Friday, July 8, 2011

Flyers finally round out the roster, ink Simmonds

After what felt like an eternity, Philadelphia has finally come to terms with newly acquired restricted free agent Wayne Simmonds to the tune of two years, $3.5 million dollars. The deal for Simmonds included 19-year old blue-chip prospect Brayden Schenn (who was drafted 5th overall in 2009) and a 2012 2nd round pick and sent former captain & fan favorite Mike Richards to LA. With this signing, one could very well think that the roster is pretty much set:

FORWARDS
James Van Riemsdyk ($1.654m) / Claude Giroux ($3.750m) / Jaromir Jagr ($3.300m)
Scott Hartnell ($4.200m) / Daniel Briere ($6.500m) / Jakub Voracek ($2.250m)
Brayden Schenn ($3.110m) / Maxime Talbot ($1.750m) / Wayne Simmonds ($1.750m)
Jody Shelley ($1.100m) / Blair Betts ($0.700m) / Andreas Nodl ($0.845m)
Tom Sestito ($0.550m) / Ian Laperriere ($1.166m - to go on LTIR)

DEFENSEMEN
Kimmo Timonen ($6.333m) / Chris Pronger ($4.921m)
Andrej Meszaros ($4.000m) / Matt Carle ($3.437m)
Braydon Coburn ($3.200m) / Andreas Lilja ($0.737m)
Oskars Bartulis ($0.600m)

GOALTENDERS
Ilya Bryzgalov ($5.666m) / Sergei Bobrovsky ($1.750m)

SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $63,272,262; BONUSES: $3,815,000
CAP SPACE (23-man roster): $1,027,738

It's a completely different looking team from the one who walked off the ice in Boston, bruised & defeated, but that might not be a bad thing. Their goaltending is far better, they're younger at forward and have a clean slate without their alleged "distractions". It's almost like Paul Holmgren pushed the reboot button on this team... Just gotta wait to see how it all pans out come October.

No comments: