On the Philadelphia Flyers …
Tony Marinaro: (yesterday) Andrei Markov‘s camp is only talking with one team right now – the Philadelphia Flyers.
Tony Marinaro: (today) Markov to the Flyers won’t happen. He is interested in signing with them but they are not interested. Teams are not interested in the term and money he is looking for.
Dave Isaac: (commenting on the Markov rumor) The Flyers don’t have a lot of salary cap space and they don’t have many roster spots left.
Dave Isaac: Think that signing Mark Streit would make a lot more sense if they wanted another defenseman and he’d be cheaper.
Dave Isaac: Not saying the Streit is better than Markov, but he is a cheaper option and is a good mentor.
Tom Dougherty of CSN Philly: The Flyers have about $6 million in salary cap space with some restricted free agents left to sign and to get Nolan Patrick on an entry-level deal. After signing Nolan and their RFAs, they should have about $2 million in space heading into the season.
Next year they’ll have just under $10 million coming off the books – Valtteri Filppula ($5 million), Matt Read ($3.625 million) and Brandon Manning ($975,000).
In the next couple of years they will have some RFAs that could be looking for long-term extensions.
Bob Ford of the Philadephia Daily News: The Flyers haven’t solved their long-term future in net but GM Ron Hextall has solved their short-term issue.
He signed the 32-year old Brian Elliott to a two-year deal to go along with Michal Neuvirth. There weren’t a lot of better options for Hextall when free agency opened.
“I’m not going to sit and compare Brian to Mase. I can tell you we’re extremely excited to have Brian,” Hextall told reporters after the deal was completed. “He’s a very competitive guy, and he has a really good work ethic. He played in a tandem in St. Louis prior to Calgary, so he’s played very well in a structured system.”
The Flyers are retooling and committing long-term to another goaltender right now doesn’t make sense. They are hoping that one of Felix Sandstrom, Carter Hart or Kirill Ustimenko will eventually turn into their long-term solution.