The Philadelphia Flyers have traded for Dallas Stars defenseman Nicklas Grossman. The Flyers send a 2012 2nd round pick, and a 2013 3rd round pick. Mark Stepneski of ESPN: The 2012 2nd round pick orginally belonged to LA Kings, and the 2013 3rd round pick was from the Minnesota Wild.
The 6′ 4″ 230 pounder brings the size the Flyers have been looking for. Grossman is a good shot blocker and penalty killer. He was leading the Stars with 100 blocked shots.
Grossman carries a $1.625 million salary cap hit, and will be a UFA at the end of the season.
Darren Dreger via twitter: The Flyers have been interested in Grossman for a while.
Tim Panaccio via twitter: Grossman averaged the 3rd highest power play time (2:13) and penalty killing time (2:12) on the Stars. (Power play time may be incorrect. He has 0 points on the PP)
Jimmy Murphy via twitter: Murphy was told the Bruins were in on Grossman, but backed off.
Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News: Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk at press conference:
“Well, obviously when guys have contracts and they’re nearing their end, you make decisions on going forward. I think as an organization, we felt that we have some depth at that position now, which we hadn’t had in previous years and made the decision to make the deal that we did in order to give not only Mark Fistric more of an opportunity but to get Adam Pardy going and we have some kids that are knocking on the door as well.”
“Well, I don’t really like the term (sellers) and I know everyone wants to talk about that. I just think today is an isolated case and it shows that we’re going to be active. We’re going to look at things that make our hockey club better going forward and if things present themselves that do that, we’ll take a strong look at it. But I think it just shows today that this is not an indication that we’re going to be sellers. This is an indication that we’re going to be active and listen to everybody.”
“Well, I’ve had discussions with a number of teams over the past couple of months. Nick being the player that he is was a sought-after guy for a lot of teams. I think it just kind of came together with Philadelphia today over a few days. We wish him luck. It’s a good fit for him.”