Former Flyers defenseman Randy Jones was picked up off waivers by the Los Angeles Kings, who will be responsible for half his salary.
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Post a commentFrank Seravalli: Kings pick up defenseman Randy Jones off waivers
WE KNOW THE Flyers are willing to roll the dice.
You simply need to glance at the Flyers' net and see Ray Emery to know that. They are never hesitant to spend the money necessary - and bump against the upper limit of the NHL's rigid salary cap - to try to win their first Stanley Cup since 1975.
That much is a positive.
But the Flyers rolled their first "7" of the season yesterday when they lost defenseman Randy Jones to the Los Angeles Kings on re-entry waivers. It was a significant hit to their chip stack.
They now have to eat half of Jones' $2.75 million cap hit, splitting the cost with LA.
"I knew that teams would have an interest in Randy," Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said. "We just thought that the teams that would have interest wouldn't have the [cap] room to claim him."
The Flyers' old friends in Los Angeles have more than enough cap room to take a flier on Jones. Their coach, former Flyers coach Terry Murray - who handled Jones on the Flyers' blue line just two seasons ago as an assistant coach - saw what he can do. Los Angeles general manager Dean Lombardi was a Flyers scout until 2006. Their assistant GM is Ron Hextall. They know Jones.
To think that Jones, at a price of $1.375 million, was going to fall through the cracks was foolish. Jones is an NHL defenseman. He was a plus-8 and scored 31 points in 2007-08, when he helped the Flyers to the Eastern Conference finals. He had an injury-riddled campaign last year.
Holmgren wanted him to help this year.
"Randy is a good player," Holmgren said. "He would've helped."
The whole reason the Flyers waived Jones to the AHL before training camp broke in September was to fit newcomers James van Riemsdyk, Mika Pyorala and Blair Betts under the cap.
There was no news yesterday on Simon Gagne's visit to Montreal orthopedist Dr. Rey Brown. But Gagne is not yet on the Long Term Injured list that would erase his $5.25 million salary from the Flyers' cap.
The Flyers' cap fumbles last year with Danny Briere bouncing on and off the active roster cost them Glen Metropolit and Ossi Vaananen on waivers and forced them to play rookie David Sloan in the second-to-last game of the season.
The naked truth is that the Flyers stripped themselves of $1.5 million on their payroll by not having to fork over to Jones his full $3 million salary. They didn't want to pay him to rot in Adirondack; they already are paying Mike Rathje $3.5 million to sit on his couch.
The cap space wasn't important in this move. For once, they wanted to save the money.
Now, with only $600,000 in salary-cap space when everyone is healthy, the Flyers will need to manage their bankroll wisely. Sometimes you need to live to play another day.
With a chip stack like that, it's hard to buy-in again.
H1N1 hockey epidemic
It's still October, but the NHL already has at least three confirmed cases of the swine flu virus among players. Colorado backup goalie Peter Budaj, Edmonton defenseman Ladislav Smid and Washington forward Quintin Laing have been diagnosed. Smid did not miss any game action because of the illness. All three players were quarantined from their teams. It's safe to say there are probably more unannounced cases.
