Waiting for the Leftovers Part IV - Philadelphia Flyers

In our continued look at the teams in awful cap space situations and how it affects what might be future moves, we take a closer look at the Philadelphia Flyers.

Widely known as a team with offensive depth, the Flyers made a splash at this years NHL entry draft adding to their d-core when they picked up Chris Pronger along with Ryan Dingle for Joffrey Lupul, Luca Sbisa, Philadelphia's first round pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft a first rounder in 2010, and a conditional pick for either the 2010 NHL Entry Draft or the 2011 entry draft. That's a big price to pay for a defenseman on what might be his last legs.

Of course it didn't take long for the Flyers to show they didn't think so, inking Pronger to a seven year extension with a cap hit of almost $5 mill per season.

The move while debated by many, also put Philadelphia in further cap trouble as they currently sit $972,085 from the cap. Deciding to save most of their payroll at the goaltender position between Emery and Brian Boucher, the Flyers can stand put if they bring an entry level contract up as a 7th defenseman and quite frankly have a strong contending team. That said, we know better and the Flyers still want to make moves.

The Untouchables:

There are not many outside of Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, Claude Giroux and now Chris Pronger. I would imagine anyone else on the roster, for the right price or value in trade is something Paul Holmgren would consider discussing with other teams.

The Unwanted:

Daniel Briere at $6.5 million for another six years seems to have a contract likely hard to shed. And from what we understand, the Flyers have tried. Moving Briere is all it would take to clear the Flyers of their troubles, but Briere has the dreaded no trade clause, as does Simon Gagne, Kimmo Timonenn and Scott Hartnell.

The Attractive:

The problem for the Oilers is two-fold. Both of the players they might have interest in, Scott Hartnell and Simon Gagne have no trade clauses and not likely to come to Edmonton even if they were to waive them. We have absolutely no confirmation that either have said as much, but why would either willingly move from a contending team to a barely scraping the playoffs team, when Gagne and Hartnell play significant roles on the Flyers?

With that in mind, I'd make a strong pitch to the Flyers if I'm Tambellini to have a conversation with Gagne. Maybe even send him a video of the city...

The Flyers might be willing to move Gagne for less than his trade value and Gagne is argueably a better fit than Heatley when you consider his cap hit ($5.25 for two more years), his ability to be more than just offence and his production when healthy -- Gagne had a bounce back year last year with 34 goals and 4o helpers for 74 points in 79 games. He's a power play machine, shoot first style player and penalty killer for a gritty team in Philadelphia.

Seems to me, if the Oilers could convince both Gagne and the Flyers, this would be a match made in heaven. Those are pretty big if's though.