov is 156-116-35 in his eight year NHL career. He has made it to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in four of those seasons, but even though he was apart of the 2006-07 Anaheim Ducks team that made it to the Finals, he wasn't much of a factor in those playoffs.
The Flyers now have a goaltender that they can have faith in after they consistently rotated goaltenders throughout the 2010-11 season and playoffs.
Jun 23 8:13p by Zachary Zielonka - 0 comments